Teach students a foreign language so they can communicate on a global scale.
Modern foreign language (MFL) teaching encourages students to use the language that they are learning in novel contexts. The language that students are learning is referred to as the target language. As an MFL teacher, you should provide engaging activities to get your students using the target language. Students can compete, play games, use study techniques or create their own works to help them learn their target language.
Contests and Games
Students can compete for prizes by completing verb conjugations, vocabulary bingo, crossword puzzles or sentence writing. You can have your students work in groups or individually to compete with the rest of the class. For example, have students work in groups to write sentences in the target language with whatever grammatical elements you are currently learning. You could also have students fill in a bingo grid with vocabulary words and then read the words' definitions in the target language as a way of calling out spaces.
Flash Cards
Flash cards are an effective way of having students study vocabulary words. Students should put each word from their vocabulary list on a flash card. One side of the card should contain the word in the target language; the other side should contain the English translation. You can have your students create new flash cards every unit and compile a comprehensive collection of flash cards by the end of the course.
Picture Captions
Provide students with a cartoon or picture. If you select a cartoon, remove the caption and any text within the cartoon. Ask students to create their own captions for the image. Captions should be relevant to the picture and should be written in the target language. You can collect students' captions and remove their names. Then have students vote on their favorite caption and display the picture with the winning caption somewhere in your classroom.
Journal Entries
Ask students to chronicle their day. You can have students keep a daily journal or ask them to write one entry per week. Writing should be in the target language and should include any recently learned vocabulary.
Weekend Review
At the beginning of each week, ask several students to share what they did over the weekend. Responses should be oral and in the target language. You can have students volunteer to share or assign sharing before the weekend so that students can come to class prepared.
Mnemonic Devices
Create mnemonic devices to help students remember lists of material. Providing verb patterns, acronyms or songs can help students remember larger groups of information.
Authorship
Students who are studying a foreign language at a high level can begin creating their own stories. These stories do not have to be long or complex, but they should give students a chance to experiment with the vocabulary and verb tenses they've learned. For example, have students rewrite a child's fable in the target language. Students could also write a poem or something else that is not too long but focuses on using the target language.
Tags: target language, have students, foreign language, your students, could also
