Learner Solutions!

Click on an area of questioning (grouped alphabetically) and see if your question is there. If not, e-mail us, and we'll try to put you in touch with someone who can help.

KEY Red = title; Green = question; Blue = answer

Index - click on the title to link to the section.

Behaviour management

Motivation - trips and exchanges

Behaviour Management

Do any of you have any good strategies for motivating and managing pupils?

Behaviour - this is a particular challenge for highly interactive classes such as those we have in languages! Here are some ideas: a 'poster' for the classrooms, a checklist of strategies, and a blank checklist for reflective practitioners (or friendly observers!!!)

Behaviour Poster

Behaviour Management Checklist

Behaviour Management Blank

Bill Rogers' 'Cracking the Challenging Class'. In one DVD, Bill presents his strategies with clips of examples. In the second, he answers questions from a group of teachers. You can download very useful accompanying notes from the site.

Here is the link:

http://www.bookseducation.com/product_info.php?products_id=580

Scroll down, bottom left, to the 'video notes'.

Click here to reach a page where you can see a video of Sharon giving some tips for the language classroom.

How important is the extrinsic motivation of a visit / exchange for ML learners?

26.08.06. HEM

How would you compare the 'intrinsic factors' for learning other secondary curriculum subjects as opposed to MFL, e.g. the humanities?

I do not sense that young people are really judging the value of subjects according to how useful they will be in the future, (although I expect that 'surveys' with questions slanted this way may come up with such conclusions, and they may 'say' that they are ...) ... but by whether they feel they will get a good grade, whether the subject will be accessible to them and whether they like the learning experience. I'm not sure whether you can call these 'intrinsic' or 'extrinsic' factors.. to me it doesn't really matter how they are categorised ... if we can find the way of making the experience or learning more attractive, we will get a result!

How much do you think the 'cultural attitude' in other countries is affected by the fact that they know that command of English will definitely give workers in all sectors at all levels of an organisation access to more choice in work, and higher salaries (as opposed to a cultural attitude resulting from visiting the country with a school group)? Dare I say that sometimes pupils' response to the higher level of English spoken by people they meet on their holidays or through cultural exchanges can reinforce the feeling that English is enough.

Please note that I am not denying the importance and value of exchanges .. I'm just questioning the implication that the link between unpopularity and cultural attitude is the key factor. My own feeling is that there are many other more 'immediate' and realistic 'solutions' which could be found to encourage pupils to continue with languages (e.g. compulsion, fairer comparative grading, more accessible assessment experience ... and others)