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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!
Give the students a gap-fill text with 10 gaps in it (A to I). Of course, this can be more or fewer gaps – just remember to adjust the A to I in the table.
In each gap in the text, write a letter (A to I). Along the corresponding row in the table, give 6 alternatives to go in that gap. Pupils then choose one by rolling a dice.
When the student reaches the gap, they roll a dice and say/write the corresponding word.
Click where it says “Insert words here” to add your clue. If Team O get one right, click on the ‘O’ underneath the picture or clue. It will change to ‘O’. Likewise with Team X.
The traditional Os & Xs game for pairwork.
You could either fill in the squares for the pupils, or they could do it themselves.
Phrases in French to use when playing are at the bottom of the sheet, along with the instructions.
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 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).
Use this to practise asking questions.
In presentation mode, your answers will show in each square. Challenge pupils to work out what the question could be.
I award one point for any relevant question they come up with and 2 points if they correctly guess the question I came up with.
Simply clicking on the square with your answer reveals your question.
For pairwork activities.
Full instructions are on the document, but the basic idea is that pupils try to guess each element of a phrase or short paragraph in a limited amount of attempts.
Use this grid for listening work, reading work or anything you can think of. The idea is that pupils, for example, listen once to a text and fill in the words they know in the middle section. They then pass it to their partner who fills in any extra words that are not in the middle section after the second time of listening. They then pass it on to someone else in the class who then fills in the darkest section on the outside of the grid with any extra words not filled in after the third time of listening. Best to use this with a challenging listening/reading.
Pupils work in teams. One person from Team A chooses a topic and a value. Click on the corresponding shape and this reveals a clue to the word or phrase that is the answer. If they get it correct, they get those points. If they get it wrong, it passes to the opposite team. Give them a time limit in which to answer. Clues could be, “this noun is masculine”, “this phrase is in the perfect tense”, etc.
Use the template to get pupils to guess the blanked out word in the headline.
You could also use this HIGNFY template to do ‘reading images’. Pupils discuss what’s in the picture and give it a headline. Simply insert a photo of your choice in the top of the slide!
You could use it to give pupils options of headlines or give them a headline and they have to choose the appropriate image.
Use this PPT to do a pre-prepared hangman starter.
Simply add the letters you need to/delete blocks you don't need. Type the answer into the relevant box and it'll appear when clicked.
All instructions are in the notes section of the PPT.
Type words or a couple of words into each white box underneath the letters. This could be a text or a sequence of numbers, letters, etc. Get the pupils on their feet. As you read through each box, they should raise their Left, Right or Both hands appropriately. You could get them to read with you, get another pupil to read instead of you or maybe even read it increasingly quickly.
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.
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.
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.
Taboo is a great and challenging activity to do with the pupils.
Here are some examples. The word the other pupil(s) has/have to guess is in bold on each card and the person with that word has to describe it in French without mentioning the other words underneath.