John Bald/language and literacy

French colours for beginners' toolkit, ppt.

Download French-colours for primary toolkit

Beginners German Toolkit. Lesson plans updated June 2022.

This toolkit was developed for older primary pupils, but is equally effective for older beginners, including adults. As these plans have formatting that doesn't always sit easily on Typepad, I'm uploading each lesson in Word, as I write it. Please contact me if you have problems downloading a lesson plan.

Update  To present the idea of gender in nouns, I would now start simple sentences with neuter nouns only, eg Ich habe ein Buch, wir haben ein Haus, and then add masculine and feminine. The idea of gender involves a big change in thinking for English speakers, and putting neuter first, which involves no change in the accusative case, makes the first step much easier. There is then only one change in simple sentences with masculine nounse, introducing accusative, which needs a lot of explanation in itself.

Download Primary-German-toolkit-introduction-and-principles

Download German-toolkit-lesson-1-corrected

Download German toolkit lesson 2

Download German toolkit lesson 3

Download German toolkit lesson 4

Download German toolkit lesson 5

Download German toolkit lesson 6

Download German Toolkit Lesson 7

Download German toolkit lesson 8

Primary German Toolkit. Principles and first lessons.

The toolkit approaches to French and Spanish have given children a start that is based on making the key adjustments to their thinking as easy as possible, and introducing them from the first lesson. The extensin of the approach to primary German takes account of the need for a lot of practice to get children used to German grammatical features, and so cut down, and if possible remove, the stress involved in learning a complicated system quickly. 

I am happy to offer free help to any primary school wishing to tackle this issue.

 

 1 Evidence from brain research.

 

Language learning is an activity of the brain, in which connections and networks are built up and reinforced, whatever channel of communication is used.  As we use our new connections, tiny charges of electricity flow along them, reinforcing the connections and stimulating the deposit of layers of the insulator myelin. This process, which is similar to that in music practice, speeds things up. The areas of the brain that deal with language, spoken and written, are interconnected. The diagram below,  (Language Matters, ALL, Spring 2013), shows the areas concerned with hearing in blue, and reading in red.  Not only are these areas touching, but the small magenta areas in each cluster are active in both.  The whole is a virtuous cycle to which all channels of communication contribute - provided we don't overload them and cause the circuit to blow.

 

Adjacent and shared areas of the brain involved in spoken and written language.

 

2.How the toolkit works.

The toolkit aims for full understanding, right from the start. It achieves this by using content in the first lessons that is already well known to pupils in English, so that they can direct their full attention to adjusting their thinking to the requirements of the new language.   Guten Tag,  for example,  does not mean hello, but good day, as in some Australian English.  So, we are learning to say things differently, and to use slightly different sounds.    Colours, days of the week and numbers contain many of the pronunciation differences between German and English, and as children already know them the learning task is cut down to size.  Pronouns are learned as an action song, with children pointing (with whole hand, not finger, aus  Höflichkeit, out of politeness), and can then be used with high frequency verbs to build sentences. The same song can be used with any verb, in positive and negative forms. 

 Each lesson after the first begins with a brisk starter to reinforce previous understanding, followed by a main teaching focus to develop it, and a final session to consolidate and review the new learning. The half-hour format allows time for a clear focal point for each lesson, without placing undue strain on curriculum time, but experience has shown that it needs to be reinforced with short sessions between lessons if children are to make consistent progress.  This is in line with the findings of HMI in Modern Languages, Achievement and Challenge, (Ofsted, 2011).  The recommended ICT resources make native-speaker pronunciation and accuracy available to all teachers, whatever their personal confidence with German, and this toolkit will be accompanied by a free internet course in German for teachers wishing to update their skills. The approach has been tested in Hackney primary schools over the past seven years. Teachers and pupils have enjoyed using it, and it has shown clear gains in learning, particularly in the integration of written work, which has led to consultancy with the Teaching and Development Agency and numerous conference presentations.  Questioning techniques borrowed from Ruth Miskin's   Read, Write, Inc, provide a simple means of early assessment, which is followed up by work sampling. This integrates assessment into the normal pattern of teaching, and saves time. The theme of politeness and respect for teachers provides an important cultural element.

 

First Lessons downloadable here.

 

The toolkit is under continuous review. Comments are welcome.

 

John Bald

01223 891069 

[email protected]

 

Copyright © John Bald, 2013. Permission is granted for the Toolkit to be copied and used for non-profit purposes.

Key Features of German.

•  German spelling is more regular than English - we say what we see, and we write what we hear.

•  A few consonants are pronounced differently. J is pronounced as English y - Ja! (yes) -  v as f, and w as English v (Volkswagen). German often uses k when English uses c (Die Kultur, culture), The ch in Ich, close to Scottish Loch, takes some practice.

•  Some voice sounds are different, and the letters indicating voice sounds - vowel letters - can sometimes have a small mark, Der Umlaut, (literally, sound change) that alters the voice sound they represent.  English has similar changes - eg sloping, sloppy - but does not always indicate them clearly.

•  Nouns in German have a capital letter - this makes them easy to recognise.

•  German grammar classifies nouns as masculine, feminine or neuter. It takes English-speaking children a long time to understand  the idea of gender attached to items such as books, that have no natural gender. With young children, we can present the idea in terms of boys' and girls' words, with others that belong to no-one (or are shared by everyone).

•  These gender categories are reflected in short words (articles), adjectives, pronouns and associated with the noun.  Sometimes the association is simple - Der Mann, Die Frau, Das Buch.  Sometimes it is not, as the same short word can be used in different ways with nouns of different gender. The full range of patterns is usually taught as the case system.  German children learn  it through long practice in primary school, and it is often difficult for new learners to understand. The Toolkit approach aims to build this understanding gradually, and uses the simplest associations in the earliest stages.

•  We can make a negative sentence in German by adding nicht.  Das ist einfach. Es ist nicht schwer.  (That is easy. It is not difficult) 

• German verbs change much more than English ones, and the correct form of the verb is important in formal communication. The Toolkit provides children with an initial understanding of verbs that relate to their own interests and things they wish to say, but presents them in a way that makes it easy to build full understanding in secondary school and beyond.

 

 

Spanish and French weather ppts . Free.

Unfortunately, the sound won't download, so add your own using using Audacity (free).  Only snag is that you need to make one file for each slide, save it and then add. Fiddly, but easy once you've tried it. Free to use, but not to sell. This is a sample slide, with an amination that works on the ppt.  Enjoy.

Download Spanish weather + sound

The French version has a final optional slide, with the weather in the perfect tense.

Download Fr weather + sound

 

Spanish and French colours - free ppts

 

I made this using copyright free clipart and the free sound recording program Audacity, recommended by Joe Dale. Audacity is easy to use, apart from the fiddly business of saving each colour as a separate file. If you open this a ppt, you'll need to re-record the sound, as I haven't been able to link them together. though that will depend on your view of my Spanish or French accent. The file downloads as a normal ppt, so you need to use the commands to set up the slideshow. Short technical note - I haven't put titles on these, as I want the children to focus entirely on the colours and their "new" names, with no distractions. You can put the loudspeaker sign to speak the word wherever you like on the page.

I recommend colours as the first item to introduce in a new language. Meaning is self-evident, and most of the variations in the relationships between sounds and letters appear in them. So, it's possible to introduce some of the biggest adjustments children need to make in moving to the new language entirely painlessly, and to introduce writing by having them look away from the board and trace with their finger on their sleeve. They love this, not least because they nearly always get it right.

Download Spanish colours (with sound)

French colours include the eu sound in bleu, the round ou in rouge and au in jaune, silent letters at the end of vert and blanc, soft n with lowered tongue in marron.

Download French colours with sound

Primary Languages Toolkits - invitation to collaborate on small-scale research.

The approach behind the languages toolkits began with collaboration between myself and two Colchester secondary schools in 1990. We simply set out to remove external factors, such as writing that pupils could copy from, and to see whether sentence building helped them to write independently. The results were published as Réflexion Faite (in L'Ecrit en Français Langue Etrangère, Strasbourg UP 1995) and collaborators were listed in the publication. One subsequently became a headteacher.

I am interested in establishing further evidence on three aspects of the toolkits:

1. Using finger tracing as an introduction to writing.

2. Teaching reading, writing, speaking and listening together from the beginning.

3. Developing early understanding of grammatical features of the new language. 

I am of course happy to collaborate with other aspects that might interest people. I have extensive experience in designing, carrying out and evaluating small-scale research of this type, so don't worry if you've not done research before. Modern technology allows us to do the work without expensive grants - or the interference from funders and cliques that sometimes comes with them. If you're interested, please get in touch and we'll consider details.

Note - the Spanish toolkit has been corrected and slightly altered.

Spanish Toolkit, free for primary schools. (Revised 3July13)

This toolkit has been designed to help children make the initial adjustments to their thinking that they need in order to learn Spanish easily and happily. The first lesson begins with the simplest possible content - colours - so that children are free to concentrate without stress on Spanish ways of saying things  - and continues in the same vein to introduced positive and negative sentences and counting. Tracing words with the finger on the sleeve, without copying, introduces writing in a non-threatening and enjoyable way, and prepares children to meet the requirements of the new national curriculum. Schools are invited to use it, and the accompanying ppts, free of charge.

Download Spanish-toolkit-03july13

Note: this usually downloads as a Word file, but some users have had trouble opening it as their provider has compressed it. If you have a problem, please let me know and I will email you the Word file.

Download Spanish weather

Download Spanish colours +

 

The French toolkit is here

Ulearn Chinese offers a compatible approach to Mandarin.

New national curriculum - French toolkit.

The development work for this toolkit in Hackney has contributed to the draft national curriculum for languages, and it is designed to be consistent with it, particularly in the early stages. It is free to use for any non-profit purposes.

As we learn, neural networks form in our brain. These are the physical basis of understanding, working on tiny charges of electricity. All else depends on them, and until this is understood and made the basis of teaching, children will continue to fail. This new evidence - the earliest is under twenty years old - demands revision of any educational theory that is not consistent with it. The main theories that are consistent with it are those of Vygotsky (Thought and Language - the rest of his work needs to be treated on the merits of individual propositions) Bruner (Courteous translation of adult concepts into language that children can understand), Montessori and E D Hirsch - the operations of the brain are severely limited if they have no access to knowledge stored in long-term memory.

This toolkit shows how to build neural networks in the initial stages of learning French. Additional lesson plans up to 20 will be added shortly, with a toolkit for Spanish. Once these principles are established, the root networks will be in place, and teaching can proceed as we choose. 

Download Primary French Toolkit Introduction and Principles. 

Download Primary_french_toolkit 1-6

 

The Spanish Toolkit is here.

Ulearn Chinese offers a compatible approach to Mandarin.

Beginners French Toolkit 2

This link is to the second batch of ten lessons for the  first version of the French Toolkit, which has now been slimmed down to six lessons. It will still work once the first toolkit is understood. It was developed in primary schools, but is equally effective in Y7.  I retain copyright, but you are welcome to download for use in your school. Please don't use these without using lessons  1to 10 first, though, as the sequence has been trialled and is important.

Download Primary French Toolkit11-20

The toolkit uses two stories from Little Tails (Beelingua) - Hackney schools have been provided with these, and you will need them to use the toolkit. I highly recommend them.

It also uses this powerpoint on weather Le temps

And these Clicker grids to teach reading and writing

Download Clicker French 4 weather1

Download Clicker French 4 weather pictures only

Download Clicker French 4 weather text only

Download Clicker French 5 illness

Download Clicker French 5 illness pics only

Download Clicker French 5 illness text only

Download Clicker French 6. J'aime

Download Clicker French 6. J'aime faire