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Taught By Song
provide innovative and motivating French
teaching material and
learning aids for children.
Both specialist
and non-specialist teachers can design
fabulous French language lessons around
the music written by John and Monica Hyde
for the software programme Zim Zam Zoum,
which uses Macromedia Flash technology
(animation) for the interactive
whiteboard or home computer.
Each of the
animated songs in the Zim Zam Zoum
programme has vocabulary themes
appropriate to level (e.g. for beginners:
greetings, numbers, colours, calendar,
introducing yourself, talking about your
pets, family, birthday; for continuers:
giving opinions, saying what activities
you like and don’t like, using
verbs and the alphabet and much, much
more. )
There is much
repetition of target vocabulary as well
as structure, dependent clauses, etc. in
patterned verses and refrains. This
ensures that the children really are
taught by song. The songs imprint the
structure on the memory and it is a great
jumping off point for the writing or
saying of patterned or parallel
sentences, with vocabulary
substitution.
The songs cover a
wide range of styles from upbeat to jazz,
to rap, traditional and even folk. It is
proven that young people who listen
almost only to non-melodic music such as
rap respond positively to melodic music
as well and it is a wonderful opportunity
to reinforce art and music in school.
This makes teaching French fun and
stimulating at all levels, but especially
in primary schools, where the enthusiasm
for using these materials has gone beyond
all expectation !
Here is a summary
of the benefits of using tuneful songs to
teach the French language:
•
Presenting the target language through
melodic music expands yet further the
learning
arena you are providing for your students
(catering for the aural-musical
intelligence).
• Probably,
nothing imprints linguistic patterns
better than words set to memorable
music.
Because of the unique impact of melodic
music, pupils will keep grammatical
structures and vocabulary for the rest of
their lives (Teachers have commented how
just listening to and joining in with the
title song, ZIM ZAM ZOUM, has taught
their pupils effortlessly about gender
agreement).
•
Pupils’ inherently positive
response to upbeat, melodic music makes
them engaged in the activity and
motivated to learn and assimilate.
• A
correlation between music and improved
academic performance has been shown to
exist. The currently debated question
about the so-called “Mozart
effect” deals only with the passive
listening to music while studying or
taking exams, which has nothing to do
with the active learning of language
through the lyrics of melodious music.
Music is mathematical by nature, whose
“terrain” provides a fertile
place for language learning to take hold
and develop.
The multiple
intelligences of Howard Gardner are
addressed when teaching language through
music with the correct accompanying
exercises:
o Kinesthetic
(dance, clapping, stomping, body
movement, percussion)
o Musical
(listening, singing, playing,
distinguishing)
o Linguistic
(interpreting lyrics while listening or
through exercises)
o
Logical/mathematical (music is maths)
o Social (choral,
dance, co-operative learning with the
exercises)
o Visual
(illustrations, animations,
dramatisations, )
The ZIM ZAM ZOUM
animated songs, rich in visual imagery
and lending themselves
to dance, invite kinesthetic movement and
dramatic interpretation. The lyrics
invite use of
logical and linguistic skills to
interpret clues and work out meaning.
Activities are done in
co-operative learning groups, thus
promoting classroom cohesion.
Everybody loves
music….
and ZIM ZAM ZOUM from Taught By Song has
it in spades !
The creative team
of teachers, composers, graphic artists
and animators at Taught By Song have
married together a winning combination of
catchy and tuneful music, with instantly
useable French dialogue and charming
animations of colourful characters, with
whom the children clearly engage. The
resulting software is a practical mix of
song, animation, interactive exercises
and fun activity sheets which together
render highly effective teaching
materials for language lessons in the
Primary classroom.
It makes sense to
give pupils every possible memory aid and
visual/aural hook for their
learning. So, musical arts are a rich
resource when you are teaching French
(particularly in Primary schools) and Zim
Zam Zoum from Taught By Song is at the
forefront of this teaching
methodology.
Music making
means much more than playing music or
listening to it. Music is an essential
part of human life, biologically as much
as aesthetically. There is compelling
evidence to support the notion that
involvement in musical arts positively
and, significantly benefits learners for
the rest of their lives. The diversity
and quality of supporting research is
overwhelming.
Music is part of
our biological heritage and is present in
our genes as a survival strategy.
It is likely that the use of music may
have increased the chance of survival in
the evolution of specie. Music is
depicted on cave paintings going back
70,000 years. Flutes found in France date
back as far as 30,000 years. Music,
whether vocalized or played by an
individual or sung as a social chorus (
viz birds, whales, apes etc) may have
been used to attract a mate. It is
possible animals are attracted to those
producing louder, better or more pleasing
sounds. In addition, music is often used
for intra-group communication that
preserves group safety and
identification. It is also likely that
robust vocalization improves warning of
pending threat or environmental changes.
It is worth noting here that, when
native-Australians covered vast stretches
of wilderness on foot, they used singing
maps passed down from their ancestors to
find their way. The songs described what
land features to look for in a barren
setting and helped soothe fears of the
unknown.
Music is a
socially cohesive force among those
playing it or listening to it. Music may
also
contribute to changes in the brain (that
is verbal memory, counting and
self-discipline),
which over the years may have improved
survival. In addition, making music
probably
strengthened listening skills, so
essential when hunting game or escaping
enemies. In fact, the human brain has
specialized structures for music: for
instance cells in the mammalian auditory
cortex have been found that process
specific harmonic relationships. The
rhythmic, temporal qualities link to a
specific group of neurons in the auditory
cortex.
The experienced
teachers in the team that has created Zim
Zam Zoum have researched
findings that music heightens
understanding. Music making contributes
to developing
essential cognitive systems that include
reasoning, creativity, thinking,
decision-making
and problem solving. It does this by
activating and synchronizing neural
firing patterns
that orchestrate and connect multiple
brain sites. The key cell of the brain is
the neuron.
In essence, neurons are switches.
Thinking and learning is like throwing a
great number
of switches to one state or another. The
number of neurons could be as high as 33
billion,
but no one knows for sure. The main point
is the number of neurons we are dealing
with
is staggeringly large. The possible
pathways between these networking neurons
could
soar up into the trillions. In many
people, the left hemisphere of the
cerebrum is concerned with language and
the right hemisphere concerns itself with
recognising visual and rhythmical
patterns. Nevertheless, this does not
mean the division is complete. The main
connection between the halves is a bridge
called the "corpus callosum," which
consists of 200 million or more nerve
fibres. They carry information both ways.
Therefore, the brain acts as an elaborate
system of interconnected parts and works
by simultaneously going down many
paths.
The neural
synchrony ensembles increase both the
brain's efficiency and effectiveness.
These key systems are well connected and
found in the frontal, parietal, and
temporal lobes as well as the cerebellum.
The strongest studies support the value
of music making in spatial reasoning,
creativity and generalized mathematical
skills. The activation between family
groups of cortical neurons helps the
cortex in pattern recognition.
A Russian study
suggests that listening to music just an
hour a day does change brain
reorganization. The experimental music
group of four-year olds listened to
classical music for one hour a day. When
later measured, their EEG read-outs
showed greater brain coherence.
This body of data hints that music does
influence not just brain activity, but
coherence,
making more of the brain active and
acting as a whole, not in just random
electrical
discharges. Therefore, one way that
"whole" brain electrical activity shows
is in our
chemical response - As music influences
stress levels, social feelings,
self-concept, activity levels and the
reward system, we can only look to refine
the ways we use it prudently inour
schools. Taught By Song harnesses the
results of this research to bring
effective materials for teaching children
French.
Music may be the
foundation for later maths and science
excellence. In Japan, students
get a minimum of two courses per week in
music making. In Hungary, students get
three
classes a week or, if they enrol in the
music magnet schools, they get it every
day.
In the Netherlands, music and other arts
became compulsory in 1968. Today,
students
are assigned comprehensive art projects
to complete before graduation.
Based on the
evidence gathered so far, it is both
reasonable and prudent that music should
be a significant part of every child's
education. It is therefore ethically,
scientifically and culturally important
that all children get exposure to music
as an equal to every other discipline.
There is also support for the policy of
starting children early in their music
education, as the effects are greater in
the early years. Positive impact
increases with each additional year.
Taught By Song,
with their imaginative use of Promethean
Activprimary software
for Interactive whiteboards, are at the
forefront of current teaching trends,
using
all the benefits of modern technology to
bring a very new and ground-breaking
teacher resource – ZIM ZAM ZOUM
– into the Primary French teaching
forum.
The first thing
to realise about interactive teaching is
that it is not a new idea or
something
strange to be mistrusted. Nor is it a
flash-in-the-pan teaching fad ! One look
at the fun
songs and exercises included in the
software of Taught By Song’s Zim
Zam Zoum shows
just how much interactive teaching
increases the potential of children in
the classroom.
If you are a teacher and you ask
questions in class, give and mark
homework, or hold class or group
discussions, then you already teach
interactively. Interactive teaching at
its
simplest is just giving students
something to do, getting back what they
have done, and then assimilating it
yourself to inform your lesson planning
and help you decide what would be best to
do next. Even more interactively engaging
are the songs, games and fun exercises
that Zim Zam Zoum brings to the
interactive whiteboard in the already
interactive classroom and there is no
better method of capturing the attention
and motivation of primary children
engaged in learning a foreign language
like French!
Yet, almost all
teachers already do these things and so
is there more to it?
To answer this
question, one has to first consider not
how we teach, but how we learn.
Over the last twenty years, the field of
cognitive science has taught us a lot
about how people learn. A central
principle, generally accepted, is that
everything we learn, we "build" for
ourselves. That is, any outside agent is
essentially powerless to have a direct
effect on what we learn. If our brain
does not do it itself, - that is, take in
information, look for connections,
interpret and make sense of it, - no
outside force will have any effect. This
does not mean the effort has to be
expressly voluntary and conscious on our
parts. Our brains take-in information and
work continuously on many kinds of
levels, only some of which are
consciously directed. However, conscious
or not, the important thing to understand
is that it is our brains that are doing
the learning, and that this process is
only indirectly related to the teacher
and the teaching.
For example, even
the most precise and scintillating
exposition of a subject by a teacher in a
lecture, may only result in limited
learning if the students' brains do not
do the necessary work to process it. This
is why the term ‘engaging’ is
so vital in the teaching process. There
are several possible causes why students'
learning may fall short of expectations
in such a situation. They may:
* Not understand
an important concept part-way in a lesson
and so what follows is
unintelligible
* Be missing
prior information or not have a good
understanding of what went before,
so the conceptual structures on which the
lecture is based are absent
* Lack the
interest, motivation or need to use the
mental effort, to follow the
presentation,
understand the arguments, make sense of
the positions and validate the
inferences.
Many of these
problems are addressed when a class is
taught by song !! Learning is
hard work, and an injection of motivation
at the right moment can make all the
difference.
One motivating reason provided by the
interactive teacher is wanting a response
to a live
classroom task. This serves to jolt the
student into action, to get his brain off
the couch.
More subtle and pleasant events follow
immediately capitalising on the momentum
created by this initial burst. One of
these is a result of our human social
tendencies. When teachers ask students to
work together in small groups to solve a
problem, a discussion results that not
only serves in itself to build more
robust knowledge structures, but also to
motivate. To expect immediate feedback in
the form of reaction from their peers, or
from the teacher is a strong motivator.
If it is not embarrassing or threatening,
students want to know desperately whether
their understanding is progressing or
just drifting aimlessly in idea space.
Knowing that they are not allowed to
drift too far off track provides
tremendous energy to continue. Learning a
foreign language benefits from this
interactivity, the childrencan see and
hear the lyrics to the songs and then
sing along themselves to the karaoke
versions. They can work co-operatively to
deduce the meaning of unfamiliar
sentences, benefiting from the combined
and different thinking processes of a
group to reach the correct translation.
Moreover, the hugely engaging Promethean
interactive tools such as drag and drop,
recolouring, changing size, re-assembling
broken language components, matching
gender or verb agreements etc. all
provide highly stimulating and formative
learning games.
The motivational
component of software such as Zim Zam
Zoum therefore cannot be
underestimated, together with the
sub-conscious assimilation of patterns
and structures
that are remembered effortlessly to act
as foundational and conceptual building
blocks
for future learning.
Let’s
summarise the reasons for interactive
teaching:
It is an attempt
to see what exists in the brains of your
pupils. This is the "summative" part.
It is the easiest aspect to gauge and
well covered in pedagogical literature.
However, it is
certainly not the only perspective. The
second reason is "formative", where the
teacher aims through the assigned task to
direct students' mental processing along
a creative and logical path. The idea is
that, as students think through the
concepts encountered along the path, the
resulting mental construction developed
in the pupil's head will have those
properties the teacher is trying to get
across. This is something directly
addressed by Monica Hyde in the exercises
on language learning strategies, as well
as the simple vocabulary assimilation
games which make up the interactive
software package that accompanies the Zim
Zam Zoum animated songs. With this
teaching resource, the children have
demands made on them—and they will
respond accordingly! Monica Hyde has
devised a huge number of exercises to
help guide both teacher and pupil through
all the aspects raised by the songs
themselves. A song about sweets and
sharing them enables the children to have
fun while learning how to count in
French. Beyond this, the animated song of
‘Les Vingt Bonbons’ contains
all sorts of other rich areas of
learning
for young children, to do with personal
and social education, emotional
intelligence, sequencing and
story-telling. The charming animations by
Laurent Mouflier, will be watched over
and again because of the bright colours
and humour radiating through song
stories. When use in the classroom the
children have loved the interactive
nature of the songs and the way that with
the Promethean interactive software they
can take part thoroughly in the learning
process.
Importantly,
also, the ZIM ZAM ZOUM songs are sung in
French by native French children
and, being natural mimics at an early
age, pupils assimilate effortlessly
a perfect French accent !
Taught By Song -
Innovative teaching materials for
children learning French.Learning
through ‘music’, being
‘taught by song’, starts in
the cradle !
The use of
primary noises is important to babies and
children learn to sing before they speak.
A baby first ‘talks’ with a
musical series of coos that communicate
hunger, fear, discomfort or pleasure.
Further, the mother can often tell the
child’s need based on pitch. This
shows the role played by communicative
musicality in language learning. The
instinctive musical arrangements of
spontaneous vocal sounds are obvious in
babies as they advance from cooing to
babbling. The infant learns quickly that
his needs are met because of sound making
(motivation !). Healthy babies compose
melodious structures of rising and
descending pitch using the full vocal
range available to them from the moment
they are born.
Music is a
three-dimensional learning tool. Songs
are not only words on paper and notes
on a stave. Music sends a message and the
message is often clearer at a younger age
!
The use of music in first language
acquisition is a key aspect of a
child’s development and research
has demonstrated that music trains the
brain for higher forms of thinking.
It is useful here
to consider an adaptation from
Krashen’s Hypothesis. There are
several
features of Krashen relevant to music and
language. Three of the most accepted
parts
are the affective filter, the monitor
model and natural input.
The affective
filter hypothesis states that ideal
learning occurs in an environment of
high
stimulation and low anxiety. According to
the theory, the emotional state of the
learner acts as a filter. Krashen sees
the learner’s emotional state as an
adjustable filter that may pass or impede
input needed for acquisition. Using music
in the class can result in a more relaxed
learning environment, and improves both
the emotional state and the affective
filters of the students. In a relaxed
"alpha" state of awareness, the mind is
able to absorb and assimilate information
much more readily and quickly than in the
more normal "beta" state. The primary
reasons that influence and moderate
brainwave patterns are sound, especially
music, and vibration patterns, especially
rhythm or beats. Millions of neurons are
activated in a single musical experience.
It is through the activation of these
neural connections that learning takes
place - The more neurons that can be
connected, the greater the learning
potential. Taught By Song recommend the
use of music as a classroom tool to
unlock the doors to other content. Music
is a way to use a multisensory approach
to learning that can enable students to
absorb content with a relaxing and
creative vehicle as a catalyst.
Another aspect of
Krashen’s theory is the monitor
model. In describing this model, he
claimed that second language learners
have two means for internalizing the
target language. The first is
acquisition, an intuitive process of
forming the system of language. The
second is a conscious process in which
students pay close attention to form and
rules and are clearly aware of the
learning process.
During
acquisition, the input language students
receive should be just beyond their
understanding. This is called the
“I-plus-one” formula. In
other words, language learners
are exposed to their own competency
“plus one,” or just a bit
more of the next level.
Song lyrics often
work this way because students will pick
up the chorus much sooner
than the verses of a song. The chorus is
a hook to the plus-one feature of many
parts
of the verses. Students learn the chorus
and then use it to learn the rest of the
lyrics.
A third aspect of
Krashen’s theory is defined as
natural input. Given that each side of
the
brain represents different styles of
learning, natural input is achieved
differently by each
individual learner. There are a few
general conclusions about the functions
of left and right brain learning that
help relate to music.With cultural
diversity and learning styles, clearly
some cultures are more right brain
dominant than others are. Among the
features of the right brain, dominant
personalities are preferences to
drawings, freedom in expressing emotions
and use of metaphors. Right brain people
respond well to pictured instructions and
rely heavily on images in thinking or
remembering.
The left-brain
dominant individual is defined as being
more verbally oriented and objective.
They rely on language in thinking and are
analytical in their reading. The
left-brain learner rarely uses metaphor.
Music uses both brain hemispheres.
Emotion and language are one in a
song.
When coupled with
a visual image, music can become a
powerful learning tool, whilst
adding rhythm and melody to chunks of
language invites rehearsal and transfers
words
into the long-term memory. Repetition,
pronunciation and hand motions combined
with a
good-natured attitude can be very
effective with language learning. Speech
without music
leads to language without heart. Language
and music tie themselves together in
brain processing by pitch, rhythm and by
symmetrical phrasing. Music can help
familiarize students with connections and
therefore provides a fun way to learn
French.
Taught By Song -
Making French lessons fun for young
children !
"What is
important when teaching children French
in primary schools ?"
– This is a question that is often
put by teachers and educationalists.
Music and rhythm
can grip you—stay with you for the
rest of your life! A song sticks in
your head all day, and you simply cannot
get rid of it. What is it about the power
of music
that takes hold of your whole being and
your mood so it can create an intensely
emotional experience? Music can surround
you and make you a different person and
it can make you feel energetic and
motivated. Is there any way to unleash
this power in the classroom to energize
and motivate students? Can music possibly
be used for instructional purposes in a
foreign language classroom to help
students in picking up the large range of
new vocabulary needed in a year of
language learning?
All teachers know
this can be done—and often the
younger the children the better. Games
can reinforce and improve verbal ability
and a myriad of physical response
sessions to enable students to pick up
the vocabulary and grammar concepts
expected of them. We only need to think
about music, then how younger children
memorise songs and finger play in nursery
school so effortlessly. The songs are
"stuck" there in their heads and the
songs remain with the children. Music can
coordinate and enliven so much of what
teachers are trying to do. Teenagers and
younger children love music - they listen
to it constantly!
Music can
be alive with colourful idioms, grammar
and vocabulary. This present-day music
approach to teaching French is
encapsulated in Zim Zam Zoum’s
original songs composed and orchestrated
by John and Monica Hyde. The tunes are
very catchy and represent the kinds of
music to which students listen, in styles
with which they are already familiar. In
the programme Zim Zam Zoum, Monica Hyde
has created comprehension, speaking and
writing activities that complement the
songs. Thus, singing the songs and
memorizing them is only part of the
programme. Because the Zim Zam Zoum
software systematically builds a scheme
of work based on songs, the students can
learn and remember fundamentals of French
grammar and vocabulary in a fun way, as
well as leaping effortlessly into
authentic dialogue from the songs’
spring-board. Music is an effective
memory aid, and since it is something
students enjoy anyway, it helps them
relax and become more receptive to
language learning. Taught By Song
understand that music combines
the creative,
non-verbal and emotional processes
carried out by the right hemispher e of
the brain with the specific verbal and
logic-based learning carried out by the
left hemisphere.
Reactions to the
songs have been incredible. Primary
school students in the Oxfordshire,
Essex and Berkshire areas where Zim Zam
Zoum has been tested, could be heard
singing the songs in the playground and
parents reported how their children had
come home and eagerly taught them to all
the family ! We have found that because
some of the children have taught the
songs to their younger siblings, when
they join the schools they already know
the songs better than the traditional
‘Frère Jacques’ as
though it was part of their musical
heritage! One teacher told us that her
pupils would work like Trojans all
through the lesson, the reward being the
chance to sing ZIM ZAM ZOUM at the end.
They were not content to sing it once:
they had to sing it several times to
allow all who wanted
a turn in taking the solo lines.
School runs are
valuable learning time and the Zim Zam
Zoum package can be bought
as a separate CD to enable families to
sing and learn from the songs when in the
car,
on holiday or in the home.
We think, with
our experience and research of UK primary
schools,
that this is best way for children to
learn French
The syntactical
structures contained in the lyrics to a
song transfer to students' everyday
use of the French language and the catchy
music by John Hyde reinforces this.
Music
has the power to motivate students and
create a positive and relaxing
environment in the
classroom and Zim Zam Zoum has been a
front-runner in responding to this
assessment
of how children learn a foreign language.
We think, with our experience and
research of
UK primary schools that this is best way
for children to learn French.
The principle of
linear processing is essentially that one
limited unit of thought follows another
unit in a logical, more or less
one-dimensional relationship. The
implication of this principle for
education is the student's attention
switches from one focus to the next focus
closely related to it. According to
modern research on the brain, the
miraculous procedure bears no
relationship to linear processing.
Therefore, to expect students to react in
the way the educational bureaucracy often
expects them to is often
counter-productive and inhibits learning.
These important findings have led to
suggestions the left side of the brain is
logical and sequential because it is so
involved with language--but language is
so full of irrational twists and turns
that it is anything but logical. Our goal
in education should be to employ the rich
connections the brain is making. Music
has a way of connecting the two
hemispheres by using the left for
language and the right for distinguishing
musical intonations through consistent
integration by the corpus callosum.
Though one cannot separate the roles of
the two lobes, we do know the more
connections made in the brain, the more
integrated that experience is within
memory.
Musical
intelligence is a way of awakening and
stimulating memory and learning when
studying French for the first time. Music
is a subject to be studied and understood
as a separate skill, but music can also
be used as a means for gaining other
knowledge—this is a fact well used
by Taught By Song.
Music has an
uncanny manner of activating neurons for
purposes of relaxing muscle tension,
changing pulse and producing long-range
memories directly related to the number
of neurons activated in the experience.
These connections measured by injecting
the brain with radioactive chemicals
detected when the brain cells are
active.
To stimulate more
neurons produces greater memory. The
different parts of the brain and the
nervous system filter and process
information in different ways that are
relevant to the musical mind and overall
memory. These different ways provide us
with some clues that help us in our
teaching processes - Hemispheres of the
brain -
Teachers
intuitively know when students are
enjoying their learning, and with
Zim Zam Zoum we
are striving to motivate and interest
students with new strategies and
techniques that have been shown to
strengthen and increase learning.
Brain research
and its connection to learning have
enjoyed an explosion in recent years.
It makes sense to teach students using
strategies that parallel brain processing
to promote learning. Educators do not
need to become neuroscientists, but a
rudimentary understanding of the brain is
in order. If students are to be actively
involved in their construction of
knowledge hrough multisensory
experiences, the learning environment
will become more positive as they get
information in the different content
areas. Music is of interest to students
and should be included in a discussion of
searching for meaningful knowledge.
Singing and creating music to learn
content engages students in talking,
listening and acting out what they are
learning. Lessons need planning in a
manner that uses the different
intelligences we hold. To assess what
children know, teachers need to become
"assessment specialists" and to devise
ways of assessment that use activities
that are contextualized and meaningful to
students Zim Zam Zoum represents a
fertile area that exploits students'
interests, skills and confidence in one
domain of knowledge as a means to help
growth in other domains.
Attentive listening creates a neuralgic
patterning imprinted within many circuits
of the
brain. The information consolidates with
data got through other senses and learned
in
different ways, increasing the length and
breadth of neurological circuitry. The
implications and details of these
patterns are not easily forgotten.
Music such as the
songs in Zim Zam Zoum can be used in the
classroom to carry out
the following goals: to create a relaxing
atmosphere, to set up a positive learning
state,
to provide a multisensory learning
experience that improves memory, to
increase attention by creating short
bursts of energizing excitement, and to
add an element of fun.
Music is a way to improve the classroom
climate to allow creativity to take
place. Music
is a thread that can tie together the
best techniques in foreign language
learning with the
new brain-based research.
Sometimes people
feel that singing in class is not "real"
education but simply "fun" for
students. Nothing could be further from
the truth. As well as using all your
intelligences,
you are learning in a positive
environment and feeling motivated. Music
used to teach
French in programmes like Zim Zam Zoum is
a tremendous memory aid. By using
music
in the language classroom, it is possible
to bring a cognitively challenging
activity to the
dimension of one of our most primary and
primitive pleasures: singing. Music of
the kind
featured by Taught By Song allows
material to be remembered. Attaching
tones and gestures to specific words sets
them in a firm and easily retrievable
form -teaching students to remember what
they have learned, and to be able to call
on that material when needed as they
begin to produce language.
Taught By Song
provides innovative teaching materials
and interactive games for
young children learning French.
How do you use
interactive whiteboards with Zim Zam
Zoum?
What are
interactive whiteboards and how can they
help in teaching French language to
primary schoolchildren? An interactive
whiteboard is a white surface on to which
a computer screen displays via a
projector.
It is
touch-sensitive and lets you use a pen on
it (or sometimes a finger) to act like a
mouse, controlling the computer from the
board itself. Whiteboards can help you
deliver exciting and engaging lessons to
children of all ages and abilities.
Zim Zam Zoum
produced by Taught By Song has used every
facet of the Promethean
Activprimary interface for maximum
interactivity. The original animated
songs are a delightful way to teach
French to a classroom of children. John
and Monica Hyde have devised a
comprehensive package that is incredibly
flexible – however and whenever you
teach French. The ready-planned lessons
can be used ‘straight from the
peg’, with a minimum of preparation
by the non-specialist teacher, or they
can be used as a foundation upon which
the specialist French teacher builds a
scheme
of work.
How can they
help? Interactive whiteboards have the
potential to improve teaching and
learning by:
* Improving
understanding of new ideas
* Increasing
pupil motivation and involvement
* Improving
planning, pace and flow of lessons
Taught by Song
with their clever use of Promethean
software for Interactive whiteboards are
at the forefront of this thinking. They
are simply great lesson ideas for
teaching young children French.
Vive Zim Zam Zoum
!
Taught By Song - Fun and innovative
French teaching
for children in the classroom or at
home.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Languages Review
report, March 2007
Right Hon Alan
Johnson, MP Secretary of State for
Education and Skills
28 February 2007
We submitted an
interim report on the languages review on
14th Decd provisional proposals and a
number of issues for further
consideration by your Departmenember as a
basis
for consultation. It includet.We now have
pleasure in offering our final
report.
In making the
review, you asked us to look into the
following issues:
With secondary
schools to support them in making
available a wider range of more flexible
language courses, with accreditation, so
that more young people keep up language
learning even if they are not doing a
full GCSE course;
Further ways of
strengthening the incentives for schools
and young people themselves to
continue with languages after 14;
With
representatives of FE and HE, to look at
what more might be done to widen access
to and increase interest in language
learning among the student
population;
With employer
organisations, to consider what more they
can do to promote the value of
language skills for business and to give
stronger market signals to young people
about
language skills and employability;
and
What broader
communication effort is needed to get
across the importance of language skills
to all sections of the population. In
making this final report we have
revisited
In making this
final report we have revisited points
made in the consultations that preceded
our earlier report. We have held further
consultation meetings on our provisional
proposals and have received responses by
letter and e mail. We are grateful to
those who have helped us in this way, and
to the six teacher associations, who at
our request, sought to stimulate busy
schools to offer comments. In this final
report we have developed and extended the
proposals in our consultation report for
investment in teachers in primary and
secondary schools.
We see these as
the necessary bases for our proposal that
languages should become part of the
statutory curriculum for Key Stage 2.
They also form a key element in our
proposals for a renaissance of languages
in secondary schools. We link our
proposals for investment in teaching in
secondary schools, and for investment in
teaching materials, with our development
of the major theme of this report on the
need for a range of motivating learning
pathways for the whole range of pupils
and their different learning
objectives.
We make proposals
to that end. This action in support of
teaching and to provide a
range of motivating learning
opportunities, lies at the heart of any
programme to strengthen the incentives to
schools to continue with languages after
14. But we also invite you to consider
supporting these in guidance to schools
on the continued study of languages in
Key Stage 4 and in other ways.
We confirm our
earlier recommendation to increase the
number of schools having languages as a
specialism to 400, and in doing so we
think that it will help languages in the
schools community as a whole if the
increase supported a more even
geographical spread of specialist
colleges across England.
We welcome the
emphasis you placed in our terms of
reference on the need for action to
make the case for languages to all
sections of the population and to
encourage employers to promote the value
of language skills for business. We
received several offers of help from
employers’ organisations which are
summarised in our consultation report. In
this repor t we make a number of further
recommendations, and urge the Government
to put its weight behind the case for
languages.
2. Languages
Review
The cost of our
recommendations, in including our
recommendation that the present support
for primary schools should be continued
beyond the present planned support to
2008, would bring the total needed for
languages to over £50m a year. By
far the biggest element is the support
for teaching. In addition we recommend
that the additional financial support for
specialist language colleges to support
key elements of the National Languages
Strategy should be continued (currently
some £8m a year) with appropriate
increase as the number of colleges
increases. We are grateful to the
Department for its assistance with this
assessment.
If you feel able
to back the comprehensive programme of
action we have outlined in support of
languages in schools we believe you will
be in a strong position to call upon
schools, through action over the next two
years, progressively to lift the numbers
choosing to take languages in year ten,
the first year in Key Stage 4, to the 50
per cent to 90 per cent sought by
Minister Jacqui Smith. We recommend that
you closely monitor the plans made by
schools to achieve this, and we outline
administrative measures you could take in
support of such an approach. We further
recommend you make clear that you are
prepared, if the decline is not halted
and turned around within a reasonable
timeframe, to return languages to the
statutory curriculum. That as you know is
not our preferred course because we think
the range proposed by the Minister gives
schools scope to develop learning
programmes for each child that best fits
him/her for life, and best motivates many
more of our young people to stay in
learning after age sixteen. This must be
a major objective of education policy.
Ron Dearing Lid King
Chapter 1: The
Problem and the Response in Outline
1.1 In September
2004, learning a language in maintained
schools ceased to be a mandatory part of
the curriculum for pupils in the last two
years of their compulsory education,
usually referred to as Key Stage 4.
Instead it became an entitlement for all
students who chose to continue after
their three years of mandatory study in
Key Stage 3.
1.2 Although up
to that time learning a language in Key
Stage 4 had been mandatory, in fact only
80 per cent got as far as taking the
GCSE, and the take up had been drifting
down since 2000. This became particularly
noticeable when consultation about
removing the statutory requirement began
in 2002.
1.3 At the same
time as the changes at secondary level,
the Government launched a programme to
provide an opportunity for all pupils at
Key Stage 2 in primary schools to learn a
language by 2010. The Outcome and
Prospects
1.4 The take up
of languages in primary schools has gone
very well, and a recent survey suggests
that already some 70 per cent of primary
schools are now offering a language or
are close to doing so. The reports we
have had indicate that languages are
enjoyed by children across the ability
range and that there is no lack of
enthusiasm, interest or keenness to
learn. This has the potential to feed
through into the secondary schools,
improve performance, and encourage pupils
as they reach Key Stage 4 to continue
with languages. This is true of the
traditional study of French, German, and
Spanish, and there is potential amongst
community languages, which over the
coming two decades will become of
increasing commercial importance, and a
potential national asset.
1.5 At the
secondary level by contrast, the number
taking languages has fallen sharply. Last
summer, the numbers continuing with a
language to the GCSE at secondary level
had fallen to 51 per cent. Inclusion of
those taking other language
qualifications increases this to only 52
per cent. A survey showed that there will
be a further fall this year. The
preliminary signs were that thereafter
the fall was levelling off. However this
is not certain, as numbers may be
affected by the decision to include
English and Maths in the 5 A*-C GCSEs
measure in the Achievement and Attainment
Tables and in the long term by the
introduction of the specialised diplomas
which are expected to be taken by 30 per
cent of those entering KS4.
1.6 The fall in
numbers taking languages at Key Stage 4
is closely related to social class, and
to overall performance in Key Stage 3,
and their later performance in the
GCSE.
4 Languages
Review
1.7 Thus the
proportion of pupils entitled to free
school meals gaining a language
qualification in Key Stage 4 is only half
that of pupils from better off homes. The
proportion of pupils taking languages who
obtained 5 A* to C passes is about twice
that of the less successful pupils.
1.8 Thus while
the policy of languages for all is
working well across the whole range of
social class and ability in primary
schools; at secondary level, even before
languages ceased to be compulsory, it was
never fully achieved. Twenty per cent
were being exempted as far back as the
year 2000; a third had dropped languages
by the time they became an entitlement
rather than a requirement; and we have
regressed further from it since then.
1.9 We gave the
facts in some detail in our consultation
report together with the reasons
for the Government’s decision to
open up the options at Key Stage 4 and
the reasons for the move out of languages
that has taken place.1
Where Next?
1.10 Our
judgement is that there is scope for many
more of our teenagers to do better than
in the past in languages. For the reasons
we set out in Chapter 4 of our
consultation report, it is in their
interest and the public interest, that
more of them should do so. We think the
low priority many employers give to
language skills, as reflected for example
in their plans for the new specialised
diplomas, is mistaken. It does not
however lead us to the conclusion that at
this stage all pupils should be required
to continue after Key Stage 3, or with
the same time commitment. We have seen it
as our task to set out how to enable many
more pupils to succeed in different ways,
within a framework in which schools make
a commitment to languages being a
substantial part of the Key Stage 4
curriculum, but which also recognises the
need to respond differentially to the
capabilities and motivations of pupils,
in the wider cause of sustaining them
successfully in learning to eighteen and
beyond.
1.11 The
programme of action we propose in this
report to enable many more pupils to
engage successfully in the study of
languages at the secondary level will
take two years to complete. But if action
can be taken quickly on our proposals to
support language teachers in secondary
schools, this together with the
opportunities for new approaches to fully
accredited learning now offered by the
Languages Ladder, and innovative
approaches to the GCSE; and with the
progressive realisation of our other
proposals, schools could be aiming in
September 2008 to have made progress
towards the 50 to 90 per cent benchmark
for entrants to languages in Key Stage 4
proposed by Jacqui Smith last year, and
aim to complete their progress to it for
entrants to Key Stage 4 in the school
year beginning in September 2009, when
all our proposed changes could be fully
in place.
1.12 Failing a
response of that kind, from schools, head
teachers and languages departments with
corresponding support and challenge from
government and its national agencies,
which we discuss further in our
concluding chapter, we outline a return
to some form of mandatory requirement. 4
Languages Review
Chapter 2 Making
the Case for Languages
2.1 Three out of
the five issues we were asked to consider
were concerned with getting across the
importance of languages to all sections
of the population, and in particular to
young people. In this you asked us to
consider with employers what more they
could do to promote the value of language
skills for business, and with
representatives of Higher
and Further Education to consider what
more might be done to increase interest
in language learning among the student
population. Higher and Further
Education
2.2 As an
immediate measure, we asked all
universities, working with local F.E.
colleges,
specialist language colleges and sixth
form colleges, to seek opportunities in
January and February this year to visit
schools to speak with pupils about the
value of languages.
2.3 As we have
found from direct contacts, for example
with the universities of Birmingham,
Cambridge, Hull, Manchester, Nottingham,
and more widely, many university language
departments have much experience of, and
expertise in, engaging with local schools
to promote languages. These activities
have recently been positively reviewed by
the Subject Centre for Languages
Linguistics and Area Studies. We think
that institutions should receive specific
support to develop this activity.
2.4 With
particular reference to widening
participation in higher education the
Higher
Education Funding Council for England
HEFC(E) is funding four regional projects
costing £2.5m over four years to
encourage more young people to study
languages. These projects are testing
different methods of engaging with
schools and colleges to raise the
aspiration and demand among young people
to study languages. A key feature is to
provide the secondary, FE and HE sectors
with the resources to work together to
promote language study. The regional
projects are one strand of a £4.5m
programme of work to support
languages.
2.5 A sensibly
financed programme over four years such
as that to be launched by the HEFC(E) is
a well conceived response to the
opportunity.
2.6 We are
advised by the HEFC(E) that for an
additional £3m over four years the
scheme
could be given national coverage. We
recommend that this additional funding
is
provided for this scheme and invite the
HEFC(E) to undertake it, with part being
available for any strongly conceived
proposals that are unsuccessful in the
current bidding round, with the remainder
being available for a second round of
bidding in a year’s time
Employers’
Organisations
2.7 As stated in
Chapter 6 of our consultation report, the
CBI, the Institute of Directors, the
British Chambers of Commerce, the
Institute of Exports, and the National
Health Service
Employers have all indicated specific
ways, outlined in that report, in which
they are willing to advance the cause of
languages. We invite the Department to
maintain active contact with these
organisations to foster their continuing
support, and to consider whether from
time to time there is news or
developments that might be of interest to
their members. In addition to encourage
companies to support languages in schools
we suggest for consideration the award of
a “kitemark” to organisations
who do good work in this field. Major
Multinationals and Overseas Embassies
2.8 Our
consultation has confirmed the very real
and often well funded programmes of
activity by major overseas embassies to
promote the study of their national
language, whether directly or through
national institutes.
2.9 Some of the
corporate responsibility programmes of
multinational companies are
extending to languages and are very
impressive. Our sense is that working
with embassies, where the company is not
headquartered in Britain, there is scope
over time for broadening the commitment
by such companies to support languages,
and intercultural awareness.
2.10 We
accordingly confirm the proposal in our
consultation report that Government
working with the Embassies in London
should encourage international companies,
as part of their corporate philanthropy,
to sponsor programmes to promote
intercultural awareness and the value of
languages in this to schools in the areas
where they have businesses. In support of
that, they could facilitate opportunities
for work experience overseas for 14-16
years old pupils, and school to school
exchanges between pupils in this country
and overseas countries where they
operate. Companies might also be asked to
consider providing support for pupils in
their localities, who have demonstrated
an early ability in languages, to engage
with similarly talented pupils overseas,
to wor together on some project of common
interest, for example, promoting
intercultural awareness, a comparative
study of the attitudes in their own
countries to global warming, recycling or
sport, and so on. Getting across the
importance of languages to all sections
of the population, young and old
2.11 While in
England, those who are proficient in
overseas languages are admired, this is
at least in part a reflection of our
relatively low level of language skills,
rather than from any strong awareness
that such skills matter and are an
important enfranchisement in a Europe
where there is free movement of peoples,
a key to multicultural awareness in our
own country and in the world, and
increasingly relevant to the prospects of
our young people in a world of
multinational companies where linguistic
skills are valued.
2.12 This points
to the need for an active programme by
the Government to communicate the
importance of languages not only to young
people, but also to parents who are
influential on the choices pupils make
for their Key Stage 4 curriculum and
beyond.
2.13 In our
consultation report we accordingly
proposed that the Department for
Education and Skills should develop a
continuing programme to promote languages
focussing on events like the Beijing
Olympics of 2008, the 2012 London Olympic
Games and other major international
events such as the Rugby World Cup in
France in 2007 and the European Football
Cup in 2008.
2.14 At local
level, Local Authorities could be
encouraged to promote interest in
local
schools in towns overseas with which they
have twinning arrangements, and
promote
contact at school level through
communication technology and exchange
visits. This doubtless happens to some
extent already, but in schools where the
language is in the curriculum this might,
with the support of language departments
and head teachers, be promoted with
especial enthusiasm. We now confirm those
recommendations.
In addition:
2.15 We invite
consideration for an annual national
Ministerial reception for heads of
languages departments who in the year
have made a distinctive contribution to
promoting interest in languages, and for
innovations in the practise ofpedagogy in
their school, perhaps supported by a cash
prize for investment in equipment or an
overseas visit for professional
development, for the most outstanding
cases.
2.16 To address
the low numbers of pupils achieving a
very high grading at the GCSE progressing
to A levels and beyond in languages, we
urge that consideration is given to one
day events at five or six centres,
perhaps to coincide with the European Day
for Languages, where pupils have an
opportunity to hear from linguists about
the range of work they do in this
country, for example in the courts, in
social services, in Government
Departments, and in international
organisations such as the European
Commission, which we know is anxious to
encourage more native English speakers to
come forward for appointments as
translators, and for main line
appointments in its various directorates.
This might be supported by the
appointment of a “Languages in
Careers” Director to get across the
value of language skills as a means of
widening opportunities in a whole range
of careers. 2.17 We would add that major
promotional campaigns to influence
opinion require substantial resources if
they extend to paid promotion using the
full resources of the media. We
understand that the Learning and Skills
Council has found it necessary to
allocate individual budgets of £6m a
year, and more, to promote
apprenticeships, train to gain and
student maintenance grants.
2.18 Some
substantial expenditure is a matter that
goes beyond our competence to recommend,
but we tentatively suggest a budget of
£2m a year to support a sustained
effort through events, articles,
languages days, publications, and for
material for use in schools, to raise
public awareness of the importance of
languages.
2.19 Finally we
suggest that the potential of senior
politicians in promoting the value of
languages should be evaluated, and
opportunities taken by them to illustrate
from their own experiences how some
facility in a language has been valuable
to them, for example, in building
relationships. In particular we urge that
the Government should put its weight
behind
Chapter 3 What
Needs to be Done – motivating
learners and supporting teachers
3.1 Our terms of
reference invited us to: support
secondary schools in making available
a
wider range of more flexible language
courses, with accreditation, so that more
young people keep up language learning
even if they are not doing a full GCSE
course;
(consider) further ways of strengthening
the incentives for schools and young
people
themselves to continue with languages
after 14.
3.2 It became
clear very early in our review that the
problems of Key Stage 4 languages could
not be solved in isolation from earlier
and later stages of learning. This was
confirmed during the course of the
consultation. What was needed was a
coherent place for languages in the
school curriculum, and beyond. Much
progress has been made since the launch
of the National Languages Strategy in
2002, but if we are to address the
challenges of the unwanted fall-off in
languages post 14, we need a significant
reshaping of the languages offer –
what has been described as the New
Paradigm for languages.
3.3 This also
prompts our first important conclusion,
which is that a one menu suits all
approach to secondary languages is not
working for many of our children, and
that we must encourage a more varied
languages offer which suits a range of
requirements for young people. The need
is for a coherent languages programme
leading to a range of appropriate options
if those who are abandoning languages are
to be motivated to continue.
3.4 In our
consultation report we set out what
amounts to a package of reform, intended
to
strengthen the existing National
Languages Strategy and proposing both
short and longer term measures aiming to
embed languages in the curriculum for
primary schools; and at secondary level
to improve the experience of learning a
language for pupils, to increase the
motivation to learn, and to enhance
pedagogy. In the consultation these
proposals have received a large measure
of support. Combined with a stronger
framework and manifest support from
Government, we believe they provide the
basis for a renaissance of languages in
school and in the longer term an
improvement in our national capability in
languages. Languages in Primary
Schools
3.5 The programme
for the progressive introduction of
languages into primary schools is going
well. Schools are well on the way to the
target of a Languages for life languages
entitlement for all pupils in Key Stage 2
by 2010. Some 70 per cent of schools are
already teaching languages or have made
plans to do so, and all the signs are
that this percentage will increase this
year, perhaps to over three quarters. We
continually hear the comment that
children enjoy their language learning in
primary
schools. A specifically primary
experience of languages is being
developed, linking language learning to
learning across the curriculum and making
good use of a range of resources, of
speakers of the language and of excellent
programmes of ICT based learning. There
has also been the necessary financial
support.
3.6 A framework
for languages study in Key Stage 2 has
been available to schools since 2005 and
schemes of work for German, French and
Spanish are now being published. A robust
programme of Initial Teacher Training is
also in place and set to continue. Local
and regional training opportunities have
also been made available. All of this
means that the ground work for a
statutory languages curriculum is already
largely in place.
3.7 Against this
background we recommend that languages
become part of the statutory
curriculum for Key Stage 2 in primary
schools, when it is next reviewed. This
should
be as soon as practicable and if possible
in time for languages to become part of
the statutory primary curriculum by
September 2010. In making this
recommendation we have taken into account
the statutory requirement that it should
be introduced progressively by year
group. In the interim we urge that the
experience gained over the last few years
and in the period immediately ahead
should be used to inform our
understanding of what is best learnt in
the early years and the most successful
approaches to learning. But while the
purposes and outcomes of the learning
should be prescribed through the
curriculum, we would advise against any
one tightly prescribed approach to
teaching, as has sometimes happened in
the past. Key to the future success of
this significant primary initiative will
be continuing support for teachers
through opportunities for professional
development and access to support
networks and a range of resources, so
that all primary schools have the
necessary capability to teach
languages.
3.8 We recommend
that the provision for teacher support in
primary schools should
be continued, and where necessary,
extended to take schools through the
first two
years of a statutory curriculum for
languages and to help them widen the
range of languages offered, as proposed
below.
3.9 French has
been the main language offered in primary
schools, but as in our consultation
report, we think it important to widen
the range of languages that can be
offered, and we recommend that attention
is given to how that can best be achieved
and that this should involve continuing
consultation with embassies. We envisage
that these will prominently be French,
German and Spanish. But looking further
ahead there will be increasing interest
in other world languages, particularly
Eastern languages. We should also value
community languages, in which, in many
localities, children will have a high
level of speaking and listening skills.
Decisions on such matters go beyond the
scope
10 Languages
Review
of this review
and need to be preceded by careful
analysis and consultation, including
the
need to be satisfied that the capability
exists in the school to teach the chosen
languages. It will also be important in
this respect to ensure that advice and
guidance continue to be madeavailable to
primary schools on the specific languages
which are taught, on the range of
curricular models and on the challenges
of progression and transition.
3.10 Indeed the
full benefits of teaching languages in
primary schools will not be realised
unless there are good arrangements for
transition to secondary schools. To this
end we make two recommendations:
a) There should
be informal classroom assessment of every
child’s learning near the end of
Key Stage 2 by reference to the Languages
Ladder2, so that the Key Stage 3 teacher
is well informed about the pupil’s
learning standard and needs. We recommend
use of the ladder because it provides the
teacher with assessment at the level
appropriate to the child in each of the
four strands of learning: speaking,
listening, reading and writing, and
because it is to a common national
standard. Its purpose is different from
the SATs, which in the past have been
essentially a summative means of
assessing a school’s performance
with all pupils taking the same test. The
assessment we recommend is formative in
purpose, fit for the individual child,
not aggregated, and should not be the
basis for any league tables.
b) Wherever
possible, with appropriate leadership
from Local Authorities, clusters of
primary and secondary schools in a local
authority area should link up to seek to
achieve agreement on the languages to be
taught in primary schools and
arrangements for progression to the
secondary schools, and to foster close
contact between the primary teacher and
the specialist language teacher in the
secondary school. The more the last year
of primary and the first year in the
secondary school become a continuum the
better. In this respect we fully support
the proposal of the Training and
Development Agency to develop a 9-14
Languages teacher training course.
3.11 The success
of languages in Key Stage 2 raises the
question of whether it should extend
toKey Stage 1. On the mainland of Europe
the age at which language learning begins
has been coming down year by year, and in
the Netherlands, for example, it now
begins at age five. In general, however,
a starting age of seven or eight reflects
current European practice and the
priority over the next few years should
be the success of Key Stage 2. Where this
is succeeding, it may gradually extend to
Key Stage 1, and there is wisdom in
leaving this to schools to decide for
themselves, while ensuring that advice is
available for those who wish to make an
earlier start.
Languages in
Secondary Schools – The Challenge
of Motivation
3.12 Motivating
learners is a key challenge for language
teachers in secondary schools, and not
only in England. In other countries the
role of English as a world language, and
the way it permeates the culture of young
people, provides an incentive to learn it
and facilitates learning. This tends to
overlay the fact that many overseas
learners of languages find it a
challenging task. It is therefore not
surprising that the major source of the
abandonment of languages is by students
who are amongst the less successful in
learning generally.
3.13 Despite
this, many teachers are successful with
all learners. It has been put to us that
99 per cent of learners who really want
to learn a language (i.e. who are really
motivated) will be able to master a
reasonable knowledge of it as a minimum,
regardless of their aptitude or
background. It is not our task in this
review to provide the recipe for
motivational success. We can however
propose what needs to be done to create
the conditions in which it will be
possible to motivate all or most
learners.3 These include: A more varied
languages offer with a range of
appropriate outcomes (assessment) The
possibility to recognise and celebrate
achievement in small steps Engaging
curricular content (includin |