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CILT (Centre for Information about
Language Teaching) has recently produced some videos
which give an excellent presentation of the sort of work and
standards of results that are possible. The Goethe Institute has linformation that will help you make a case for choosing to teach German as your language. |
More targetted to your specific needs are the language courses and other support for teachers of German run by: - the Goethe Institutes, - by CILT and its associated network
of Regional ELL Support Groups at "Comenius Centres"
around the country. |
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The Framework document sets out an approach to content and methodology for language teaching in primary schools in England. It isavailable to download from the DfES Standards website at: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/languages/. Part 1 - Learning Objectives
and Copies can be ordered from the TeacherNet online service for schools at http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/ or DfES publications at e-mail: dfes@prolog.uk.com, tel: 0845 602 22 60, textphone: 0845 60 555 60 or fax: 0845 60 333 60
Scotland Visit the Curriculum for Excellence website for more information. |
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Official Schemes of
Work These materials, the advice to teachers, and the course structure have been carefully updated to fit with various official (but not compulsory) guidelines - see above. The QCA/DfES publishes schemes of work and a teacher's guide, and you can view and download them from the Standards Site in either Acrobat PDF or MS Word format: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes3/subjects/primary_mfg_new/?view=get The non-compulsory schemes have been designed to support those primary, middle and special schools that are currently teaching, or planning to teach, a modern foreign language at key stage 2. The scheme provides a flexible framework designed to help schools to develop or adapt their own schemes for a 4-year course. It comprises an overview and 24 units for German (and other languages), comprising 4 years' work. Non-specialist class teachers may find some of the suggested work too demanding, but the Scheme of Work does offer a useful benchmark against which to compare what you decide to do - and it does contain some interesting lesson ideas! |
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Particularly useful are: SchulWeb - an open German School Network which includes information and links to German schools on the Internet - http://www.schulweb.de/de/deutschland/index.html The Voyage Kids: British-German
Connection - a website to help primary school children
to find out a little more about each other's countries and
each other. It provides opportunities for showcasing links,
contacts and joint projects between primary pupils in the UK
and Germany. |
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Virtual visits by video-conferencing ? More schools are enjoying video-conferencing links - it is easier for young beginners to communicate - despite their small vocabulary - with a combination of moving image and spoken as well as written language. For ideas about using video-conferencing within a joint project with a partner school, or to bring a foreign expert or place of interest into your classroom, contact the Video-conferencing in the Classroom Project. They give technical and educational advice, run training, help find partners and can even lend you equipment. They also have a dairy of video-conference events on offer from various providers around the world - see www.global-leap.com for more----> |
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... or an actual visit overseas? It will help motivate many children to learn German if they know that, later on in the school year, they will be meeting with the children from their partner school. |
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For most primary schools, travel distance means a residential stay for a night or two is the most practical way of visiting Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Health &
safety |
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Bringing German-speakers into the classroom There is also the possibility of bringing German-speaking people into your classroom from amongst visitors to the local community, and people who live or work locally who are native speakers. If there are German, Austrian or German-Swiss companies in your area, they may be willing to help. It is also worth exploring the idea of having a "language assistant" for a few hours a week - probably shared with other schools, because there is a cost. Foreign Language Assistants' (FLAs) are foreign graduates training to teach English in their own country. Information for Schools and Local Education Authorities is on the Central Bureau's website, http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistants.htm 'The Foreign Language Assistants scheme' is described on the Department for Education and Skills website: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/a-z/.html and look for "FLA" (Foreign Language Assistants). |
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You may be lucky to have such a support network if your school is part of a project locally organised by a specialist Language College or a local secondary school or college that is setting out to be a "centre of excellence" for languages and offers to work with its feeder schools; or by your LEA's adviser / consultant, Even if you are "on your own", there are ways of exchanging ideas with colleagues who are interested in teaching languages to young beginners.... |
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Network by e-mail with others interested in teaching languages: For primary school teachers &
MFL: Simply send an email to:
mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk (Type your own personal names instead of firstname and lastname). For MFL specialists: |
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Sources of on-line advice
& info about language teaching |
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Assessment
& recording We recommend this as a potentially very useful record of achievement to pass on to the pupils' next teacher; if properly used, it's a valuable aid to ease transition to secondary school. You are free to download these documents and use them with your own pupils. |
  European Language Portfolio (L) Pupil's document & (R) Teacher's Guide |
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Assessment
& recording We recommend this as a potentially very useful record of achievement to pass on to the pupils' next teacher; if properly used, it's a valuable aid to ease transition to secondary school. |
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