FLEUR FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION: UNLOCKING READING

We have been busy building on our work in reading, and putting the pdcinmfl  Principles 5 and 6 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 completed our ‘FLEUR’ reading research project in 2018.  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 held a half-day conference to share our findings and think about their implications for the classroom.  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.

 To download FREE teaching resources for the reading strategies part of FLEUR, visit this page.

 Click on this link for the Final Research Report on the project.

Click on this link for the final conference presentation.

The FLEUR project team:

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