The Languages Materials
Structure
This is a set of free-standing units of work. Each unit takes about 60-90 minutes depending on how much discussion you have and can be used individually or broken up or used in different combinations to fit you’re your schemes of work.
Unit Titles Include:
1. Being multilingual
2. You are what you speak
3. Languages in our school
4. Languages in our community
5. Recipes for language
6. Recipes for culture
7. Why learn languages?
8. Project WAMcam!
“It was really good to make the children understand that their bilingual status was valid” (Teacher, Essex)
Who is it for?
The WAM materials were developed for use in Modern Language programmes in schools – specifically French, German and Spanish –, but can serve as inspiration for any additional language learning programmes both in and beyond classroom contexts. They can be used with students in any year group.
The pack provides a common framework that can be adapted for any proficiency level and according to school and classroom context.
What does the pack include?
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8 Powerpoints including audio and video clips
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accompanying Teachers’ notes with suggested classroom language, timings, and pupil tasks
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student worksheets / templates
How do I use it?
Timetabling. The lessons can be taught either as a series of 8 lessons in a one-off or dispersed over the course of a school year. We’d expect the units to take 8-12 hours in total.
Scheme of work. The materials contain language specific tasks that can be aligned with the scheme of work and delivered in the target language as appropriate to the level and interest of the students.
Differentiation. The PowerPoints can be adapted as the teacher thinks appropriate.
Teachers’ notes. Detailed notes accompany the presentations, with suggested classroom language, timings, and pupil tasks.
A dialogic approach. We take a dialogic approach to the work. This means we ask learners to discuss what language learning means to them, their family, their community. The materials ask them to reflect on what any new information means for them and allows them – if they wish - to identify as multilingual! By the end of the units of work most pupils will understand that it is possible to say ‘I am multilingual’ even if they are not fluent. Sign up for WAM Materials here.
