1. Focus on Boys - strategies to increase motivation and attainment
Wendy Adeniji
MFL Consultant

2. The New Secondary Curriculum
Effective from September 2008, this gives teachers for the first time in many years to experiment with:
Creativity
Engagement
Independence
All of these aspects will serve boys well

3. Sound recording for Peer and Self-Assessment
Recording voices using sound recording software such as Audacity, to listen back, edit and save as .mp3 files to put onto mp3 players or burn onto CDs
This is effective from Y7 up to Y11, and can be used to record songs and raps written by pupils, and to help perfect practise for speaking tests.

4. Digital Video – ready-made clips
Use of sites such as Youtube (and there TL equivalent e.g. in French) to show DV clips
Recommended site to show clips to encourage motivation:
Fun clips in German from Verstehen sie Spass series
Wasserbett
Also a favourite German children’s TV series: die wilden Kerle
Clips from French pop videos, with lesson ideas for teaching French as a foreign language

5. Creativity with Drama and Video
Boys love acting and drama, the sillier the better (and usually something that involves someone been gruesomely killed). They can script, act out and film simple scenes, such as in a restaurant or an interview.
Examples from Heathfield School, Sandwell, West Midlands
This was reported in the QCA 2006 document “Good Practice in using ICT in MFL”

6. Creativity
Create a talking character and record it speaking in the TL using the free site
Create a Powerpoint presentation e.g. based on the Wrld Cup in Germany (Groups called teams, with captains and players with different roles)

7. Challenge Boys respond well to challenges
Give them a webquest, which uses a Target Language site and asks them to find information from it, at a level which is achievable.

8. Using songs with an emphasis on phonic sounds to develop speaking skills
Play songs not just to learn them, but to listen out for specific sounds
Empower pupils to read - decoding, independence
Sound-spelling links, phonics
Improved confidence in pronunciation, reading, listening (deciphering what they hear) and improved writing from awareness of phoneme-grapheme relationship
Focus on commonly mispronounced words eg. cognates

9. Using songs with an emphasis on phonic sounds to develop speaking skills
Using authentic resources for motivation
e.g. Pigloo Gap-fill
Text sequencing
Grouping words by sound: ‘ai’ , ‘oi’, ‘in’ and ‘I’
“Moi, j’aime skier” from
Find words from or

10. Keeping them going until the end of 9: new forms of accreditation
Asset Languages, which can be linked to other vocational units, be ‘half’ a GCSE or just accredit certain skills.
For example, this is has been used effectively to link to a Horsemanship course at The Grove Language College, Market Drayton (Shropshire); instead of learning parts of the body, parts of the horse are learnt

11. Keeping them going until the end of 9: new forms of accreditation
NVQ Language Units from OCR
The assessment is flexible, when the teacher feels pupils are ready
This has been used effectively with Y9 pupils at Yewlands School, Sheffield, who have then gone on to opt to continue to study a language in KS4
Pupils who do drop the language at the end of Y9 have something to show for 3 years of study
Because of the business-oriented approach, boys in particular feel that the subject is useful to them.

12. New Curriculum: interdisciplinary links
Links with literacy for example traditional tales – yes, boys in Y7 respond really well to these.
Suggested activities for Chaperon Rouge (Rotkäppchen or Caperucita Roja):
Read the class the story and ask them to guess which it is
Show them the Powerpoint version of the story and ask them to look out for e.g. question words, particular verbs
Find out some facts about Charles Perrault, the author for homework

13. New Curriculum: interdisciplinary links
Look at the Tex Avery version of the story in French
Discuss how the tales started off as being moral tales and other possible endings
Pupils write a new ending
Pupils could also script and in groups create a digital audio version of the story, possibly for publication as a podcast
Teaching Grammar through context The Three Little Pigs: reinforcing du, de la and des and imperatives

14. A departmental action plan
Establish the scale of the problem: compare boys’ and girls’ attainment at the end of KS3
‘Market research’ in school. Identify boys’ and girls’ dislikes and learning styles
Teach in small steps; give pupils regular experience of success
In marking give constructive feedback on how to improve
Extend the use of rewards/ commendations to acknowledge boys’ contributions
Use assessment criteria which recognise boys’ contributions – is equal value attached to speaking/ listening as reading/ writing?
Review profile and image of languages in school. Does the subject have a feminine image?

15. A departmental action plan
Think about how IT can be used in a meaningful way with all year groups and classes
Demonstrate practical value of language learning by inviting male linguists from business/ industry in (your local Chamber of Commerce should be able help)
Organise trips to the workplace to show languages at work
Look at criteria for setting
Consider single sex setting in the early stages