WHY DO WE TEACH

WRITING IN MFL ?

Gina Ottaway – SLE Westdene TSA

REASONS TO DEVELOP WRITING Writing gives learners the opportunity to find

ways of expressing their ideas in a foreign language.

Writing gives learners the opportunity to try out the language with plenty of thinking time.  

A learner’s writing gives the teacher a good opportunity to diagnose grammar and vocabulary problems and to identify progress.

Writing allows learners to practice new structures in an extended context.

Writing can provide more variety in classwork

Mark Hancock and Annie McDonald

• Reading and writing are supported by, and reinforce, the development of oracy.

• In KS1 or lower KS2 – children begin to understand the letters and phonics of the MFL – this is later applied in their reading and spelling.

• Introducing reading and writing skills from the start is essential.

• By upper Key Stage 2, children are able to read and produce longer and more complex structures. Children will begin to access texts independently for their own enjoyment.

PROGRESSION IN WRITING SKILLS

• Copy words – making labels• Gap-fill letters into words – eg completing learnt

phrases, puzzles, wordsearch• Copy short phrases – eg short dialogues, Christmas

cards• Gap fill words into short phrases – eg songs with

Cloze procedure• Copy sentences – eg from board• Gap-fill short phrases into sentences – eg daily

routine, ordering food, talking about a hobby• Produce words – using glossary/dictionary –

labelling. Writing topics lists in games• Produce short phrases – answering questions in a

listening acitivity, describing pictures, gap-fill phrases in Dialogue

• Produce sentences – eg answering questions, writing a description

• (Jane Jones and Simon Coffey – MFL 5 – 11)

PHONICSPhoneme – grapheme correspondence “We believe it is important to introduce the

written word to children early on in their language learning. The important thing is to make the sound-spelling links explicit, systematic and as complete as possible.”

Julie Prince “Sounds and Words”Eg Phoneme Boxes – Decode words - eg dictionary work. Draw boxes around each letter/letter string which corresponds with a phoneme. S-a-p-in or l-a-p-inTeam games – phonemes on table – teacher reads out a word and children race against each other to form the word.

ACTIVITIES TO FOSTER INTEREST IN WRITING IN MFL Stories: Ours brun, Ours brun

OURS BRUN -

MONSTERS – KS1

EXPLOITING A TEXT1: FLASHCARD GAMES FOR FAMILIARISATION WITH KEY WORDS2: ACTIONS FOR KEY WORDS3: MEMORISING TEXT USING ACTIONS – CREATE VIDEO4: CLOZE PROCEDURE5: BRAINSTORMING FOR THEIR OWN IDEAS6: DICTIONARY WORK7: WRITING THEIR OWN STORIES – USING SCAFFOLDED VERSIONS – MORE ABLE CAN CHANGE FURTHER ASPECTS OF THE STORY8: ASSEMBLY – PRESENTING THEIR OWN VERSIONS9: CREATING A CLASS BOOK

L’agneau qui ne veut pas être un

mouton

LES VÊTEMENTS –

1: Use interactive white board games/flashcard games to develop vocabulary2: Teach Je porte/Tu porte/Il porte/Elle porte – conjugation of verbs3: Develop scripts using “Comic Strip” programme in ICT suite4: Children learn scripts and have a fashion show – show in Assembly

http://www.schoolsworld.tv/node/3107

Poetry – beach poem

1: Choose your poem 2: Build up knowledge of language and key words with flashcards and actions3: Sentence building in groups with cut up phrases4: Class poem5: Create individual poems – make a class book/display6: Paintings/illustrations to go with them.

THE GIRL WITH THE YELLOW BAGhttp://www.literacyshed.com/the-maia-walczak-shed.htmlIdeas to exploit the text Secure understanding in French with

flashcards Dictionary lesson – Brainstorm in pairs ideas for their own

story Use scaffolded text to support children

to create their own stories