Author Archives: ess00sjg

We have been busy building on our work in reading,  and putting the pdcinmfl  Principle 5 to the test! So, if you:

•  are interested in the teaching of reading to beginner learners in MFL
• would like to get some new ideas and innovative resources for teaching reading strategies and phonics in French
• would like to find out more about the latest research findings in this area

– then read on!

We have recently completed our ‘FLEUR’ reading research project.  This investigated different ways of teaching reading to beginner learners of French in Year 7.  Our project, a ‘Randomized Control Trial’ funded by the Nuffield Foundation, compared the effects of (a) explicit strategy instruction, (b) explicit phonics instruction and (b) the use of challenging texts on students’ reading comprehension (and a range of other outcomes).

We are holding a half-day conference to share our findings and think about their implications for the classroom.  This will be held on 3^rd July 2018 at Oxford University Department of Education, 15 Norham Gardens, Oxford OX2 6PY, from 1:30pm till 4:30pm.  The conference is completely free of charge.

Our project focussed on Year 7, but we anticipate that the findings will also be relevant to colleagues teaching foreign language reading throughout KS3 as well as in primary schools.

If you would like to attend, please send a reply to french.reading@ox.ac.uk     We will then register you for a place and send you further information and joining instructions.

Thanks and best wishes from

Robert Woore, Suzanne Graham, Alison Porter, Louise Courtney and Clare Savory

The FLEUR project team.

The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social well-being in the widest sense. It funds research and innovation in education and social policy and also works to build capacity in education, science and social science research. More information is available at http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org.

Two books have recently been published that link directly to the Principles:

Improving Foreign language teaching: Towards a research-based curriculum and pedagogy, by Ernesto Macaro,  Suzanne Graham and Robert Woore.

The book outlines the research and thinking behind the Principles and ends with a chapter of activities that link to the materials on this website, giving teachers more ideas for how to use them.  Further information is available here.

Strategies for second language listening: Current scenarios and improved pedagogy, by Suzanne Graham and Denise Santos.

Devoted entirely to developing listening, the book combines a focus on listening research with a strong practical element, with a whole section outlining a range of activities to help teachers improve the listening skills of their learners.  The book links closely with Principles 5 and 6.  Further information is available here.