The use of technology in education is about enhancing teaching and learning and, in the latest post in the series Technology in Modern Foreign Languages, Samantha Lunn explains how she has used technology that is available to her effectively in the day-to-day preparation and delivery of her lessons. Often simple is best.

There is a phenomenal range of technological resources available to MFL teachers to enhance our pupils’ skills in the classroom. However, it is inevitable that either resources or an ICT room are not always available in order for every pupil to be able to produce something they can be proud of, therefore, at the moment I find that I am the person using the technology the most in the classroom – although my new year’s resolution is to get the pupils using more!

This post will therefore look at the elements I use the most in my classroom when teaching, and what technology I use in order to make my resources stimulating and engaging:

Colour – I believe there is no point in creating a resource using a variety of colours, fonts and/or images unless they have a purpose – after all, you do not want to distract the reader, so I colour-code language: feminine nouns are red and masculine nouns are blue (if I wish to emphasize plurals – in French, for example, I use green). Spanish verbs are coloured green, purple or orange according to whether it is an -AR, -ER or IR verb respectively (I use a slight variation for French), and I only tend to colour the verb completely if it is conjugated, otherwise I just colour the ending.

I do not explicitly explain to pupils my colour coding; however, as my classes develop I encourage them to begin to talk about what they recognise using the target language, eg. “Es azul porque es masculino” which can then build up to “es azul porque es masculino y termina en o”.

This metalanguage can develop to an advanced level by the time they have studied the language for a few years, however it does require a bit of planning in order to develop it beyond the basic. What tools are required? Not much except a colour palette in Word, PowerPoint or equivalent application. Simple, but effective.

Image – I will not add a variety of images to a slide or a Word document unless they are needed. When creating a resource to introduce vocabulary I will always have on every screen the question that we are working on from the scheme of work. I never introduce vocabulary without a structure which stems from a Contextualising Question and the relevant answer stem, for example: Where are you from? I am from…France/Germany/England/Spain etc.

Before introducing to pupils the item of vocabulary that they will be learning I try to get them to tell me what it is through using a variety of techniques such as paraphrasing in the target language or showing an image, however, rather than just showing the image directly I make use of a variety of tools to reveal an item very slowly, enabling the pupils to think about what it could be before learning the word.

In PowerPoint the animation tool is an effective way of slowly making an object dissolve on to the screen and I like the interactivity of the trigger tool (which allows an item that you have clicked on to be animated, rather than being animated in a specific order which is predefined in the PowerPoint).

In an ActivStudio Flipchart I can replicate these techniques using rub and reveal, placing a shape over the image and moving it away bit by bit or placing items over a word or image and deleting them in order to see what is underneath . By displaying an image, and then showing the word in the target language, I make a conscious effort to move away from linking vocabulary back to English words and the images are then a useful tool to practise language later on, through activities such as Kim’s game, quick flash, slow reveal, through the keyhole and many more…

When I first trained to teach in 2005, we created resources on acetate to display on the overhead projector. Even though these resources were made in Word, transferring the pedagogical reasoning behind the methods of introducing and practising vocabulary in this manner to presentation tools such as PowerPoint or, more recently, Prezi, took a lot of work, and is now an essential part of my teaching, and nearly every resource I make is displayed electronically on the interactive whiteboard. You can download examples of this type of resources from www.languagesresources.co.uk.

Audio – I rarely use a textbook in the classroom as I prefer to create my own materials which are tailored to my teaching needs and my pupils’ learning needs. You will find that I use more regularly the audio that comes with the textbooks, however, I also enjoy creating my own listening material for example, through recording my voice in Audacity (sometimes changing the effect on my voice) and uploading the sound file to a Voki.

I use also regularly use songs in the classroom in order to drill language, and if the class produce a particularly good rendition, then we create a Voki (described in the target language, of course) and the audio of their version is added before I publish it online.

More recently, I have begin to use LingtLanguage to create activities for students, and I will be using the department’s recently acquired EasiSpeak microphones and Flip digital cameras in order for the pupils to create audio and video to practise their speaking skills further. Of course, I cannot forget to mention all of the video resources that are available to us through the internet on sites such as YouTube and TeacherTube which are an excellent source of authentic materials.

Sharing – The most essential element of creating resources, for me comes from the sharing of good practice. Within my department we share nearly everything that we create – which includes flash games and audio files – through a well-organised shared network area, which led to the creation of my website. I also rely on the many kind people who make their resources available online, such as through AsiSeHace.net, MFL Sunderland, MFL Resources and the TES resource bank. I have come across so many phenomenal online resources that I have found that the best way of ‘saving’ all of them is through using the Delicious bookmarking site.

I cannot end this post without mentioning how I come across so many excellent resources. The MFL TES forum, Twitter, Yahoo MFL Resources group and the reading of a variety of blogs (and writing one!) are all essential means of communication for me now, and as I look back over 2009 I realise that I would not be aware of half of the things that I know without the Personal Learning Network that I have developed around me. The MFL Flashmeetings, MFL Show & Tell and TeachMeet NW have been part of this year’s highlights and I look forward to enhancing my knowledge in 2010 through the continued use of ICT both in the classroom and beyond.

Samantha Lunn

Top photo by twoacresphotography

This post is tagged edtech, mfltech