Creativity in the MFL classroom

PGCE 11-18 MFL December 2010

FEELING ANXIOUS? DON’T PANIC!

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To those who are wary of their own ability to
act or sing in the classroom, the effect is not
necessarily because it is done well, but because
it is done at all.

Steven Fawkes

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 Rationale:
Making use of the creative contexts

Learners need opportunities to

try out their language and to
gauge its effect.

They need empowerment

through confidence to try to do
something different with the
language they know.

They need awareness of a range

of styles from which to select.
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 “

“Yes! How can we use the target language to

make real meanings in the target language,
rather than to talk about the language?”
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To participate at the higher levels of creativity and innovation, there is
a sort of continuum through which learners progress at different rates:

 This may include…. Examples of teaching strategies…

 Being involved provide activities requiring participation

 Responding encourage interaction
 Guessing accept contributions of all sorts
 Personalising allow sink-in and thinking time
 Providing ideas demonstrate the brainstorming process
 Asking questions be open to queries and suggestions
 Experimenting be prepared to join in
 Extrapolating show that redrafting can improve on
initial ideas
 Innovating provide a structure for pupils to work to

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 The judicious use of songs,
games and drama activities
…may provide some of these
opportunities by demonstrating:

That a limited amount of

language can make a big
effect if framed properly

That the little bit of language

learnt can be used creatively,
in more than one way and
more than one context
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 Drama in the classroom

Drama has a great deal

to offer language
teachers.

Both Drama and MFL

want learners to be…

and to be able to
develop and transfer….

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 Drama encourages pupil talk

The emphasis on completing the

task in hand distracts the learner
from the language and focuses
their attention firmly on this task
i.e. they stop worrying ‘Help,
she’s going to ask me to say
something in French’ because
what they want to do is
participate in the activity.

Drama is a way of building

confidence and often succeeds
where other methods have failed.
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Use of Drama across the ability range

A context for language acquisition

and a reason to use the target
language in a meaningful way.

‘Movement and mime’ activities

serve as a kind of camouflage for
students who lack confidence in
oral work allowing them to join in
with the rest of the class – lots of
the activities we’ll look at require
students to listen to TL and respond
in some way other than speech

Not only can the least confident

learners achieve something
worthwhile in the language class,
they may also actually enjoy the
experience.
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 But can I do it?

You don’t have to be an

energetic extrovert.

Drama is a way of thinking

about teaching and learning.

Think of yourself as a teacher

of something through
languages – a teacher of
people, not a teacher of
nouns, verbs, etc
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Techniques and Levels: Structured Drama

Once you’ve
mastered a few basic
structures, you’ll be
able to use them in a
variety of ways and
with a whole variety
of structures.

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 Techniques and levels: structured Drama

 The circle where everyone remains seated:-

 Circle memory game: vocab, grammar, etc

 Pass the Parcel

 The circle where people move in order to

find a seat:-

 Fruit salad
 Adjectives/ adverbs, etc.

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The ‘Paul Jones’ double circle
Inner circle facing out, outer circle facing in – same
number in each.
Give task to all, then instruct one group to move to left.

You might use this to...

practise basic structures,
cover a variety of topics,
give more challenging topics,
include movement,
use it for mime,
use it for mime and talk,
use it with cue cards.

You might use it with KS2 , KS3, KS4, KS5

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 Movement

Easier than mime!

Don’t assume that your class will know how to move

around safely or sensibly!

Students must be taught how to move around the

classroom in a safe and sensible manner.

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Here are some examples:

Simon says...
Bring me something red
Bring me something I can use to...
Birthday line...
Commands...
Moving furniture i.e. ‘make your area of the
classroom into a train compartment / a room in a
house’
Team games

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 Mime

 This may seem daunting, but you

can build up from simple activities
to more demanding ones.

 Get help from drama teacher.

 Don’t assume that mime activity means no TL production from

students. While it’s an excellent vehicle for ‘listen and do’
activities, students can also be asked to respond orally, as in
‘miming & guessing’ games.

Examples to follow on next slide....

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Mime.....
 Listen and do games:
 Form shape of 2 digit number/ letter of alphabet
 Mime sports
 Do things in slow motion
 Mime story told by teacher
 Group mimes (good for ‘read and do’ as well as
‘listen and do’)
 Mime and guessing ‘in the manner of’
 Lost voice
 Statues/ freeze frame

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Simulations, improvisations & creative role play

 Vast difference between role play as envisaged

by exam boards & text books and the way in
which drama teachers use this activity.

 Purpose behind the following activities is not to

practise particular structures, vocabulary or
topics.

 It is to create a situation in which participants

use language in a natural manner, as they would
in mother tongue discourse.
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Developing a scenario for the TL (Key Stage 4)

30 students of mixed ability

Asked to think of a sentence that in itself
summed up an entire situation.
Someone chose ‘passez-moi le scalpel’

Interaction with members of the class was as

follows (see next slide): 20
 Case study
Teacher: C’est où?
Student: A l’hôpital.
Teacher: C’est qui?
Student: Le docteur.
Teacher: Plutôt chirurgien- et qu’est-ce qu’il fait?
Student: Une opération.
Teacher: Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?
Student: Il y a eu un accident!

Other groups had similar fairly rapid exchanges to

establish what they had chosen.
Groups then made freeze frame to illustrate their
chosen sentence.

Other class members speculated on the situation.

‘Victime’ was hazarded correctly, ‘infirmière’ was
given in response to question in TL.

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 Case study continued

Next step was to look at how victim had ended up on operating

table.
‘il s’est fait écrasé?’ from the teacher introduced a new construction
which proved useful for a later expansion of the scenario.

Groups moved back in time from their individual freeze frames.

Subsequent lessons developed scenario, involving policeman at

accident scene, victim’s family, etc.

Whole drama then became the meat of an improvised news bulletin

which was ‘run’ in the course of a lesson, involving interviews,
reports, etc all filmed on camcorder.

Not easy to manage… BUT…no-one was idle or bored and all of them
were operating in French throughout.
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Developing creative role play from a stimulus (KS5)

You can use almost anything, e.g. concrete objects, a

picture, sound effects, etc. These can spark off phone calls,
paired role pays, group improvisations, storytelling, mime,
acting out, etc.

Year 12 students of good ability who have just read ‘Ein

Anruf von Sebastian ’ which deals with relationships both
within family & between boy and girl.

Book ends on decision by the girl to phone Sebastian

some 18 months after they split up.

Students worked in pairs improvising the conversation

between Sabine & Sebastian, whose characters they already
knew well.

From this to their next meeting the pairs stayed in role.

Each pair envisaged their own ‘ending’, happy or otherwise,
which they subsequently wrote up as a final chapter of the
book.

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 How do I get started?
Ask drama colleagues for help and advice.

Take part in some team teaching.

Choose a class you already feel comfortable with –

nothing succeeds like success!

Begin a normal lesson with a short ‘warm-up’ exercise.

Always stop an activity while the pupils are still enjoying

it and asking for more.

Teach your pupils to organise your classroom and how to

move around in an acceptable manner.

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 Getting started with song

◦Helpful to develop confidence and familiarity

through more steady progression.

◦May start with:

◦Listening for key words, to match them with a list
◦Listening in order to fill gaps in the text
◦Listening in order to match the song to a multi-
choice list of possible titles

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 Getting started (continued)
 Gradually the distinctive nature of the song-text can be
developed:

 Listening in order to review a song, maybe by giving it a score

out of 10 and a comment

 Listening in order to identify and then supply words which

rhyme at the ends of lines

 Listening in order to identify and repeat the stress of a

particular phrase

 Listening to pick out a particular group of words, for

pronunciation training

 Listening in order to join in

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When might I use songs?

For presentation
For practice or consolidation
For revision
For relaxation
For an injection of pace
To focus energy

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What can I do with songs?

Illustrate how rules of pronunciation work and

how they can be stretched sometimes
Fix bits of language through the musical
auditory route
Develop purposeful, accurate copywriting skills
Underline selected structures
Encourage learning by heart
Encourage participation in whole class, groups
and pairs, through actions and through
individual creation

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What can the class do with
songs?
Listen (for what might be a perverse sort of) pleasure!
Offer opinions
Get used to the rhythm of the language
Listen & respond in different ways
Listen and repeat
Perform and earn some applause
Listen for a specific purpose
Play around with words
Predict according to rhymes or syllable count
Extend or invent

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Authentic songs from TL country
What counts as a song?
Where do you get them from?

Children’s songs, traditional songs – Twin schools,

friends & family

Songs in digital format & soundfiles. Clips of songs and

samples – internet

Songs from radio, adverts, theme tunes, raps - TL radio

and television

Songs from cds/ tapes – scavenging

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 Authentic songs
 The question ‘will the class like the song?’
should be broadened to take in:

 Will it get a reaction from them?

 Will it illustrate something about the TL

culture?

 Is there part of it that has something

specific to offer?

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 A FINAL THOUGHT....

As language teachers we are the

most fortunate of teachers- all
subjects are ours. Whatever the
children want to communicate
about, whatever they want to
read about, is our subject matter.
(Rivers 1972:68)

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