The Language Show – Online 12 to 14 November
Rachel Hawkes, NCELP Co-Director, presented the following sessions at The Language Show Online – 12 to 14 November 2021
Myth-busting and meaning making – important ideas for classroom-based language teaching, Rachel Hawkes, Co-Director, 12th November
All of us as language teachers or leaders have to account for what we choose to teach when, and in what order. To do our best for our students we need to be well-informed and clear-thinking about the principles involved and prepared to question long-accepted practice in the light of new ideas. This session starts from the KS3 pedagogy review and the new GCSE Subject Content, looking at what they do (and do not) mean for our classroom practice, busting a few myths and showing how they support the communicative goal of meaning making.
Not babies and bathwater, but culture and creativity, Rachel Hawkes, Co-Director, 13th November
Language and culture are two sides of the same coin; closely related, there cannot be one without the other. This session offers a practical and holistic view on language and culture in classroom language teaching, showing how culture combines easily with phonics, vocabulary and grammar teaching, providing students with a strong linguistic and cultural foundation, encouraging them to ‘step beyond familiar cultural boundaries and develop new ways of seeing the world’. Particularly relevant to the proposals for the new GCSE Subject Content, all ideas come with freely available resources in French, German and Spanish, which are new for this session.
What? When? How? Why? Teaching students to ask questions, Rachel Hawkes, Co-Director, 14th November
The ability to understand and ask questions is fundamental to meaningful interaction. In a time-limited classroom language learning context, what is the most effective way to teach questions to our students, so that they can initiate and respond without a written script, and so that they are making clear progress towards asking what they want to ask? How does the ability to ask questions ‘off the top of your head’ relate to learner motivation? This session shares resources for developing the core knowledge needed for independent spoken interaction over the three years of KS3.
