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Opening session: Curriculum Development, �Schemes of Work, �and OFSTED

Emma Marsden & Rachel Hawkes

Date updated: 17/7/2020

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Rachel Hawkes

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Outline

Background and aims of NCELP
Research-informed curriculum development and pedagogy
Bringing it together: the Schemes of Work
Other NCELP activities
Ofsted and NCELP alignment (Rachel Hawkes)

Emma Marsden & Rachel Hawkes

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Rachel Hawkes

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Background

Emma Marsden & Rachel Hawkes

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Rachel Hawkes

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NCELP aims to…

Connect classroom practice and research
Develop pedagogy and resources
Improve intrinsic motivation and increase GCSE uptake

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Rachel Hawkes

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1 Connecting research and practice

Substantial interest from teachers and researchers

But…

Lack of time
Limited or no funding to attend conferences

Plus…

Problems with accessibility of research (physical, contextual, and conceptual remoteness)

Kasprowicz & Marsden, 2017

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Rachel Hawkes

Let’s take the core purposes one by one.�Why has it been and continues to be a challenge to link language learning research and practice?

Some of our teachers have said ‘why has no one told us this before?’ ‘why did I not know this?’�It is not for a lack of interest on the part of teachers or researchers. �The difficulties are lack of time and money and the difficulty of gaining access to high-quality research journals.

Once no longer in full-time study, access to these journals is expensive and not supported by school CPD budgets. There are also sometimes issues in a) relating the terminology of research to the pedagogy of the classroom and b) in discerning the applicability of findings from studies in which the contexts differ wildly from our own (e.g. university learners of English in China vs secondary-age learners of FL in the UK).

So, NCELP aims help improve this situation.

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2 Developing languages pedagogy

Generalisable - from teacher to teacher, classroom to classroom
Knowledge-based pedagogy (phonics, vocabulary, grammar)
Practice-rich
Focusing on high-frequency language
Topics de-emphasised

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Rachel Hawkes

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3 Pedagogy itself improving motivation

Enhancing achievement and ‘perceived ease’ of learning
Increasing the likelihood of success
Teaching students explicitly to ‘sound out’ words

Taylor & Marsden (2014) OASIS summary

Graham (2004) OASIS summary

Erler & Macaro (2012) OASIS summary

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Rachel Hawkes

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NCELP beginnings

Teaching Schools Council Report, Nov 2016
DfE Invitation to Tender for Centre for Excellence, June 2018
Awarded, September 2018
Centre began, December 2018
Currently funded until December 2021

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Rachel Hawkes

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Languages Pedagogy Review:�15 recommendations (13 for schools)�

vast majority should take GCSE (75% in Y10 by 2022, 90% by 2025; now in Ofsted framework)
phonics, vocabulary, grammar taught systematically, with extensive practice
stimulating content without compromising vocab and grammar
materials selected for how well they support a planned teaching of phonics, vocab and grammar
focus on detail through translation, extend vocabulary through short texts and literature, interact with native speakers
know and build on KS2 grammar

https://resources.ncelp.org/

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Rachel Hawkes

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Languages Pedagogy Review, Recommendations (cont’d)

know and build on the KS2 languages teaching in feeder schools
plan own and students’ TL use carefully, to reinforce taught language
use errors to inform teaching, without discouragement
integrated teaching of L, S, R, W (they share common knowledge)
2-3 hrs teaching time, in lessons of 40-60 minutes (GCSE = 10% curriculum time)
meet needs of all learners across the ability range
assessment should focus specifically on Phonics, Vocabulary, Grammar taught (achievement tests), with some tasks to compose own sentences and give own oral presentations

https://resources.ncelp.org/

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Research informing practice

Emma Marsden & Rachel Hawkes

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Rachel Hawkes

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https://oasis-database.org�Open Accessible Summaries in Language Studies�

among many others

One page, non-technical, openly accessible summaries of high quality peer-reviewed, international research

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Want monthly alerts of new OASIS summaries?

Go to oasis-database.org

Scroll down to:

Sign up takes 20 seconds!

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PHONICS

selection and order of Sound – Symbol - Correspondences (SSCs)
high-frequency ‘source’ words
staged roll out
practice activities
systematic revisiting
much more time for French – new SSCs in year 8

Erler, L. and Macaro, E. (2012) ‘Decoding Ability in French as a Foreign Language and Language Learning Motivation’. The Modern Language Journal, 95(4): 496-518.

Porter, A.M. (2014) An early start to French literacy: Learning the spoken and written word simultaneously in English primary schools. PhD thesis, University of Southampton.

Woore, R. (2007) ‘“Weisse Maus in Meinem Haus”: Using Poems and Learner Strategies to Help Learners Decode the Sounds of the L2’. Language Learning Journal, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 175-188.

Woore, R. (2009) ‘Beginners’ progress in decoding L2 French: some longitudinal evidence from English Modern Foreign Languages classrooms’. Language Learning Journal, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 3-18.

Woore, R. (2010) ‘Thinking aloud about L2 decoding: an exploration into the strategies used by beginner learners when pronouncing unfamiliar French words’. Language Learning Journal, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 3-17.

Woore, R. (2011) Investigating and developing beginner learners’ decoding proficiency in second language French: an evaluation of two programmes of instruction. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Oxford.

Woore, R. (2014) ‘Beginner learners’ progress in decoding L2 French: transfer effects in typologically similar L1-L2 writing systems’. Writing Systems Research, volume 4(2): 167-189.

Woore, R (2018) ‘Learners’ pronunciations of familiar and unfamiliar French words: what can they tell us about phonological decoding in an L2?’ The Language Learning Journal, 46(4):456-69.

Woore, R., Graham, S., Porter, A., Courtney, L. and Savory, C. (2018) Foreign Language Education: Unlocking Reading (FLEUR) - A study into the teaching of reading to beginner learners of French in secondary school. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4b0cb239-72f0-49e4-8f32-3672625884f0

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Rachel Hawkes

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VOCABULARY

words that are very high-frequency 🡪 most useful!
a wide vocabulary of verbs (meanings)
mixed word class vocabulary sets: 10 per week
developing robust vocabulary knowledge
developing depth of knowledge

Davies, M, & Davies, K.H. (2018). A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish: Core Vocabulary for Learners. Routledge.�Häcker, M. (2008). Eleven pets and 20 ways to express one's opinion: the vocabulary learners of German acquire at English secondary schools, The Language Learning Journal, 36:2, 215-226.�Jones, R.L. & Tschirner, E. (2006). A frequency dictionary of German: core vocabulary for learners. Routledge.�Lonsdale, D. & Le Bras, Y. (2009) A Frequency dictionary for French. Routledge.�Marsden, E., & David, A. (2008). Vocabulary use during conversation: a cross-sectional study of development from year 9 to year 13 among learners of Spanish and French. Language Learning Journal, 36(2), 181-198.

Milton, J. (2006). Language Lite? Learning French Vocabulary in School. Journal of French Language Studies, 16,187-205. �Milton, J. (2009). Measuring second language vocabulary acquisition. Multilingual Matters�Milton, J. (2013). Measuring the contribution of vocabulary knowledge to proficiency in the four skills. Eurosla Monographs Series 2, 57-78. �http://www.eurosla.org/monographs/EM02/Milton.pdf

Schmitt, N. (2008). Review Article. Instructed second language vocabulary learning. Language Teaching Research, 12(3), 329–363. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168808089921�Swan, M. (2008). Talking Sense about Learning Strategies, RELC, Vol 39(2), 262-273.

Decisions had to be made about vocabulary teaching

Which vocabulary is carefully selected from the highest frequency words according to a well constructed corpus of millions of words – the words that appear most are the most useful for communication across different situations

We know from research that you need to have a bank of verbs before you can create the sentences you want to create – the meaning of verbs is like the anchor in a sentence. �We know that learning mixed sets of words allows you to create a number of sentences very quickly – but if you just know a set of nouns for sports or animals or types of television programmes, it is harder to be creative with what you can understand and say. Also we know that very closely semantically related words (sets of fruits or animals) can be confusing and more difficult to learn than more mixed sets. �Research can also tell us what kinds of activities are most efficient for establishing robust knowledge that lasts and can be recalled fast and when under some pressure

And it can tell us about the kinds of activities that can help promote depth of vocabulary knowledge – knowing when to use a word, what its opposites are, which words often occur with it

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GRAMMAR�

very short, simple explanation up front of one feature
force students to attach meaning to feature in reading & listening
practise contrasting pairs of grammar features
controlled production activities that make feature ‘essential’

DeKeyser, R. (2005). What makes second-language grammar learning difficult? A review of issues. Language Learning, 55, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0023-8333.2005.00294.x

DeKeyser, R. (2015). Skill acquisition theory. In B. VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction (pp. 94–112). London, UK: Routledge.

DeKeyser, R., & Prieto Botana, G. (2015). The effectiveness of processing instruction in L2 grammar acquisition: A narrative review. Applied Linguistics, 36, 290–305.�Ellis, N. (2006). Selective attention, and transfer phenomena in L2 acquisition: Contingency, cue competition, salience, interference, overshadowing, blocking, and perceptual learning. Applied Linguistics, 27(2), 164-194.�Lichtman, K. (2016). Age and learning environment: Are children implicit second language learners? Journal of Child Language, 43, 707-730. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000915000598�Marsden, E. (2006). Exploring input processing in the classroom: An experimental comparison of processing instruction and enriched input. Language Learning, 56, 507–566.�Norris, J. & Ortega, L. (2001). Does type of instruction make a difference? Substantive findings from a meta-analytic review. Language Learning, 51, 157-213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.2001.tb00017.x �VanPatten, B. (2002). Processing instruction: An update. Language Learning, 52(4), 755-803.

Rachel Hawkes

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Bringing these strands together: �The NCELP Schemes of Work

Emma Marsden & Rachel Hawkes

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Rachel Hawkes

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View of the Resource Portal home page

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Rachel Hawkes

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NCELP Schemes of Work

Integration of grammar, vocabulary, and phonics
Grammar-driven
Topic-based at the start of learning is difficult / impossible (?) IF we want:

high frequency vocabulary
grammar that is: principled, sequenced, re-visited, usable across different topics.

Year 7 (terms 1 & 2) available now; Term 3 & Year 8 on 17^th July!

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Rachel Hawkes

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Screen shot of a SOW

Grammar sequencing is language specific

Extremely high frequency (irregular!) verbs at start

Then highly regular and frequent verbs

‘Context’: purpose of the language e.g., “Describing a thing or person”

Systematic revisiting of vocabulary every 3 weeks and 9 weeks

Weeks set aside for work on ‘rich texts’

phonics practice every lesson

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Rachel Hawkes

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Tabs in the NCELP SOW

‘Resources’ tab contains links to powerpoints for lessons, quizlet vocab practice, and more…

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Rachel Hawkes

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So, what can learners do?

’Assessment weeks’: in terms 2 and 3 of each year
Tests of knowledge of phonics, vocabulary & grammar
Applying the knowledge, e.g.,

Describe a picture (creating own language; less formulaic learning)
Translate ‘new’ sentences
Answer comprehension questions

Search ‘tests’ on the portal

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Rachel Hawkes

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Other activities to date

BBC Bitesize:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/teacher-support

see two NCELP Specialist Teachers

GCSE Review Panel

Oak online academy

Ofsted …

Emma Marsden & Rachel Hawkes

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Rachel Hawkes

We offered advice to BBC Bitesize on their KS3 materials and the BBC team have interviewed and filmed Jenny Hopper and Joe Fincham, two NCELP Specialist Teachers, talking about teaching phonics and making grammar practice meaningful.

Four members of the NCELP team are on the GCSE review panel. We have been providing advice about how tests in year 11 can best stimulate and assess the kinds of knowledge that I have talked about and you will hear more about today

Recently, members of NCELP have become involved in helping the Oak online academy design curriculum and then film lessons using the NCELP resources

And finally we have had some involvement in working on an Ofsted review group, and that is a perfect point to hand over to Rachel

Please do use the Q & A function for any questions you would like to ask – Rachel and I hope to answer as many as possible at the end of Rachel’s presentation.