Tips for Language Assistants for creating materials and using online resources.

1. PRODUCING LISTENING MATERIALS
FOR KS4 & 5
WORKSHOP
Using flipcams
Audacity
Phones & tablets
In order to
create resources for pupils
and stimulate speaking
JON MEIER

2. Musical
pass the
questions
bag
3 minutes – think about your
experience with GCSE and A-Level
pupils so far
What are the main areas of
difficulty that English pupils
encounter when trying to speak the
language?
What would they find difficult
when listening to the language?

3. Wheeldecide.com
Make a selector wheel
Pupil name selector
Topic selector
Word selector
Put word in a sentence
Put word into a different tense
Or play for fun:
What should we eat tonight?
Which drink?
Which film?
Which take-away?
Where should we go on
holiday?

4. Fakebook
You could do a
page for
A famous
person
Historical figure
Sportsman
footballer
A town
A region
A brand – e.g.
Peugeot
Renault
Audi
Lamborghini
Camembert
You can find this on:
La Croix Rouge
MSF
www.classtools.net

5. Fake Tweet
You could do a
tweet for
A famous
person
Historical figure
Sportsman
footballer
A town
A region
A brand – e.g.
Peugeot
Renault
Audi
Lamborghini
Camembert
You can find this on:
La Croix Rouge
MSF
www.classtools.net

6. Audioboo Audiopal
Vokaroo
Quick record audio message creator
Audioboo Example

7. AVOCADO
Adjectives (+ qualifiers & intensifiers)
Verbs
(Variety, tenses)
Opinions & Justification
Connectives(conjunctions)
Adverbs
(time expressions, frequency & sequencing)
Descriptions(adj endings/ agreement,
SACLAD -size, appearance, character, likes,
Originality & Interest
activities, dislikes)

8. 6Ws
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who (with whom)
What
Where
When
Why
What is it like / what was it like/ how was it?

9. travel, transport,
travel, transport,
holidays, weather, local
holidays, weather, local
customs, abroad vs UK,
customs, abroad vs UK,
school trips
school trips
accommodation
accommodation
house, home, daily
house, home, daily
routine, bedroom,
routine, bedroom,
helping at home
helping at home
family and pets
family and pets
GCSE Topic Areas
GCSE Topic Areas
famous people
famous people
––my hero
my hero
Specific vocabulary
Specific vocabulary
transferable grammar and phrases
transferable grammar and phrases
++visual support
visual support
school, education,
school, education,
part time jobs, future
part time jobs, future
training and jobs
training and jobs
leisure: sports,
leisure: sports,
healthy lifestyles,
healthy lifestyles,
fitness, food and drink
fitness, food and drink
town, local area,
town, local area,
environment,
environment,
shops &
shops &
shopping,
shopping,
pocket money
pocket money
leisure & hobbies (non
leisure & hobbies (non
sport): media
sport): media
interests: music,
interests: music,
gaming, reading, film,
gaming, reading, film,
TV, cinema, mobile
TV, cinema, mobile
phones, Facebook
phones, Facebook

10. Youth culture and
Youth culture and
concerns
concerns
Relationships
Relationships
(family/friendships and
(family/friendships and
peer pressure)
peer pressure)
Drink, smoking & drugs
Drink, smoking & drugs
Fashion
Fashion
Marriage & the family
Marriage & the family
Generation gap
Generation gap
Media & Technology
Media & Technology
Music
Music
blogs/mobile
blogs/mobile
phones/internet/gam
phones/internet/gam
es)
es)
Cinema & TV
Cinema & TV
Advertising
Advertising
Typical A-Level
Typical A-Level
Topic Areas
Topic Areas
Specific vocabulary
Specific vocabulary
transferable grammar and
transferable grammar and
phrases
phrases
Lifestyle: health and
Lifestyle: health and
fitness
fitness
Sport and exercise
Sport and exercise
Food and diet
Food and diet
Health issues (eg
Health issues (eg
smoking, skin cancer,
smoking, skin cancer,
health services)
health services)
Cultural comparisons with UK
Cultural comparisons with UK
++visual support
visual support
The world around us:
The world around us:
travel, tourism,
travel, tourism,
environmental issues
environmental issues
and the (French)and the (French)speaking world
speaking world
Tourist information,
Tourist information,
travel and transport
travel and transport
Weather (eg natural
Weather (eg natural
disasters, climate
disasters, climate
change)
change)
Pollution and recycling
Pollution and recycling
Education and
Education and
employment
employment
Education (schooling
Education (schooling
and higher education)
and higher education)
Education policy and
Education policy and
student issues
student issues
The world of work (eg
The world of work (eg
the changing work
the changing work
scene,
scene,
job opportunities
job opportunities
and unemployment)
and unemployment)

11. Social issues
Social issues
Wealth & poverty,
Wealth & poverty,
law and order,
law and order,
technology and
technology and
innovation
innovation
Environment
Environment
Pollution, energy,
Pollution, energy,
ecology
ecology
Typical A2-Level
Typical A2-Level
Topic Areas
Topic Areas
Develop the previous ones in
Develop the previous ones in
more depth
more depth
PLUS……
PLUS……
Multicultural issues
Multicultural issues
Immigration,
Immigration,
integration, racism
integration, racism
World events
World events
Europe
Europe
Human rights,
Human rights,
Equality (gender, race)
Equality (gender, race)
Cultural topic
Cultural topic
Region/
Region/
community
community
Period of 20thC history
Period of 20thC history
Author, poet,
Author, poet,
dramatist, Director,
dramatist, Director,
musician, artist
musician, artist

12. GCSE Listening Common Question types
Vocab match – common synonyms
Gap-fill
Who says what
Notes on advantages & disadvantages
Inference of meaning (synonyms & gist comprehension)
Comprehension answers in English

13. Example of a GCSE Listening Task

14. A2 French Listening Sample
(AQA 2010)
Transcript is on next slide
Transcript is on next slide

15. Sample A2 Listening (AQA)

16. Resources to look at – mainly for good year 11 and A-Level
Euronews
Yahoo- France – insolite
http://1jour1actu.com/
Ashcombe school – video clips:
http://www.ashcombe.surrey.sch.uk/curriculum/modlang/index_students.htm
Nachrichten für Kinder http://news4kids.de/
Sowieso.de http://www.sowieso.de/portal/
Youtube learning
The power of video – look at this Chinese lesson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeCWK6yy914&feature=related
Handouts –
useful tips

17. 3 minutes – think about your
experience with GCSE and A-Level
pupils so far
How could you design listening
tasks to help them?

18. Audacity – on most school netwworks : audio recording and conversion to mp3
Fotobabble –upload a photo and add your own audio e.g:
http://verulamvle.typepad.com/y8german/2011/01/fotobabbles.html
Zshare & Soundcloud offer audio file hosting
VIDEO
Upload your videos to Youtube or Vimeo
The following also let you use Greenscreen (Chroma Key) :
Final Cut/ Premiere Pro
Pinnacle Studio (PC)
I Can Present (Mac)
SMARTPHONE & MOBILE DEVICES
Look for: voice recorders & voice distorters
Green screen apps
Morfo
Fotospeak
Puppet pals
Sock Puppets
Talking Tom

19. Using authentic resources

20. Using authentic resources 2

22. http://www.lyricsgaps.com/
http://www.lyricstraining.com/
http://www.lyricsgaps.com/exerci
ses/view/6145/Intermediate
You can use
the tab key on
lyrics training
to get the
answer

23. A Voki message
http://verulamvle.typepad.com/mflteaching/

24. EITHER
CHOICE OF 3 TASKS
aim at either KS4 or
KS5
A) Record a lively, entertaining interview full of relevant
language (add visuals / use greenscreen if you feel brave)
OR
B) Find a website of a school/town (maybe one you know)
Write a video tour or interview with quiz questions based
on the webpage
OR
C) Write & record your own text + questions – make it fun
challenging and relevant. The questions should also be
recorded & should help comprehension