Modern Foreign Languages

Create a languages buzz around your school with our global online vocabulary competition

Here at Collins we are celebrating European Day of Languages 2018 by announcing our upcoming annual Vocab Express League of Champions. This is a weeklong competition (10th – 16th October) where secondary schools will go head to head against others around the world… Read More

Using a Bilingual Dictionary: Hints & Tips

Using a dictionary is a skill that students can improve with practice and by following some basic guidelines. Here we have tried to focus on the areas that will help students to make most effective use of their bilingual dictionary. Read More

Tackling transition

One of the more disturbing statistics to emerge from the recently published Language Trends survey was the fact that only 46% of the primary schools surveyed had had any contact with the language specialists in their local secondary schools and only 11% of the secondary schools in… Read More

A good return on ‘The Returned’

I like using a variety of completely authentic materials in the classroom to show learners that the language they are acquiring is also used in the real world! One of my sources is film trailers – or bandes-annonces. They have the advantage of being short and snappy so the viewing… Read More

On a level without NC Levels – Freefall or Freestyle?

National Curriculum levels will no longer apply to the new programmes of study at KS3 and there are mixed views about this in MFL teaching. On one hand there are valid concerns about demonstrating progress in a way that is recognisable to pupils, parents and stakeholders, and on the other… Read More

Coucou, j’ai pris le pain!

I believe it is important to get pupils interested in grammar and make sure they understand what they are doing when they put words together. Learners are therefore more likely to produce correct language with a higher level of accuracy. It is more motivating and speeds up foreign language learning. Read More

Longer MFL Texts in a Bite-Sized World

The new draft criteria for GCSE and the PoS for KS3 place a renewed emphasis on longer pieces of reading material and literary texts. But how do we engage pupils in longer texts in a world where everything has become bite-sized, where book pages look like magazines, where everything is… Read More

Turning the tide

The news that GCSE entries for languages have risen significantly this year after almost a decade of steady decline is welcome, not least in the light in the continued drop of pupils in Key Stage 5 studying languages at A level.   However, behind the headline statistics lies the fact that… Read More

Most Multilingual Student Alex Rawling’s Chinese Challenge – Week 3

A close friend once said to me that when you start learning a language, it’s like staring at a painting from really close: you can’t see much of it, and you can’t make sense of the little piece that you can. However, every time that you learn more, it’s like… Read More

Why is learning a language important?

Naomi, here at Collins on a work experience placement, reflects on the importance of learning languages in an increasingly globalised world Read More