This is my one big worry with the current push for languages at Primary Level. I know that although I am not a native speaker of French, my accent is pretty good. I am asked by French people what part of France I come from, but I know this is because I was first taught French when I was 7 by a French woman. I worry that many pupils first contact with the language is not going to give them that. What do others think? Here is one neat tip that really works though when you are trying to improve pr… Continue

OK, so Power to the People may not quite be where we are at in cpd (Continuing Professional Development) just yet, but I really do believe that in order for teachers at the chalkface to get the 2010 entitlement for 'all KS2 children to be learning a language during lesson time' to wo… Continue

Hi all, am copying this from the discussion forum since I just realised that by putting it in Blogs more people would see it. Apologies for "cross posting" There are still some places on the Colchester workshop: http://www.aimlanguagelearning.com/Colchester_UK.htm Here's an excerpt from the brochure: In this all-day workshop, you will learn how story-telling, music, drama and gestures can work synergistically to rapidly increase second language acquisition. Histoires en action! , is based on… Continue

Just received this email from Liz Hitchcock, editor of Global Gateway (British Council), with a great opportunity for anyone teaching or planning to teach German in a UK primary school: "If you or one of your staff teaches primary Germ… Continue

There are a whole load of KS2 powerpoint and interactive whiteboard resources on this site. Teachers Resource Exchange Wendy Adeniji is one teacher with a lot of particularly good mat… Continue

Here's attempt number two at the subtitling. There are LOADS of neat vids on youtube that could be used for any level of teaching. You can tailor what kids have to listen out for at any level as long as you simplify the task. Great for teaching kids to sift through noise to find one relevant sound, and in a fun way. Song is pretty annoying after a while though! Continue

Well just joined this site so thought I would post my first vid. I learnt at last how to do subtitles and this was my first stab. I love this song from Asterix and Cleopatre. Continue

I had a great day yesterday, working with 20 Primary teachers from LA's in the West Midlands. They were all Modern Languages teachers and had signed up to my two hour workshop to find out how animation can help teach French and Spanish, keeping the students engaged and thinking about different languages and cultures, as well as their own. We decided to do adverts, keeping all minds focused is always a challenge and short adverts around a product or idea automatically keep everyone involved think… Continue

Thought I would bring this to the attention of folks who do Spanish, especially as you seem to lose out to French in terms of resources and so on. A Cuerpo is a theatre company offering performances, workshops and resources for KS2 Spanish. They are based in the Leicester but could travel further afield.

Another work in progress this, for the remainder of this half term with my whole KS2 class. I've attached my first powerpoint so far, which introduces the Unit - it has lots of soundfiles which are from the built-in PowerPoint mediaclips (so should work on most people's versions of ppt) or from the… Continue