The January Event 2008

 “I got more out of this for £10 than from a course I went on last week that cost £195. I always go back with a new thing to try – the value for money is excellent.”

This was a typical response to another tremendous effort from Helen Myers, the London Committee, and speakers Sara Sullivan, Jen Sutton and Wendy Adeniji. 120 teachers came from far and wide – Preston, the Isle of Wight and even Australia, to listen to colleagues present work that had walked the talk and offer their contributions to tackling the crisis facing the subject.

Sara Sullivan, of Woodlands School, Basildon, summarised the reasons – perfectly valid reasons – why pupils do not like languages, and then presented her alternative – “Making them love it”. Sara’s mix involves getting as many pupils as possible to the country whose language they’re studying, theatre and drama groups, humorous competitions, organising praise, bringing in successful ex-pupils, snappy starters, beginning the GCSE course in KS3, having Year 9 pupils help in primary schools, and organising GCSE work so that no new material is presented after Christmas in Year 11.

Jen Sutton, of Davenant Foundation School, had been using the school version of Michel Thomas’s Spanish course with adults. Her presentation went straight into two of Thomas’s main strengths – his ability to get students constructing accurate sentences from the outset, and his use of common features between the student’s own language and the new language to build vocabulary without having to learn completely new words. This had an immediate appeal to those of us who were new to Spanish, as we could all understand what we were doing from the outset. Jen’s talk also brought out the compromises that have been made in adapting Thomas’s ideas to the classroom – he didn’t use writing, for example, and the National Curriculum requires it – and we await the results of current trials. Her own initial experience was positive, with a 75% retention rate in the adult class, and appreciative comments from Y11 pupils who had used the techniques. I’ve posted notes of my meetings with Michel Thomas on www.johnbald.typepad.com/language, with a Guardian piece written after his BBC2 demonstration lessons in 1997. Comments and further ideas welcome.

Independent consultant Wendy Adeniji’s presentation on whiteboards was down to earth and practical, both in her clear explanations of how to do it, and in her analysis of the IWB’s contribution to learning, for example, in making it easier for pupils to see the links and differences between written and spoken language. New ideas for me included www.applian.com’s software that lets you record video streams from the internet for around £50, and internet searches in the foreign language – fumer, for example – that quickly locate relevant material. Wendy even suggested going into European sites, such as www.yahoo.fr (and .es, and .de) www.wideo.fr to get round blocks that are sometimes placed on internet access. More from Wendy on www.trainingforlearning.co.uk.