Monday, March 24, 2025 | Uncategorized

With teaching of the new Modern Foreign Languages curriculum well underway, it is important to recognise the biggest changes to the curriculum. It boils down to a MUCH bigger emphasis on phonics and pronunciation, which some argue is the only thing Google Translate can't do properly for you if you're abroad and don't speak the language. In teaching children how to pronounce words in an understandable way, instead of rewarding them for throwing in a random use of the subjunctive for no reason at all, we may well be helping them build confidence to actually speak the language. It's not a perfect system, but I am optimistic that some of these changes could be used to boost confidence and therefore interest in MFL. 

Here are the biggest changes to the new MFL curriculum in England: 

Read-aloud:

Part of the Speaking Exam, this task requires students to read aloud a short text and undertake a short, unprepared Q&A relating to the text. In the read aloud task itself, students will be assessed on their pronunciation and in the short interaction that follows students will be assessed on their communication.

I'm curious to see how Dyslexic students will be supported with this, as this isn't a skill that's insisted on even in GCSE English. 

Dictation:

Part of the Listening Exam, students will be assessed on their ability to transcribe spoken French into written French. This is something we have already been doing, albeit under a different name. When we ask students to listen to a recording and answer questions about it in French, that often is a case of transcribing what they've heard. This is a great way to test if students can break down sentences into separate words, and identify specific phonemes. 

But the change here is that they will be rewarded for their accuracy of spelling. The Listening paper has never marked on spelling before, it was entirely about understanding. Again I am VERY curious to see how Dyslexic students will be supported with handwritten spelling tasks. What purpose this skill has in an age of spellcheck and AI, I do not know. 

No more comprehension questions in French:

It was short-lived and it clearly didn't work out, so questions in French have been scrapped from the Reading and Listening papers. This is going to be great news for students who struggle with French's word order in questions! It would have been a nice challenge to keep a few of them in for the highest achievers, but it was certainly unrealistic to have so many. 

No more literary texts:

Another short-lived decision in the previous curriculum was to expect students to understand random extracts from literally any French literature, including rather archaic texts with little context. Quelle surprise this decision was reversed.

AQA and Edexcel will be publishing lots more resources in the months to come, as they finalise new specimen papers, textbooks and so on. 

If you need a guide to get you through it, shoot me a message :) 

Saturday, March 1, 2025 | Uncategorized

GCSEs are a big deal, but smart revision can make all the difference. Here are five research-backed tips to help your child study effectively:

1. Go Beyond Homework

The exercises set by teachers as homework usually cover the current topic. But you also need to review the topics you studied months ago. And then test in exam conditions. Research shows that active recall—retrieving information from memory—is far more effective than passive review (Roediger & Butler, 2011). Encourage your child to test themselves rather than just re-reading notes: do mock exams, use self-marking tools like Quizlet or do a Q&A together! 

2. Use a Weekly Planner

Structured revision beats cramming. Help your child create a realistic schedule that balances schoolwork, revision, and downtime. Some weeks (with INSET days or days off school) will have more time, some will have less. 

3. Make It Active

Simply reading isn't enough. Techniques like self-quizzing, teaching someone else, and summarizing key points in different ways boost retention (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Get them to explain a topic out loud—if they struggle, they need to review it again.

4. Factor in Real-Life Commitments

Burnout helps no one. Exercise and social time improve focus and cognitive function (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008). Make sure your child’s revision plan includes breaks, sports, and relaxation. If they have a lot of extracurricular commitments, you need to be realistic about when they will have energy to revise.

5. Get Expert Help

Personalised tutoring can target weak areas and reinforce strong ones. If your child needs extra support, I'm here to help them gain confidence and master tricky topics.

Ready to Boost Results?

I offer tailored GCSE tutoring that works. Contact me today to set up a free consultation!

Tuesday, January 4, 2022 | Uncategorized

What counts as major and minor errors in GCSE MFL?

The specifications are vague on what counts as a major or minor error in GCSE Writing and Speaking, but in my experience and having compared a number of sources, including this one from the CCEA and this blogpost by a French teacher, alongside the AQA 2016 Specification and documents from the AQA new specification training, I am operating with the below definitions. 

As the CCEA state on one of their guides, "The following supplementary information is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive but provides some examples though these are dependent on contexts."

Major errors:

A major error is one which seriously affects communication and seriously impedes

understanding. Major errors tend to be in verbs and tenses.

Examples of major errors: 

• major spelling mistake which renders a word unrecognisable

• incorrect verb tense used

• confusion with verb tenses e.g. conditional ending in a future context

• incorrect syntax

• disregarding rules of target language word order

• use of English syntax

• omitting key words

• accent missing which affects communication (mainly passé composé past participles) 

• use of another target language/ English 

Minor errors:

Minor errors do not seriously affect communication or understanding.

They tend to be spellings, genders and agreements. 

Examples of minor errors: 

• minor incorrect spelling which does not affect communication
• incorrect agreement/s    e.g. "mon vacance"   "mon passe-temps préférés est le sport" 
• incorrect article/gender  e.g. "la centre-ville"
• incorrect capitalisation
• incorrect punctuation such as full stop, commas, apostrophes, etc.
• accent missing or accent present when not required