Rabu, 20 Februari 2019

Teaching and Learning MFL in the United Kingdom - An Analysis of Traditional Versus Modern Resources



Science and technologies is a topic that I investigated personally, in order to provide general knowledge about these issues to an A-level group. It soon became more obvious to me that there has been a huge evolution and progress in these fields in the last century. Resources for teachers and for pupils have changed tremendously, moving along the general rapid technological evolution. We have progressed from the discovery of the cinema, to individual televisions with two or three channels in the 1950s, to interactive whiteboards and the internet in schools since the beginning of the 21st century. This phenomenon is particularly interesting and implies a revolution in classrooms.

In order to follow this trend, the government has adapted its policies, to try and provide the best opportunities to develop learning. Information and Communication Technology became statutory in the National Curriculum for Modern Languages in 1999.

Since the turn of the century, classrooms have evolved and developed a great deal. Teaching resources are a complex set of features which can be divided in three major groups: human resources, traditional resources and modern resources.

III.1. Human resources

III.1.a Teachers and students

The first but often disregarded resource available in any teaching and learning situation is the teacher. The classroom situation is a resource for both teacher and learner to develop their skills. Indeed, students are the second main resource within a classroom. Teachers improve their teaching by interacting with their students whilst students acquire new knowledge and skills thanks to the lessons delivered by their teachers.

Modern Foreign Languages Rosetta Stone classrooms though are very specific setting. The artificial learning situation can be improved by the use of a foreign language assistant. Even if the context is still not authentic, it is the closest that can be achieved within the educational system. Students are given the possibility to improve their listening skills and practice the language with a native speaker. This enables students to have a clear idea of the potential outcome of their learning process. It is motivating and challenging. Throughout my experiences in school X, Y and Z, I noticed that each of these schools had a French native speaker on its roll. They had all acquired the qualified teacher status on the United Kingdom. This can only be beneficial to students as they provide quality teaching but are also able to supply a thorough cultural knowledge about France, Germany or Spain.

School trips are another type of real life resource which, are extremely valuable but are less frequently accessible. For various reasons such as the huge responsibility that it represents, but also due to the amount of paper work required, teachers organise less school trips than they used to. Exchanges which are the most beneficial experience that Modern Foreign Languages students can experience are not carried out any longer by many British schools. As Hawkins explains "two weeks of total immersion in a country where the target language is spoken is equivalent to six months of formal school teaching".(Hawkins, 1988: 68). This is detrimental to students' progression but it does not appear to evolve into any more positive direction. Senior management in School X even tries to reduce the number of school trips. To obtain a principle agreement from the headmaster, the trip has to have learning outcomes. I am involved in organising a trip linking the Modern Foreign Languages Department and the Physical Education Department. The objective is to enable year 13 students to visit a French comprehensive school sport's facilities, as these students have to compare the sport structures in schools of various countries. The interesting aspect of this trip is that it will enable some students from France to practice their languages skills in a very specific context while presenting their schools to native speakers of English.

III.1.b Resources for Special Educational Needs

Learning support assistants are also part of the teaching team in the United Kingdom. They are a very valuable asset for teachers as they represent an extra resource in the classroom. Generally, they are allocated to one specific student who has learning difficulties. They help this student to access the content of the lessons. Inclusion is statutory in the British Educational system. This implies that comprehensive schools are opened to all students and that school have to cater for their individual needs. Schools provide their staff with a Special Educational Needs handbook stating the school policy and the needs of every individual child concerned. It is specified whether the student is under school concern, school action, school action + or statutory assessment.

This staged approach implies each time a close partnership between the teaching staff and the Special Educational Needs staff, but also with the Learning Support Assistants. In means also, in some of the situations, that not only the pastoral and teaching staff have to share information but that they work alongside parents and external agencies. In the Special Educational Needs handbook, strategies to deal with the disabilities and/ or needs are offered to teachers. For instance, ways of supporting a dyspraxic pupil or a sensory impaired pupil are recommended. Some explanations concerning semantic-pragmatic disorder, or ADHD and Ritalin, and Asperger's Syndrome are provided. A list of useful web sites is also suggested to enhance the teacher's knowledge of his pupils' needs.

During my training as a teacher in school X, I shadowed a pupil who had been purposefully chosen by the school. I spent my day with pupil A, "statemented for his language difficulties linked to semantic pragmatic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. He has great difficulties inferring what people actually mean by what they say... He relies heavily on routine... His concentration is limited and he has poor literacy and organisation skills". (SEN handbook, 2003: section 3) This is the way pupil A is described in the SEN Handbook. His Individual Education Plan shows that the areas of concern are learning, and the areas of need are defined as being the development of Numeracy and literacy skills and the improvement of his communication skills. The targets are as follows: to work independently with staff reinforcement as needed; to join a range of activities at break and lunch time; to start working without individual prompts.

I spent one day with pupil A and his form, going from English to DT, then to French and History. After having read about him, I was worried that breaking his routine, by having to show me round the school, might destabilise him. Nevertheless, he did not seem to be affected by my presence. In every lesson, he was sitting at the front. He was not accompanied by a Learning Support Assistant. However, I noticed teachers spending a little longer explaining him some of the tasks given. They were providing him with specific worksheets and had differentiated the activities for him.

In School X I taught Year 7S1, where 11 pupils out of 27 required special educational needs. No Learning Support Assistant was available, even if two children had been statemented. Pupil B has "a range of medical (restricted growth) and learning difficulties. He is working at level two across the curriculum and finds it hard to concentrate for any length of time... " (SEN handbook, 2003: section 1). The other students who experience special educational needs are under School Concern or School Action +, mainly for weak Numeracy and/ or literacy skills, and/ or across the curriculum. Obviously, lessons have to be planned to meet the needs of all the students. "Taking the literal definition, differentiation is the process by which we recognise and respond to differences... to cater for differences in learning styles and to combat stereotyping classroom, should provide variety and balance in the different types of experience offered" (Swarbryck, 1994: 72).

Challenge, pace, variety and fun became my motto to try and be as efficient as possible with this form. All the Special Educational Needs students have indeed learning difficulties, as I explained earlier, but seemed to enjoy this new experience of being taught a Modern Foreign Language. Indeed, as Deane (1992: 43-47) states: "Learning a foreign language can be particularly useful for students with learning difficulties, in that they have an extra chance to improve their understanding of language in general".

School X though is innovative as far as providing support is concerned. They recently hired Learning Support Assistants skilled in specific subject areas, and rather than allocating them to student they assign them to a department. These people are therefore qualified to care for pupils with learning difficulties but are also knowledgeable in a subject area, which benefits students as well as subject teachers. They are an outstanding resource that teachers must incorporate in their planning in order to enable the whole class to profit from it.

Human resources are all the people involved in a teaching and learning setting. However, all the training gained by teachers can also be considered as a resource as it informs their planning. In that concern, meetings with colleagues and senior management, in house training sessions or professional development provided by external agencies are an invaluable resource for teachers to improve their skills as professionals.

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