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BETT 2007

There was lots on offer for language teachers at the BETT show this year. The seminar programme included four MFL sessions and covered the latest developments in the use of technology in language teaching.
In her talk Wicked Websites, Funky Flipcharts and Interesting Interactivity in MFL Lesley Welsh, languages lead practitioner for The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and Becta ICT in Practice award winner from English Martyrs School, Hartlepool looked at:

  • how to use a range of authentic websites to engage pupils from primary to secondary age, such as agency-dynamite.fr or vendre.visitenet.com
  • creative ways of using interactive whiteboard software to re-visit activities traditionally played on the overhead projector
  • how individual voting pads can cater for personalised learning and give opportunities for assessment for learning

Peter Morris: Senior Teacher and MFL AST, Gordano School represented CILT, the National Centre for Languages with his session Wikimania, or using wikis to encourage spontaneous and accurate creative writing in MFL. Peter described how he has been using wikis (webpages that a group of users collaborate on together) in German and French to build on the spontaneous speaking work he had previously encouraged with his pupils as part of the TALK project. A former TALK trainer himself, Peter originally set up the Wikimania experiment as a Languages ICT Action Research project and has found that wikis have helped his pupils in the following ways:

  • to develop collaborative writing - pupils can edit and add to pages at home as well as at school via the Internet
  • to offer support - targeted guidance or links to downloadable documents
  • to allow assessment for learning - by letting pupils access each other's work so they can learn from each other's mistakes
  • to encourage creative and more spontaneous writing

Here are some of the wikis that have been set up so far for the Wikimania project:

You can read more in the Archived projects section of the Languages ICT Action Research web pages.

Chris Harte, recently appointed head of department at Cramlington Community High School and national winner of the Teacher Training Agency Award in 2004, spoke on using ICT to Promote the Productive Skills in MFL. Chris' session was very practical and offered many interesting ideas that could be immediately implemented into the classroom such as:

  • Photo Story 3 - making digital photo-stories including titles, background music and narration
  • MovieMaker - adding subtitles and editing short video clips
  • Audacity - recording GCSE oral presentations for pupils to download and listen to on their mp3 players or mobile phones
  • Thinking Worlds - creating 3D virtual worlds where pupils can customise their own scenes, characters and biographies

You can download Chris' presentation by visiting his website at homepage.mac.com/c_harte.

The final seminar ICT … so what? - Using technology to enhance learning outcomes across all four language skills was presented by SSAT languages Lead Practitioner and leader of French at Nodehill Middle School, Joe Dale on behalf of the Association for Language Learning (ALL).  Joe proved how ICT can help pupils practise their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills by using mainly free and readily available software. These included:

  • Spellmaster
  • Toolkit for Teachers
  • PowerPoint Roleplays and Cartoons
  • Writing Frames
  • Blogging
  • Podcasting
  • Teacher’s Pet
  • Hot Potatoes

You can download resources from the session from Joe Dale’s web log.

In addition to the BETT programme, CILT gave two presentations for the DfES seminar programme on resources and services designed to support language learning at both primary and secondary level.

Kati Szeless gave a practical and informative session on ways of introducing languages into the primary school in her talk Getting started with primary languages, which focused on the work of NACELL and the new Primary Languages Training Zone due to launch in Spring 2007.

Terry Cooper presented Answers, advice and action for teachers @ Languages ICT where he described how the Languages ICT website from CILT and ALL can support both beginners and enthusiasts looking for a real challenge, with downloadable resources and the opportunity to take part in action research.

In the Education Guardian preview of BETT 2007, the article Bright ideas brought to life written by John Bald, freelance journalist and Primary Modern Languages Consultant for Hackney, London showcases the following resources available at the exhibition this year.