Why the Need for TL?

Introduction

In this Action Research project I will be looking at my use and my students’ use of target language within the classroom. I hope to achieve a greater use of target language use by both myself and by my students in order to help my students to progress and increase their enjoyment of Spanish.

December 2014

Why the need for TL?

The quantity of target language to be used within the MFL classroom is a topic of much debate. Many researchers and educators cite the amount to be used somewhere between 70 and 90% from both the teacher and the students. The St Martin’s method of teaching MFL (based on Stephen Krashen’s language acquisition hypothesis) is based on 100% target language within the classroom, although the St Martin’s PGCE is no longer running. OFSTED’s 2011 report Extracts from Modern Languages: Achievement and challenge 2007-2010 says the following about target language use within the classroom:

The key barriers observed to further improvement in Key Stages 3 and 4 were teachers’ lack of use of the target language to support their students’ routine use of the language in lessons, as well as providing opportunities for them to talk spontaneously… [Page 5]

Secondary schools should... put much greater emphasis on regular use of the target language in all lessons. [Recommendations, page 8]

Regardless of what OFSTED say, the fundamental process of learning a language is through exposure to the language. Turnbull (2001) states ‘In the (Scottish) secondary context the teacher may be the only source of TL input that many teachers are exposed to. It would thus seem reasonable to assume that pupils who have only 3 or 4 hours a week of a modern language should have exposure to as much of the TL as possible.’

I, personally, am certainly guilty of resorting to the English language, especially when I am tired or pushed for time. There are many strategies and activities I already do that are purely in the target language at KS3: starter routines (how are you, date, weather), objectives in the target language and instructions for activities. I would like to increase my use of TL and students’ use of TL for two reasons. Firstly, for all the reasons cited above: it will help students’ understanding and acquisition of the language and OFSTED desire a greater emphasis on target language. Secondly, because the students enjoy hearing and speaking the language, especially the younger ones. The class I have chosen, 7C, like to work out the objective and my instructions.

What do other educators do?

Rachel Hawkes

Rachel has delivered many CPD sessions about the use of TL in her classroom. From reading her CPD session ‘Developing speaking at KS3’ I have summarised the following:

She stresses the teaching of phonics in the classroom
She says that pupils being able to peer assess each other’s target language use is important.
It is important to make the target language fun for young learners – tongue twisters are an activity she recommends.
Students must develop the skill of asking questions in the target language in order to progress.

The Gordano School, Portishead

The Gordano School won the Mary Glasgow Award in 2004 for their ‘Talk so that pupils listen, and listen so that pupils talk’ project.

The main aspects of the project were:

Training pupils to ask for language they don’t know
Letting pupil request language and not dismissing these requests as ‘something they will learn in Year 10’. E.g. if they want to say (when talking about their pets) that their cat has died teach them ‘J’avais un chat’.
Analysing the most commonly used words in the English language, recognising that there are many words in the imperfect and conditional perfect tenses and teaching these as constructions. (e.g. J’auraisdû for I could have done)
Recycling language (creating word banks, encouraging them to use these).
Reward students for TL use.

What are you going to do to address your research question?

7C already do the following:

Starter routine in Spanish
Objectives and instructions in Spanish
Peer assessment of Spanish language used by each other
Making word banks, using word banks to help them

I would like them to:

Use target language when asking questions (as far as possible)
Tell me basic things (I have forgotten my book, I need a pen) in Spanish

I would like me to:

Increase my use of TL so I only use English when explaining more difficult concepts/instructions and for certain behavioural issues.
Reward students for using the TL.
Monitor students’ word banks and find out to what extent they use them.

Action to take:

Over the month of January I will gradually introduce and enforce a number of things into lessons.

Monday 5th Jan: introduce key classroom vocab that I expect them to use. There are now clear posters on my wall which all will be able to see with routine language.
Use tongue twisters within this first lesson to get them enjoying using Spanish and to increase their confidence.
Give students a print out of target language to put in the back of their books. They are to tick the language that they have used over the course of the month.
Have 1 plenary a week which recaps target language and asks them to reflect on target language use.
A cookie jar rewards system with two different types of counters to monitor target language use by students and by myself. For good target language use by students I add a green counter to the jar, for English use by me (when I haven’t said ‘voy a hablareninglés’) a red counter goes in the jar. Each counter is worth 5p.
Give rewards for using their word bank.

How are you going to use your group to support this process?

MTA will observe a lesson at the end of January.
I will tell her what to look out for from myself and from the students.

What evidence are you going to collect showing the impact?

MTA observation
Surveys by the students about use of TL in the classroom.
Look at students’ monitoring of TL use at the back of their books.
Record a lesson (on the Dictaphone), track TL use by myself and by students.
Cookie jar – how many blue and red counters are in there by the end of January?

February 2015

Method

After Christmas I started the new term with 7C with a lesson on purely the target language. This lesson involved repetition of key sentences and phrases followed by a gap fill sheet of key phrases to be stuck at the back of each student’s book as a reference tool. I also introduced the concept of the cookie jar rewards system and explained that this would come into effect in their lesson the following day.

Over the course of the next month, I used purely target language within my lessons, unless there was something I absolutely had to explain in English (and I would then warn students I was to speak in English). Students were strongly encouraged to talk to me in English and would routinely ask:

¿Cómo se dice …. en español? (How do you say….in Spanish?)

Me gustaríair a los aseos (I would like to go to the toilets)

Students also would catch me out by saying (or in the case of one child bouncing off their chairs and screaming loudly) ‘hablasteeninglés!’ (You spoke in English!)

Evaluation

Student reaction
The students were largely very positive about the month of target language use. I judged that they were more engaged in Spanish lessons and that they were enjoying lessons more than before Christmas. This was proved through anonymous surveys which I asked them to complete.

Out of the 22 students surveyed only 4 thought that my use of target language wasn’t helping them to make progress in Spanish. The other 18 all either said it was helping them to feel more confident or to know more vocabulary.

When asked the question ‘do you enjoy speaking to Miss Griffiths in Spanish?’ 14 students replied ‘yes’ and 8 replied with either ‘no’ or ‘not sure’.

The responses when asked ‘do you enjoy Spanish more, less or the same since Christmas’ were largely positive. Here are some examples of what students said:

“More because you can listen to more Spanish and copy it. It makes it more enjoyable.”

“I enjoy it more because I know more things so I won’t get stuck.”

“More because of the cookie jar and Miss speaking Spanish.”

“More because I like getting counters in the jar.”

“I like it more because it’s changed and it’s fun.”

“More because it’s more fun and interesting.”

MTA came to observe the first 20 minutes of my lesson before Christmas. She said the following about my lesson: “7C were definitely happy and confident about using the target language. They seemed well drilled and on target.”

My use of Spanish versus student use of Spanish

I am quite conscious that I used a lot more target language than the students. While some tried, others did not engage with this, which is shown by the 8 out of 22 who replied they did not enjoy speaking to me in Spanish or were not sure.

When students were asked ‘Have you asked questions or spoken to Miss Griffiths in Spanish?’ 4 replied with ‘Yes, quite a lot’, 9 replied with ‘A bit’ and and 9 replied with ‘One or two times’ or ‘Never.’

The cookie jar reflects a similar trend. In the cookie jar on the 30th January were 15 red counters (for my use of English) and 13 green counters (for students’ use of Spanish). Perhaps I wasn’t rewarding the students enough, but I feel that target language use became dominated by the same four or five students who would repeat structures that they were familiar with (e.g. ¿Cómo se dice …. enespañol?)

The vocabulary sheets weren’t as successful as I would have hoped. Some students missed the first lesson back and never received the sheet and others lost it or forgot about it. When asked ‘how much have you used the vocabulary sheet at the back of your book?’ 10 students replied ‘rarely’, 6 replied ‘a bit’, 5 replied ‘quite a lot’ and only one student said ‘every lesson’.

Behaviour

I believe behaviour and student engagement to have improved since Christmas. It is hard to pinpoint whether this is due to 7C being more settled as a class or directly due to my new target language strategies. Students, were, however, largely positive about the cookie jar, which I think has played a part in this improved behaviour.

When students were asked ‘Do you like the cookie jar?’ here are how some replied:

“Yes because it is fun to do and everybody works hard to try and tries to get the tokens.”

“Yes because it rewards us when we speak Spanish.”

“Yes because we now get rewarded by something if we speak Spanish and it helps us.”

“Yes because it’s nice to see how much progress we have made.”

“I don’t like to cookie jar because we keep having to speak in Spanish even when we don’t understand. However it makes us work harder.”

Other students felt I was wasting my money (but they don’t know that I will be going to Poundland!):

“No since it wastes some of the school’s or Miss Griffiths’ money for a treat.”

Conclusion

Here is a summary of my key findings from my Action Research project

Most students enjoyed the increased target language from me in lessons.
Many students enjoyed Spanish lessons more since Christmas.
Many students felt my speaking Spanish helped them to progress in lessons.
Behaviour improved in the month of January as students were keen to gain rewards from the cookie jar system.
Some students regularly used target language and made a big effort to speak in Spanish throughout the lesson, especially asking questions, which Rachel Hawkes cites as a skill which is needed in order for students to progress. There was still a group of students who did not regularly make an effort to speak in target language during lessons.
The red counters in the cookie jar show I still was speaking some English but 15 isolated times over the course of 12 lessons is better than my usual target language use.

Although exhausting speaking in target language for the majority of the lesson, I looked forward to my lessons with 7C as the students were engaged and largely very positive about their language learning experience. My target language use has increased and has helped students to progress. Student target language use has improved but only by certain individuals.

For future lessons I need to consider the following:

Including further vocab on their sheets. For example, the Spanish for: Can I take my blazer off? What does that mean in English?
Ensuring that all students have the sheets at the back of their books.
Rewarding the use of the vocabulary sheet – perhaps by a tally system in the backs of their books. This was something I mentioned in my initial action to take but never followed through with.
The rules regarding my use of English when explaining tasks to students, particularly lower ability students. I would often have to check lower ability students’ comprehension of the task set in English, which other students would ‘catch me out’ for.
How to engage reluctant speakers in the lesson. There was, I feel, a correlation between the lower ability students and those reluctant to use target language, although the surveys were anonymous. Is there a link between pupil premium students and those unwilling to speak in the target language? I need to think about how to encourage the lowest ability learners to use the target language and to not become disheartened when I use the target language.
Having one plenary a week reflecting on the target language. This was another thing mentioned in my initial action to take but which I didn’t follow through on. It would have been a nice way to remind students that speaking in the target language is still a skill we are focussing on.