Group Talk

Wish your pupils would spontaneously use target language?

Wish your boys performed as well as your girls?

Wish you could increase the numbers studying languages at your school?

If you answered yes to any of the above then we have the ideal course for you!

When I was asked, as a member of the judging panel for the European Award for Languages, to visit Wildern School’s Group Talk project, I was intrigued to see whether their claims to have transformed their pupils into enthusiastic chatterers in other languages could be true. Truth be told, I was sceptical about this, having long struggled myself to get pupils beyond the ‘Miss I don’t think I can do it without my book’ stage of speaking!

The reality is that we met pupils of all ages and abilities, who were comfortable conversing in the target language with just the input of some stimulus material, very often pictures. When a year 10 boy tells you “I like speaking French best, I find it much easier than any of the other skills” you know something marvellous is happening. Needless to say, the project won a European Award for Languages, along with the French Embassy Language Prize, the TDA Initial Teaching Education Prize and the Mary Glasgow Award.

But it doesn’t stop there. Group Talk forms the core of a highly successful and motivating overall approach to learning languages. Pupil numbers in Key Stage 4 have risen, alongside examination performance, with nearly 4 times as many boys as girls achieving an A* at GCSE. Motivation of pupils of all abilities has improved throughout the school.

The school is keen to share its success with others and so I was delighted when Greg Horton, Advanced Skills Teacher and architect of the Group Talk project, agreed to come to Wales to share his experience with us. If you need further persuasion on why you need to come on this course, see the Teachers’ TV clip of the school in action here.

Group Talk: developing real communication in MFL will take place in Cardiff on 19th June 2009 and in Llandudno on 26th June 2009. Don’t miss it! For full details and how to book a place on the course, please go to our events calendar page.

Kristina Hedges
Programme Manager and Language Teaching Adviser