Food for thought…

1. SuziBewell1 June 2014MFL Show n Tell Yorkwww.petitepipelette.wordpress.comSet the MFL classroom on fire with

2. Food for thought… ‘Be brave, be bold and don’t always do as you’re told!’

3. What is FLAME? The Association For Language Learning has set up Flame (Future for Language as a Medium of Education), a new initiative to support CLIL and bilingual learning. Launched formally on 17th January 2013, it aims to support the many ways that teachers are combining languages with other subjects, whether bringing subject topics into language lessons, teaching subject modules or teaching one or more whole subjects through a language other than English.

4. FLAME plans to: • Bring together people with a shared interest in bilingual learning; • Help teachers to collaborate and share ideas; • Provide valuable information and advice for schools; • Arrange open days to see CLIL and bilingual learning in action; and • Improve the availability of learning resources.

5. ALL hopes that FLAME will increase the number of primary and secondary schools that combine language teaching with the teaching of key subjects, and that this in turn will help to transform the quality of language learning in schools.

6. CLIL requires languages teachers to teach predominantly in the target language, something which the most recent MFL OFSTED report ‘Achievement and Challenge’ deemed to be an apparent weakness in MFL departments. • The use of the TL (Target Language) has always been an area of debate and with the advent of PLTS and Learning 2 Learn, many MFL teachers have seemingly resorted to teaching for the most part in English. • FLAME seeks to address this issue with immersion teaching and requires very careful planning and a clear and rigorous implementation strategy on a departmental level.

7. Teaching FLAME is very different from teaching Modern Languages in the traditional way. WHY do we still insist on delivering a traditional curriculum whereby students entering in Year7are most likely to learn about such topics as self and family, pets, pencil case and perhaps daily routine. Do most 11 year olds really want to talk about such things in their own language let alone the TL?

8. Consider also the level of cognitive challenge in MFL compared with other core subjects In general, how is student engagement and motivation (or lack thereof) in MFL? What I believe FLAME aims to do is to bridge the gap between CLIL and traditional methodology, allowing teachers the freedom to teach more engaging cross curricular topics predominantly in the TL. In turn, learners will have a much stronger motivation to learn a language in order to communicate for real and relevant reasons. It is essential that we as language educators stimulate the desire to want to learn a foreign language, especially in a world where GCSE update for languages in the UK is at an all time low.

9. FLAME at University of YorkTuesday 26th June 2013 1-4pm Suzi and her 16 trainee MFL student teachers will showcase a wide range of innovative projects aimed at KS3 which do not follow the traditionaltext book* topics .  The students will talk about how they have spent the summer term working on such motivational cross curricular languages projects with the sole aim of making MFL come alive. *DISCLAIMER: There will be no mention of Pencil Cases or Daily Routine – c’estpromis!

10. Cross-curricular Links Cross Curricular links between MFL and the following subjects will be shared: -Science (PGCE MFL 2011-12 cohort) -Art (famous Fr Ger and Sp artists) -Drama (working with a local theatre group) -Food technology (The Great MFL Bake-Off) -History (featuring the Castle Museum) -Music (rhythm, rhyme and the sound-spelling link) -Sport (Wake and Shake) -Citizenship (the wider F G and S speaking world)

11. Flame est fantastique! Flame rocks my MFL world! Flame esfantastico! Madrid Etwinning Primary Partner Finding event May 2013

12. - Presentación de pintor de cada región. Néstor de la Torre  Gran Canaria, España (realismo) AchilleLaugé Limoux, Francia (puntillismo) David Hockney  Yorkshire, Inglaterra (pop art) • Cada región manda un cuadro de su autor y explica un poco. (Wallwisher) • Elaboramos adaptación de una obra de los pintores de la otra región. • Montaje de un libro e-book con lo realizado.

13. Useful links for later… • ALL launched its first FLAME newsletter in February - this can be found at http://www.all-languages.org.uk/uploads/files/FLAME/FLAME%20Newsletter%20February%202013.pdf • For more information about FLAME, see the FLAME web page in the Community section of the ALL website.  • CLIL case studies from the work done by Links into Languages can be found here. • MFL practioners may also be interested in visiting the CLIL for Teachers wiki which contains many free and ready to download resources which are being shared by colleagues in schools where the CLIL / FLAME methodology is being successfully implemented into the MFL department. • There are also several case studies online, via the CILT archives, whereby those MFL specialists who are currently unfamiliar with the idea of CLIL / FLAME can read about and view video footage of practicing primary and secondary practitioners of languages using the FLAME methodology with their learners, some as young as 8.

14. Parting note… MFL teachers, I hope I have inspired you to relight some fires today!