Key Contact
Sara Davidson
NASBTT Associate Consultant
Secondary Languages
Email: secondarylanguages@nasbtt.org.uk
Introduction
Welcome to the resources space for secondary languages. This space will be regularly updated to provide the best possible subject support for those involved in training new secondary language teachers as well as some to support the teachings of English as an Additional Language.
On this site, you will find links to materials that will support informed approaches to teaching languages, along with practical advice and classroom practice from experienced teachers as well as links to subject knowledge enhancement courses to support colleagues teaching a second language that may not be their specialism.
There are links to subject associations that have excellent resources and theoretical underpinning and offer an extensive range of high quality training to help develop your subject pedagogical knowledge.
This will be a growing list and if you cannot find what you are looking for in the links and resources provided here, please do get in touch at the email address above and I will do my best to point you in the direction of what you need.
First things first, be sure to sign up to Twitter and join the #mfltwitterati community where you will find support, resources, ideas, CPD and a wealth of knowledge. I will also regularly post news items about the latest opportunities, events and developments in the modern languages teaching world.
If you find anything that could be of value to our community, please do share via the email address above.
Association for Language Learning (ALL)
The A.L.L. has secondary-specific resources, language-specific resources and projects, regional branches and events and special reduced membership rates for trainee teachers and Early Career Teachers.
Independent Schools’ Modern Languages Association (ISMLA)
A support network for MFL teachers at independent schools which holds an annual conference, language-specific events and webinars. Membership is by school rather than individual. Places at the events are also offered to colleagues at state schools.
National Subject Association for EAL (NALDIC)
Resources available for MFL and EAL teachers as well as HoDs of those subjects.
National Association of Language Advisers
Language resources and a community you can join for debate and seminars.
Training and CPD
- Association for Language Learning Events
- Linguascope Training
- Language Nut
- Teach Meet Icons
- MFL London Twitter
- The Learning Scientists is a website dedicated to the use of cognitive science in education. Really useful for all subjects and for those wishing to develop their understanding and implementation of cognitive science in the languages classroom.
Subject knowledge enhancement
- Government Course Directory
- Tes Subject Knowledge Enhancement
- italki.com is a website where you can find a conversation partner or a teacher of any language. A great way to improve your second language or even keep your main language fresh.
- GIMAGINE is a new government-funded Goethe Institut resource which promotes and supports the learning of German as a foreign language in the UK. The project centres around students, teachers and schools. Apart from offering initiatives for professional advancement to German teachers, the project can fund learning German through scholarships and provides schools with classroom materials and teaching resources.
Resources to support teaching and learning
- MFL Magic
- Kate Languages
- We Teach MFL
- The Language Gym
- Language Angels
- Light Bulb Languages
- All Languages - Secondary Resources
- Polly Glot Languages
- Gianfranco Conti’s Language Gym Blog – A large number of articles and teaching ideas that follow Gianfranco Conti’s popular methodology
- James Stubbs: The Target Language Classroom – A brilliant resource for those who are determined to exploit Target Language use in their classroom
- National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE) - IOE, together with the Goethe-Institut and the British Council are leading new nationwide hubs programme funded by the DfE over the next three years to re-energise language learning in state-maintained primary and secondary schools in England.
- Language-Driven Pedagogy (LDP) Formerly known as NCELP and its mission is to make available resources which are informed by peer reviewed research, fully aligned with the new Ofsted framework and which draw on the recommendations of the Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review.
- Triminos | paul-matthies.de A useful website (in German but can be used for any language) to help you easily create Triminos for vocabulary practice.
- Conjuguemos A great website for helping improve pupils’ verbs, grammar and vocabulary in a wide range of languages
- Edpuzzle A website that helps you to create exciting interactive video lessons in minutes! You can create quizzes and questions based on You Tube videos and assign them to pupils then track their progress.
- MFL Review - LDP (ncelp.org)
- Review of Modern Foreign Language pedagogy in KS3 & KS4 - Association for Language Learning (all-languages.org.uk)
- A reflection on modern languages pedagogy and how teachers might engage with research (The Chartered College)
Language pedagogy and resources
- Independent Thinking on MFL, Crista Hazell
- 100 Ideas for Secondary Languages, Danielle Morgan
- The Language Teacher Toolkit, Steve Smith & Gianfranco Conti
- Breaking the Sound Barrier, Steve Smith & Gianfranco Conti
- Getting the Buggers into Languages, Amanda Burton
- 100 Ideas for Teaching Languages, Nia Griffin
- Fun Learning Activities for Modern Foreign Languages: A Complete Toolkit for Ensuring Engagement, Progress and Achievement, Jake Hunton
General pedagogy
- The Language Teacher Toolkit, Steve Smith & Gianfranco Conti
- Fun Learning Activities for Modern Foreign Languages, Jake Hunton
- Rosenshines principles in action, Tom Sherrington
- Retrieval practice series, Kate Jones
- Teach like a champion, Doug Lemov
- Why don’t students like school? Daniel T Willingham
- Teachers vs Tech? The case for an ed tech revolution. Daisy Christodoulou
Blogs
- Tom Sherrington - Teacher Head
- Steve Smiths Blog
- MFL Classroom Magic
- Teacher Tool Kit Blogs
- FrauBastowMFL MFL teacher Silvia Bastow makes her German resources freely available and also writes pedagogical articles that really make you think.
- Esmeralda Salgado Blog
- Dr Liam Printer Blog
The following AI Resources are Useful for Teaching & Learning MFL:
https://ttsmaker.com/ & Convert Audio to Text - Free AI Audio Transcription – free websites that allow you to input an audio file to turn it into written text in a range of languages to support listening skill development
Vidnoz AI: Create FREE AI Videos 10X Faster Online – a website that allows you to create a video with an avatar. You chose an avatar, then can input text in any language and it will create a video for you.
Animate Your Audio for Free | Adobe Express Animate Characters – another free website that enables you to upload an audio but put it to an animated character video
Udio AI Music Generator - Make Original Tracks in Seconds & Suno | AI Music – these AI programmes will both create songs for you (in any language!). Either upload lyrics you have already created or ask it to create both the lyrics and the music.
Invideo AI - Bring your Ideas to life – text to speech website so you can create audio files
Claude – if you’ve only tried ChatGTP so far, why not give a different AI programme a go?
Great video webinar by Joe Dale explaining how to use AI & Padlet to develop all four skills:
There are some great YouTube channels with a wealth of resources, Joe Dale’s being excellent for practical, digital teaching ideas:
Transform MFL’s YouTube Channel: MFL Transform – YouTube
ISMLA’s YouTube Channel: ISMLA – YouTube
Steve Smith’s YouTube Channel: Steve Smith – YouTube
Language Ed YouTube Channel: LanguagEd – YouTube
TEMZ Event - Primary and Secondary Languages - Developing skills: Language Explorers to Lifelong Learners
Session Overview:
Our focus is to demonstrate how language content and skills build up from Key Stage 1 right through to Key Stages 4 and 5. This session will give teacher mentors a unique insight into the 'bigger picture' of how language learning skills are transferrable and how the subject lends itself to creating global citizens of the future.
Expected Learning Outcomes:
Mentors can expect to come away with an overview of skills, content and culture with practical examples to take away and use both in their own practice and to pass on to the trainees they support.
Facilitator Information:
Kate Percival:
Kate is a primary languages specialist, with over 15 years’ experience as a classroom practitioner. She is the Primary MFL Consultant for Primary Languages Network (PLN) supporting schools on a one-to-one basis and delivering CPD to trainee and experienced teachers. She has spoken nationally at events for ALL (Association for Language Learning), The Languages Show and PLN and is the subject specialist consultant for NASBTT.
Sara Davidson:
As well as leading the two national SCITT programmes offered at Oundle School (National Modern Languages SCITT and National Maths & Physics SCITT), Sara is still a practising languages teacher, teaching German to pupils in Year 7 up to Year 13.
She previously led two modern languages departments in two boarding schools as Head of Department – one offering 8 modern languages on timetable taught by 27 members of staff.She was previously Chair of the Independent Schools’ Modern Languages Association (ISMLA) for 5 years too and was invited to participate in several DfE MFL initiatives in that role. She is the MFL secondary subject specialist consultant for NASBTT.
Recording:
View the recording here
Supporting Resources:
The MFL Twitterati Podcast - #MFLTwitterati Podcast – Celebrating the voices of the modern language teaching community
We Teach Languages - we teach languages – a podcast about language teaching from diverse perspectives
The Language Revolution – The Language Revolution – Changing UK attitudes to languages
The Kate Languages Podcast – The Kate Languages Podcast on Apple Podcasts
To improve your own Subject Knowledge you could check out the ‘Coffee Break’ and ‘Easy Languages’ podcasts too:
Coffee Break Languages: Introducing Coffee Break Languages – Coffee Break Languages
Regular events
- @Saturdayedchat on Twitter, a weekly 30 minute coffee and conversation about education.
- Follow the #mfltwitterati hashtag on Twitter to keep up to date for many free events relating to MFL.
- @TTRadioOfficial is Teachers Talk Radio: a live platform on Twitter that regularly broadcasts discussions on a range of aspects of teaching
The views expressed in any links, documents or social accounts in these resources belong to the content creators and not NASBTT, its affiliates, or employees.