The MFL Teacher is the ‘one-stop shop’ for teachers of Modern Foreign Languages. Whether you are looking for advice, a quick idea or quality ready-to-use resources, you will find it with The MFL Teacher.
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The MFL Teacher is the ‘one-stop shop’ for teachers of Modern Foreign Languages. Whether you are looking for advice, a quick idea or quality ready-to-use resources, you will find it with The MFL Teacher.
Please visit our website for more information, including our blog and our Bright Ideas!
This is a great starter idea to practise new vocab.
You will probably have to explain the concept of the letters on the number pads of phones.
Use the grid to spell out words using numbers, instead of letters (e.g. 'B' is 22 and 'Y' is 999).
I’ve used this for A level French, as a starter, discussing the different viewpoints of de Gaulle and Pétain during the occupation of France in WW2.
It’s the ideal way to get pupils moving and to wake them up!
In the above example, I had a picture of de Gaulle for the left hand and Pétain for the right. Students had to then read the clue and decide who it referred to.
Use this template to practise transcription work in pairs.
There is a sheet for person A and one for person B.
Type the 2 different texts into the relevant boxes (they must be 2 different texts). Pupils then take it in turns to read their text to their partner, who must then write what they hear in the empty box.
After they have both finished, they then compare their written text to the original on their partner's sheet and tally any errors made.
Choose eleven phrases. Pupils take it in turns in groups, or as a class, to say the phrases in order. If they say one phrase, the sequence of people speaking continues as normal. If a pupils says two phrases, the order changes direction so the person before them says the next phrase(s). If a pupils says three phrases, the next person is missed.
This PPT allows you to display both the chosen phrases and a reminder of the instructions.
This bundle teaches and practises telling the time in French. It includes a PPT to introduce and practise the language, an information sheet for students' reference, a post-introduction starter and 2 worksheets.
This worksheet practises telling the time in French, using various time zones around the world (e.g. If it's 8 o'clock here, what time is it in Beijing?)
Time zones and differences in time compared to London are given at the top of the sheet.
You could inform students that 'UTC' stands for 'Universal Time Coordinated', previously known as 'Greenwich Mean Time'. Another cross-curricular link!
Pupils get a copy of page 1. The second page has both the teacher's notes and the weather symbols to cut out and give to pupils for the activity.
Read out the weather for certain areas of Germany and pupils put the weather symbols onto the correct place on the map.
Pupils fill in the clock faces and times whilst being taught the time in French. Essential vocab is at the bottom of the sheet as well, for their reference.
Give pupils a bronze, silver or gold phrase to translate. They write their translation on a sticky note and then stick it on the back of the relevant card. When everyone has done this, put the class into 3 groups and give each group one of the cards with the sticky notes on the back. They must then check the translations and feed back to the rest of the group.
Use this PPT to introduce the weather in German.
To start, the weather is shown on a map of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It is worth looking at the patterns of language used here. The patterns are colour-coded.
Then the vocab is formally introduced.
Following this, pupils must identify the weather in German as it whizzes past.
Use this as a printout for students to complete pairwork on any given topic.
Fill in the title bars for the pupils or get them to do this themselves. One pupil fills in the explosions and the other has to predict where they are by giving the phrase for the corresponding coordinates, e.g. “J’aime les sciences”.
Use this resource for working with translation of phrases.
Before seeing a text, take phrases from it to be translated. Pupils work on their own and before each slide is shown, decide whether they will do gold, silver or bronze. Marks are awarded for each. You will obviously need to make the phrases progressively more difficult to translate, to be able to award points.
When pupils have translated their chosen phrase, they swap with a partner to have it marked. You show the answers after a given amount of time. Use the green pens to peer mark. Who has the highest score?
Fill in the blank squares with relevant phrases from the lessons. Give each group of 4 a set of these cards. They put them in the middle, face down, and pick one up one-by-one and then place them back in the middle. They read what’s on the card. If it says ‘Du mogelst', they must make up a sentence without being obvious. Other players can say ‘Du mogelst’ at any point in the game. If they’re right, the person cheating picks up all the cards from the middle and they start again. If someone says ‘Du mogelst’ and the person they’re accusing is not cheating, then the accuser has to pick up all the cards. The winner is the first person to get rid of all their cards.
Place a picture in each square. Instead of saying “2 + 3 = 5”, say the picture in squares 2, 3 and 5 (e.g. “un chien plus une souris égalent un chat”). Make these sums as difficult or as easy as you like. If you’re going to do a more challenging sum, encourage the pupils to make notes (of the numbers, not the pictures – it’s quicker!).