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Everyday MFL

This is a plug for an excellent blog I was reminded of today while refreshing and weeding my list of French teacher blogs from around the world.

Everyday MFL is a rich source of very practical lesson ideas for language teachers. the anonymous author writes:

"The vision for this blog was to create something that MFL teachers can use. My hope is that the ideas are practical, adaptable and easy to use in your classroom. Perhaps, you will stumble across something you have never tried before that inspires and enthuses your students. Maybe, you will happen upon an idea long forgotten. Alternatively it might just be that something on here sparks your imagination and creativity into life."

Mission accomplished, I would suggest.

Recent posts include:
  • A comprehensive list of practical revision techniques, including ones entitled "last man standing bingo", "environmentally-friendly strip bingo" (nice!), vocab battles, dictation, collaborative mind maps and detailed advice on preparing for exam papers (from a teacher who clearly knows their stuff).
  • A ready-made Y9 lesson for talking about options for GCSE. Ideas for the lesson include providing a list of jobs and asking pupils to think how languages would be useful for them, getting pupils to list companies with connections to France, Spain and Germany, then talking about Brexit. Various short videos are provided to enhance the lesson.
  • A post covering a range of pedagogical issues including using 50/50 hands-up/no hands-up, the use of "core language sheets", "Find someone who" tasks and Snakes and Ladders oral board games to maximise target language use.


Here is one idea the author describes as follows:

How long can you keep it up for? 

"This one is all about conversation. Give groups of 3-4 students a series of cards with questions and maybe some support via a speaking mat if needed. Nominate a starting student. Explain that student 1 can question any of students 2,3, and 4. After 2,3 or 4 has answered then they have 3 options. The first is to ping the question back at person one. The second is to ask someone else the same question. The third is to ask another question of someone else. Tell the group they have to keep the conversation going as long as possible. Write up on the board the amount of minute and half-minutes they have managed to keep the conversation going in Spanish. I think some teachers call this group talk. It may well be that but I want the focus to be on the time aspect. They tend to feel more confident and sit taller when they realise they have just managed 5 minutes in Spanish together."

There are plenty more practical ideas you could try out, with examples being in Spanish, German and some French. I suggest you go and have a look if you'd like some more ideas for your repertoire.

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