Collaborative Grammar Teaching in English and MFL

Sarah CampbellMFL teacher

UKLO CommitteeLAGB Education Committee

Overview

• A brief history• Challenges• Current good practice• A way forward….

1960s

• Little notice given to potential benefits of collaborative

grammar teaching, due in part due to the differing aims

of and methods used in English and MFL.

• Attempts at collaboration were rare, and usually

initiated by MFL teachers.

• English teachers viewed this as their MFL colleagues

shirking responsibility!

1970s

• Academic feeling beginning to shift.

• 1972 Council of Europe conference in Helsinki.

• 1974 CILT conference, ‘The space between’, drew tentative

conclusion that there was a place for collaborative teaching

and a ‘common model’ for grammar teaching.

• Resourcing, training, timetabling raised as important issues.

• Linguistics described as an ‘interdisciplinary bridge’

1990s

• 1999 CILT and QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) funded school

based projects designed to work ‘across the space between’

• National Literacy Strategy provided a springboard for renewed work in the

area

• Collaborative planning, mutual observation, sharing best practice were key

for teachers

• Most projects involved used of common methodologies and terminologies to

extend and develop pupils’ writing

• Many invoked pupils’ knowledge of English to support MFL, but one drew on

MFL grammar knowledge to develop understanding in English.

Today?

• Previous projects were valuable, but impact remained short term.

• Common stumbling blocks appear time and again:

– Timetabling

– Lack of training

– Over dependence on an individual

• Other issues potentially affecting long term success include:

– Pupils’ attitudes

– Grammar’s ‘bad reputation’

– Pupils not seeing relevance

Why try again?

• New National Curriculum for Languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

– understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources

– speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating

what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually

improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation

– can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of

grammatical structures that they have learnt

– discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied

• Statutory Key Stage 2 Languages from September 2014

• Increased interest in global education

Current good practice

• Porter Croft Primary School, South Yorkshire

• Winners of 2013 EU Language Label Award

• “…creation and delivery of…modules that mirror and

reinforce the English learning objectives for grammar

and genres within weekly MFL lessons for the mutual

benefit of teaching and learning in both languages”

• “Transformational” effect for the school

Where next?

• Network of educators and academics driving a renewed

push?

• Criteria for success?

– Senior Leadership support

– Time, support and resources

– Timetable flexibility

– Sustainability

– Recognition of wider benefits