theniceman.bsky.social
French and Spanish teacher. I like to play football in the park with my brother. Last weekend I went shopping. Next weekend if it is sunny I would like to swim.
https://whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/
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This new A Level has completely lost that element of arguing and debating. It's formulaic: show a value judgement, show your knowledge, in a rush against the clock. This A Level is the worst we've had on many fronts.
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And with younger learners, if you do manage to construct a situation where they have a burning desire to say something, that increases the likelihood that they will just say it in English.
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It's almost impossible to regularly construct a situation where pupils genuinely want to say something and will try to find a way to say it regardless of whether they can construct a perfect sentence.
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So eg A Level pupils tend to have accuracy in mind. And say nothing rather than try to say something "to communicate it" regardless of correct grammar/vocab.
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Our overall focus is more on the language than on meaning. How many meaningful things are there for pupils to say over and over?
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Edexcel did the opposite. Any reasonable spelling accepted, don't worry about grammar. And then had to put in the stipulation that it should be recognisable as the correct word.
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I'm teaching my dog Welsh.
Wow! What can she say?
I said I was teaching her. I didn't say she was learning.
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Aha. Not on the vocab list though!
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There is jóvenes but I wouldn't worry about it! In fact I would be tempted to take tabúes out unless you use it a lot.
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Yes. I remember those!
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Go to 4 minutes 30 youtu.be/5YO7Vg1ByA8?...
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There is no word in French they can be spelled in less than 36 ways. (I made that up. But it's true.)
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They need to start by admitting it's a spelling and grammar test. And then mark it as that. That would be clear.
The opposite (write it anyway that sounds right) would be impossible and unmanageable.
They have gone for a bit of both. Not workable.
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You missed my favourite one from the SAMs:
Demain j'ai un concert.
I would write
Deux mains géants qu'on serre.
But they would have to decide if getting the gender of mains wrong was unacceptable.
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I thought for the words not on the vocab list (is that the dictation or the read aloud) that they should use names of people or places. But I think that is ruled out.
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Not so much the exam board. As the brief they were set. They were told to use dictation to test phonics. When it's actually the direct opposite of that. Was never going to work.
We will muddle through.
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Dictation is about being tested on how well you know the spelling and grammar. Not on transcribing the phonics.
They fell into the trap set for them by the GCSE panel.
And the markscheme confusion reflects this.
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AQA have fallen into a trap. They have been told the purpose of the dictation is to test phonics. Writing things down how they sound, according to the sound-spelling correspondences.
This is the exact OPPOSITE of what dictation is. Dictation is to STOP French kids writing things down as they sound.
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Aha. I see where you spotted it too. I think I have an answer to your question as to why this is so bad. And you are right that it is to do with clarity of what is being tested:
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Did you see the commentary and markscheme ignored é/er/ez on one of the sample answers. But wouldn't accept serais instead of serai because it affects meaning.
(Lots of French speakers swear ai/ais and even et/est are indistinguishable...)
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Look forward to reading this.
Likewise my post on the photocard has ended up ranting at the interpretation of the markscheme. whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-...
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Had to check the article just to make sure they hadn't given it out in Welsh and English.
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Wagner troops marched from Ukraine.
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Sea horse and pipe fish amongst the reeds Very unusual and beautiful.
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We know Trump's attitude to 9/11. It made one of his buildings the tallest again.
Saudi Arabia and the Taliban are not his enemies. And Russia has bailed him out with property deals...
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Our Norwegian exchange students (pre Brexit) always said they didn't actually learn their excellent English in school. And that the best language lessons they got were the A Level Spanish lessons they had here.
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Thanks for sharing this. Enjoy is the wrong word but very important reading things I don't necessarily agree with. That's why I am on here!
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Well you know who's going to come a cropper. Idiots like me who teach pupils the language and show them how to use it to describe a picture. We will lose out to people who tell them to say there is... 8 times and it is... 8 times.
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I agree with you.
But it also shows how hard it is to escape the mindset.
Academic study is absolutely NOT in opposition to love of learning.
The high stakes managerial production line targets ARE inimical to academic study.