1 of 28

Diversity, inclusion and representation in resources for young beginner learners of �French, German, and Spanish�BAAL LKALE SIG, University of Liverpool, April 29-30 2022� �

Presenter name: Natalie Finlayson�Natalie.Finlayson@york.ac.uk; @natalie_eloise

Institution: National Centre for Excellence�for Language Pedagogy�University of York; @ncelpmfl

2 of 28

Presenters

On behalf of the wider NCELP resource development team …

Natalie Finlayson �Senior Resource �Developer (French)

Dr Rachel Hawkes�Co-Director, SoW Developer (German)

Nick Avery�Senior Resource �Developer (Spanish)

Prof Emma Marsden

Director

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

3 of 28

Overview

1. NCELP and the new GCSE Subject Content

2. Resources to support building familiarity with the language and culture of global communities in a socially and culturally responsible way

3. Resources to support understanding of social diversity in the classroom and communication of personal identity

4. Summary and next steps

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Transcript: Slide 3

In this practice-based talk, we’re going look at what the new GCSE subject content for French, German and Spanish says about diversity, inclusion and representation, and see how its aims can be operationalised through NCELP’s approach to learning resource creation. Now, I know that this is a huge area, and we’ve only got twenty minutes, so this is very much intended to be a sort of whistle-stop taster session of what NCELP are working on in this regard at the moment.

I’m going to begin by briefly explaining who NCELP are and how what we do relates to the new GCSE subject content, before moving on to look at the topic from two perspectives. First, I’ll discuss the types of learning resources that support building familiarity with the language and culture of global communities in a socially and culturally responsible way. Second, I’ll consider resources that support an awareness of social diversity in the L2 learning environment, and the communication of personal identity in a second language. I will conclude with a summary of the key points covered and our next steps.

4 of 28

Overview

1. NCELP, pedagogy and the new GCSE Subject Content

NCELP/GSCE subject consultation

Develops CPD tools, teaching resources and workshops to improve language pedagogy at KS3 and now to support the implementation of the new GCSE Subject Content (DfE, 2022)

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

5 of 28

1. GCSE Subject Content

What does the new SC say about diversity, inclusion and �representation? Students should develop…

familiar[ity] with aspects of contexts and cultures […] through a range of broad themes �[…with] cultural, geographical, political, contemporary, historical […] relevance;

confidence and broaden[ed…] horizons, enabling them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries [and] develop new ways of seeing the world;

ability and ambition to communicate independently […] with speakers of the language for authentic purposes and about subjects which are meaningful and interesting to them;

[ability] to use the language […] for a range of audiences and purposes […] which are relevant to their current and future needs and interests, having regard to the likely experiences of a wide social range (DfE 2022, pp. 3-4).

Transcript: Slide 5

So, what does the new GCSE subject content say about diversity, inclusion and representation? These quotes are taken from the subject content document that you can find on the Gov.uk website, and they basically say that through the study of a second language at GCSE, students should develop:�

familiarity with aspects of contexts and cultures where the language is spoken through a range of broad themes with cultural, geographical, political, contemporary and historical relevance;
confidence and broadened horizons, enabling them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries and develop new ways of seeing the world
ability and ambition to communicate independently with speakers of the language for authentic purposes and about subjects which are meaningful and interesting to them, and
ability to use the language for a range of audiences and purposes which are relevant to their current and future needs and interests, and have regard to likely experiences of a wide social range.

I think it’s useful at this point to highlight that these aims are clear enough that they require practitioners to think carefully about how they will incorporate them into tests, materials and schemes of work, but vague enough so as not to be prescriptive, and we’ll see why that’s important later on in this talk.

6 of 28

1. GCSE Subject Content

How can these aims be achieved by empowering students �via knowledge of language variation and change?

familiar[ity] with aspects of contexts and cultures […] through a range of broad themes �[…with] cultural, geographical, political, contemporary, historical […] relevance;

confidence and broaden their horizons, enabling them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries [and] develop new ways of seeing the world

By adopting an inclusive approach to L2 education, we equip students with the knowledge of a second language to:

1. break cultural barriers by developing familiarity with cultural, geographical, political, historical and vocational aspects of areas in which the target language is spoken.

7 of 28

1. GCSE Subject Content

How can these aims be achieved by empowering students �via knowledge of language variation and change?

their ability and ambition to communicate independently […] with speakers of the language for authentic purposes and about subjects which are meaningful and interesting to them;

[ability] to use the language […] for a range of audiences and purposes […] in formal and informal contexts which are relevant to their current and future needs and interests, having regard to the likely experiences of a wide social range (DfE 2022, pp. 3-4).

By adopting an inclusive approach to L2 education, we equip students with the knowledge of a second language to:

2. communicate about themselves and diversity in their immediate environments in a way that ensures all members of the language classroom feel seen, supported and included

8 of 28

1. GCSE Subject Content

What is NCELP’s role in learning resource development?

to create open access, adaptable resources which exemplify �how activities to support the aims of the subject content could look (https://resources.ncelp.org/)�
practitioners welcome to use resources wholesale, but this is not expected

currently developing and piloting an example suite of resources for KS3 (Y7-9; ages 11-14) based on a notional average of two 50-minute sessions per week and a range of degrees of prior knowledge (British Council, 2021)

activities in this talk created for the latter stages of KS3, but many could be used in KS4 (Y10-11, ages 14-16)

Transcript: Slide 8

So, what is NCELP’s resource development team doing to support the implementation of these aims?

Basically, our role is to create open access, adaptable resources which exemplify how activities to support the aims of the subject content could look. Practitioners are welcome to download these resources and use them wholesale, but of course we don’t expect that this will happen as teachers will know best what the best style of learning activity for their individual group is.

Currently, we are finishing an example suite of resources for KS3 (Y7-9) based on a notional average of two 50-minute sessions per week and a range of degrees of prior knowledge (British Council, 2021). These resources are currently by piloted by over 40 of NCELP’s networked schools across the UK.

Most of the activities you will see in this talk have been created for the latter stages of KS3, but many could also be used in years 9 and 10 in KS4 as schools of course will go through resources in different ways and at different paces.

9 of 28

1. NCELP Schemes of Work

Language-driven practice schedule: New/revisited phonics, grammar and �vocabulary features are brought together to create a context or purpose.

NCELP French Y9 Scheme of Work

Transcript: Slide 9

Before I demonstrate some individual learning activities, I just want to briefly talk you through the thinking behind the structure of the NCELP schemes of work, which take the form of language-driven practice schedules.

Each week, students either learn or revisit one grammar point, one phonics point, one set of vocabulary, and sometimes a word pattern. These strands are brought together in a context or a purpose that lends itself to the teaching of these language features. Here for example, in week one of year 9, we can see that the context on the right is talking about identity, describing yourself and others.

The grammar, phonics and word pattern points are all linked to describing oneself through the use of adjectives and adjectival agreement, and the vocabulary set revisits words introduced in Year 7 and 8 to do with identify and describing the self.

So, I’m going to move on now to showcase some specific learning activities with the dual function of practicing target language points in a way that teaches students something about an element of diversity, inclusion or representation as well. In each case, I’ll explain how the activity works by presenting the language feature that it practices, and linking it to the cultural point that it illustrates.

10 of 28

Overview

2. Language and culture of global communities

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

11 of 28

2. Global communities

What does this involve?

achieving parity in representation of the language varieties and �cultures of global communities of speakers
responsibility in explaining (as well as exemplifying) the global spread of European languages in a manner that is accessible to young learners

What is new?��Empowering students via knowledge of language variation and change by …

moving away from a Eurocentric focus (e.g. on European varieties of languages)
using appropriate and levelled L2 language to focus on the why (and not just the what) of global varieties of European languages

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Transcript: Slide 11

And what do I mean by this - a socially and culturally responsible way?

Well, I think for the purposes of curriculum design, two key issues are involved here. One is ensuring that there is parity in the degree to which varieties and communities of speakers of the L2 are represented in resources. The other is taking responsibility to explain, as well as exemplify, the global spread of European languages in a way that is accessible to young language learners, both in terms of the complexity of ideas and the language used to present them.

This is a challenge, and it's something that makes our resources a bit different from existing KS3 and GCSE materials and assessments. You will, of course, see a cultural focus on countries outwith Europe, these have until now certainly tended to have presented through a somewhat ‘mainstream’ - or Eurocentric - voice, and you will find that most existing resources tend to avoid difficult or meaty topics, like war or societal issues.

I find that contrast quite interesting, when you consider that while pre-GCSE history is treating these topics in quite some depth, the current UK modern language classroom would tend to avoid looking in transparent terms, I suppose, at topics like colonisation and slavery. And that’s something that we’re really trying to address.

12 of 28

SSCs [CE], [CI] y [Z]

Remember, there are different ways to pronounce CE, CI and Z.

In most of mainland Spain, the ‘c’ before ‘e’ or ‘i’ and the ‘z’ is pronounced like _____ in English.

In the Canary Islands and Latin America, this ‘c’ and the ‘z’ is often pronounced like an ____.

edificio

Escucha. Es ¿España (Península o Baleares) o Canarias / Latinoamérica?

edificio

1

2

‘th’

‘s’

3

4

plaza

________________________________

Canarias / Latinoamérica

España (Península o Baleares)

Canarias / Latinoamérica

España (Península o Baleares)

‘s’

‘th’

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Transcript: Slide 12

I’m going to start with a set of phonics activities that have a socio-linguistic focus on language variation in pronunciation of certain sound-spelling combinations. At the moment, the Spanish native speakers who provide audio recordings for GCSE teaching materials and assessments are primarily from mainland Spain. At NCELP, we have two voices that are represented equally in our listening resources: that of a male speaker from mainland Spain, and a female speaker from the Canary Islands who uses the seseo, which is the pronunciation of the letters ‘c’ and ‘z’ as ‘ss’ and is found in the Andalusian, Balearic and Latin American varieties of Spanish.

We feel this is justified, given the fact that the vast majority of native Spanish speakers actually live in Latin America, and also due to the popularity of the Balearic Islands as a British holiday destination, so it’s quite relevant to our students as well.

This slide introduces students to the different pronunciations …

_________

Phonics recap slide

Timing: 3 minutes

Aim: to consolidate understanding of the different ways in which [ce], [ci] and [z] are pronounced in the Spanish-speaking world.

Procedure:

Read the explanation, eliciting the answers from students where prompted by gaps.
Play the audio and ask where the person is from (‘¿La persona es de…?’)
Ask students which other words they can recall from Y7 which have [ce], [ci] and [z]. This will help to prepare them for the next activity.

Anticipate, for [CI], edificio, participar, decir, cierto, ciudad

Anticipate, for [CE], centro, necesitar, necesario, cerca, doce, parecer.

Anticipate, for [Z], azul, zapato, naturaleza

Notes:

Teachers might want to tell students that the reason why [CE], [CI] and [Z] are pronounced as ‘s’ in the Canary Islands and Latin America is because most of the sailors in the first expeditions to America (stopping in the Canary Islands) were from areas in the South of Spain where the pronunciation follows this pattern. This is why a picture of a ship is included.
It may be necessary to explain to students that the Balearic Islands are located in the Mediterranean, just off the East coast of Spanish. They include Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza.
Teachers may also find it useful to consider the information from exam board specifications below:
AQA : “The [listening] test will be studio recorded using native speakers speaking Castilian in clearly articulated, standard speech at near normal speed. Different types of spoken language will be used, using familiar language across a range of contemporary and cultural themes. (p. 82)
EdExcel : “For listening and reading assessments, the majority of contexts are based on the culture and countries where the assessed language is spoken. […] It is, therefore, important that students are exposed to materials relating to Spanish-speaking countries throughout the course.” (p. 7)
WJEC : “This GCSE specification in Spanish for use in Wales is based on a conviction that learners studying a modern foreign language will develop their desire and ability to communicate with and understand speakers of Spanish in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes.” (p. 3)

13 of 28

¡Lucía y su familia ya están en el Carnaval de Tenerife! Lucía escucha a diferentes personas.�¿De dónde es cada persona, de Canarias / Latinoamérica o de España (Península y Baleares)?

Canarias / Latinoamérica	España (Península y Baleares)

1

2

3

4

5

haces, ejercicio

zapatos

plaza

centro, ciudad

participas

Escribre la palabra con [ce], [ci] o [z] en la columna correcta. ¡Atención! En ocasiones hay dos palabras en una frase.

Carnaval de Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Transcript: Slide 13

…. and in this follow-up activity, they hear words pronounced in one variety or the other, and are asked to decide where the speaker is from. In doing so, students are developing both an awareness of the cross-linguistic difference in the sound represented by this letter in Spanish and English, and also an awareness of linguistic variation across the Spanish-speaking world. This kind of contrastive activity could be adapted to practise other elements of regional variation, such as vocabulary use.

In the Appendix, you will find similar activities for varieties of German spoken in northern and southern Europe, and French spoken in France in Québec.

--------------------------------------

Video by permission given by VisitTenerife.es https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XeezoDJk1A

Phonics practice activity

Timing: 5 minutes + 30 secs video

Aim: to raise awareness of the different ways in which the SSCs [ce], [ci] and [z] are pronounced in the Spanish-speaking world.

Procedure:

Go through instructions with students.
Check understanding of instructions by asking students an example. E.g., plaza (pronounced with seseo): ¿Es Canarias / Latinoamérica? Sí, muy bien. ¿Y en España (Península y Baleares) cómo es la pronunciación?
Play the audio and ask students to tick the correct column and write the words with the target SSCs in the correct column.
Check answers, including spelling, in the feedback.
The video could be used in one of several ways. It could be played before the activity to help set the context of being at the carnaval. It could alternatively be played after the activity and students could be asked questions (e.g., ¿Cómo es?, ¿Qué hace la gente?)

Note:

Some students may be able to write the entire sentence.
It may be necessary to explain ‘en ocasiones’ using ‘a veces’ if this is not immediately clear.

Transcript:

¿Participas en el carnaval cada año?
¡El centro de la ciudad está lleno de gente!
Durante el carnaval caminas durante horas, ¡haces mucho ejercicio!
¡Oh, no! Los zapatos me molestan.
Hay música fuerte en la plaza.
Bailo delante del edificio grande.
¿Necesitas descansar un poco?
Lleva una camisa azul.

14 of 28

Tschüs Heimat*, Hallo Deutschland!

die Heimat – homeland

der Migrationshintergrund – �migration background

gesamt – total

21,2 Millionen Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund* leben in Deutschland (Gesamt*bevölkerung: 83,1 Millionen).

Fast 50 Prozent von ihnen sind deutsche Staatsbürger*.

Von den 11,2 Millionen Ausländern* in Deutschland sind die meisten aus der Türkei und dann Polen, Syrien, Rumänien und Italien.

der Bürger – citizen

der Ausländer – foreigner

Transcript: Slide 14

Multicultural diversity within the target language community and the reasons for this are a big feature of the NCELP resources as well. Here and in the Appendix, you will find activities which describe the experience of families who have either emigrated from another country into the L2 community, as is the case of our Polish family in Germany, or vice versa, as in the case of our Cuban family in the US whose children are Spanish heritage speakers, representing a range of different generational perspectives.�-------------------

Timing: 2 minutes��Aim: to provide cultural information relevant to this week’s context of changing countries and German immigration.��Procedure:�1. Students read the information for themselves.

2. Teachers prompts for the key facts in English. (Around ¼ Germany’s population has a migration background; almost half of these have German citizenship; most foreigners living in German are from Turkey, Poland, Syria, Romania and Italy.)

Note: next week we will focus on the theme of migration a little more, through the work of poet Adel Karasholi.

Note:

- flags/country images not to scale!!

- statistics from 2019, see also https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/_inhalt.html

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in German): �Bürger [683] gesamt [557] Heimat [1305] Hintergrund [1207] Migration [4123] Rumänien [>5009] Syrien [1416] �Source: Jones, R.L. & Tschirner, E. (2019). A frequency dictionary of German: core vocabulary for learners. Routledge

_______

15 of 28

Was haben wir gemeinsam?

Wolfgang und Mehmet simsen. Wolfgangs Handy ist kaputt! Was haben �Wolfgang und Mehmet gemeinsam? Schreib beide (both) oder (-).

Mehmet: Ich denke, wir haben viel gemeinsam, nicht wahr?

Wolf: Ja! Wir lesen beide Krimis und hören beide auch Rockmusik.

Mehmet: Das ist toll! Wir wohnen auch beide in Berlin. Ich bin � (-) auch kein Einzelkind.

Wolf: Und ich bin

(-) Zwilling.

Mehmet: Wir sind beide praktisch. Und wir haben beide Angst vor Katzen!

Mehmet: Ich gehe (-) aber in die Moschee.

Wolf: Ich gehe � (-) manchmal in die Kirche. Sind wir beide nicht auch Zwillinge?!

Wolf: Haha, ja! Ich mag (-) Mias Katze nicht.

___

Transcript: Slide 15�The grammar practised in these activities includes differentiating between first person singular and plural verb endings to illustrate similarities and differences between children from different backgrounds …

------------------------------------------------

Timing: 3 minutes

Aim: To practise linking verb endings with meaning (having things in common with someone, or not, according to whether the verb is first person singular or plural).

Procedure:�1. Teacher to draw attention to the verb simsen in the rubric. What kind of word is it? Students should be able to tell from the –en ending that it is a verb. They may be able to work out the meaning of simsen (to text) by recognising SMS and tying it into the context.

2. Teacher to draw attention to new word Krimis, presented with lesen. Teacher to ask students what kind of text this might be, and point to the importance of crime novels/films in German-speaking culture.

3. Students write ‘beide’ where the verb ending indicates a plrural subject; where the verb is sigular, they write (-). The prononuns are obscured to focus attention on the verb ending.

Note: Teachers need to make really clear to students that when the verb is singular (ich form) you cannot use ‘beide’ (both) so that’s when they would record (-).�It will be clear once they get the hang of it, but will need clear explanation at the outset.

4. On individual clicks, each pronoun is revealed at the same time as the adverb beide, or (-), as applicable.

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in German):

Krimis [>5009] - kriminell [4289]

Source: Jones, R.L & Tschirner, E. (2011). A frequency dictionary of German: Core vocabulary for learners. London: Routledge.

16 of 28

Erzähl mir von dir

Mia fragt junge Leute mit Migrationshintergrund über ihr Leben. War das früher (F) oder ist das heute (H)?

	F	H	Antwort
Musstest du jeden Tag Deutsch sprechen?
Willst du polnisches Essen kochen?
Konntest du in die Mosche gehen?
Wolltest du Fremdsprachen lernen?
Musst du deutsches Essen essen?
Kannst du Türkisch sprechen?
Wolltest du in Italien bleiben?
Kannst du eine arabische Zeitung lesen?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

arabisch – arabic

Muss / Musste ich.

Will / Wollte ich nicht.

Kann / Konnte ich.

Will / Wollte ich.

Muss / Musste ich nicht.

Kann / Konnte ich.

Will / Wollte ich.

Kann / Konnte ich nicht.

Transcript: Slide 16�… and focus on modal verbs to discuss the aims of, and challenges faced by, immigrant adults and children on arrival to a new country.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Timing: 8 minutes��Aim: to distinguish between past and present modal verbs in the second person singular and first person singular. ��Procedure:�1. Explain the task – Mia is interviewing young people with a migration background about their lives today and in the past.

2. Play recording for item 1. Students listen out for modal verb – if it is in the past they write F for früher, if it is in the present they write H for heute.

3. Click to bring up answer ticks.

4. Click again to bring up choice of verb forms in the young person’s answer – present or past tense. A further click brings up an explanation of the word order of these answers.

5. Click again on the audio button so students listen a second time to item one. The students select one of the verbs in the Antwort column. Answers match the tense of the question.

6. Click to bring up the answer.

7. Seek to elicit the question orally from pupils; they have recently heard it and have the clue of the answer to prompt them.

8. Click again to bring up the written form of the question, for checking.

7. Continue for items 2-8. Note: these could be completed item by item, or all together. Animations work for both options.

�Note: As an alternative for classes needing more support, teachers could reveal the written questions after the first listening, and students match questions to answers as a reading task.

Transcript:

1. Musstest du jeden Tag Deutsch sprechen?

2. Willst du polnisches Essen kochen?

3. Konntest du in die Moschee gehen?

4. Wolltest du Fremdsprachen lernen?

5. Musst du deutsches Essen essen?

6. Kannst du Türkisch sprechen?

7. Wolltest du in Italien bleiben?

8. Kannst du eine arabische Zeitung lesen?

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in German):

arabisch [2159]�Source: Jones, R.L. & Tschirner, E. (2019). A frequency dictionary of German: core vocabulary for learners. Routledge

�

17 of 28

¿Cuál es tu opinión sobre la historia?

Puedes dar tu opinión sobre estas partes:

me da pena/tristeza

me da rabia

me da vergüenza

me alegra

me da miedo

me da sueño

me da risa

Grr..

1. Un día empezamos una relación y poco después consideramos ser marido y mujer.

3. Pero entonces empezamos a ver muchos cambios políticos en el país y perdimos el derecho a dar nuestra opinión.

4. Estudiamos las opciones y elegimos huir del país. Organizamos un equipaje* ligero y escapamos urgentemente.

2. Y un año después decidimos tener un hijo, vuestro padre Gerardo y, más tarde, vuestra tía Jezabel.

equipaje* = luggage

Transcript: Slide 17�Associated production tasks are often experiential in nature, asking students to put themselves in the shoes of someone with quite a different experience from themselves and answer in role, or to provide affective responses to something they have seen or heard to encourage them to think more deeply about the topic.

---------------------------------

Timing: 2 minutes

Aim: to allow students to give an affective response to the text.

Procedure:

Click to bring up the pictures.
Elicit the translations of each one.
Either in whole-class format, or working in pairs, ask students to give their response to the story.
To provide some structure, several extracts from the text are also provided. Students could also be asked to give their opinion to teach of these, individually. They could also justify their opinion using a conjunction like ‘porque’. If so, it may be worth giving them a little extra time to consider their ideas and write notes, rather than expecting unprompted oral production.

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in Spanish) of unknown words:

equipaje [>5000]

18 of 28

L'Empire colonial aujourd’hui

Q	Still happening?	What?	A
		Mainland France defending its actions; French people calling it a “civilising mission.”
		French government defending the French colonial empire.
		France depending on resources from its colonies.
		France obtaining over 3 billion francs from West African colonies.
		Hearing racist insults directed at black and Arab people.
		Algerians waiting for an apology from the French government for events in Algeria.
		French government supporting the introduction of the French language and Christian faith into the colonies.
		Many islands and a region of South America belonging to France.

2

1

3

4

5

6

7

8

2

1

3

4

5

6

7

8

*excuses = apologies

Transcript: Slide 18

Now, as you might expect, NCELP resources do contain quite literally hundreds of activities that describe the cultures and traditions of French-, German- and Spanish-speaking countries worldwide; everything from the day of the dead celebrations in Mexico, to the Vienna Prater, to the lemon festival in Menton. And this is not so unusual; you would probably expect to find activities of quite a similar nature in existing materials for KS3 and 4.

But as I mentioned before, what we’re looking to do differently is to create activities that state as clearly and objectively as we can the factual reasons for this linguistic diversity. I do acknowledge that decolonising the curriculum is another huge area, and we might put another talk together on this at a later point.

But I’m just going to touch on it here with some examples such as this one, in which students hear French sentences about the consequences of the colonial empire, and are asked to recognise whether these are in the past or present tenses to really highlight the lasting effects.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Timing: 5 minutes

Aim: To identify whether statements are talking about past or ongoing events

Procedure:

Click on the numbers on the left to hear statements about the French colonial empire.
Students need to pay attention to the verb tense being used to decide whether events are in the past or if they are still happening.
Click to reveal the answers and the English summaries of the sentences (which do not provide information on the tense).
Click the numbers on the right to hear the full sentences without blanked out words to verify answers.
Click to reveal information pointing out that not everything has changed, and that there are still consequences arising from the empire.

Transcript:

La Métropole a défendu [-] ses actions. Selon les Français, c'est une "mission civilisatrice".
Le gouvernement français défend [encore] l'Empire colonial français.
La France a dépendu [-] des ressources de ses colonies.
La France a obtenu [-] plus de 3 milliard de francs des colonies en Afrique de l'Ouest.
On entend [encore] des insultes racistes contre les Noirs et les Arabes.
Les Algériens attendent [encore] une excuse du gouvernement pour les événements en Algérie.
Le gouvernement a soutenu [-] l'introduction de la langue française et de la foi chrétienne dans les colonies.
Plusieurs îles et une région en Amérique du Sud appartiennent [encore] à la France.

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in French): �excuse [1839]

Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

Word frequency of cognates used (1 is the most frequent word in French): �Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

19 of 28

Overview

3. Social diversity and personal identity in the L2 classroom

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

20 of 28

2. Learner diversity/identity

What does this involve?

creating resources that reflect social diversity in the classroom (e.g., race, gender, class, religion, sexuality)
equipping students to communicate about their personal identities and situations

What is new?��Empowering students via knowledge of language variation and change by …

teaching vocabulary that is relevant and up-to-date
adopting an inclusive approach to writing
informing students about language that is in flux (e.g., gender-neutral pronouns)

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

21 of 28

2. Learner diversity/identity

Relevant, up-to-date vocabulary

Extract from NCELP French example word list

Extract from keyword analysis using TenTen corpora (2012 versions) and timestamped JSI web corpora (April 2021)

Item	Frequency (focus)	Frequency (reference)	Relative frequency (focus)	Relative frequency (reference)	Score
covid-	62923	0	475.906	0	476.906
covid	24663	0	186.5338	0	187.534
coronavirus	21350	1094	161.4766	0.09559	148.301
macron	16729	404	126.5266	0.0353	123.178
confinement	27989	17002	211.6894	1.48554	85.571
pandémie	41917	32247	317.0312	2.81757	83.307
astrazeneca	11519	2655	87.12173	0.23198	71.529
instagram	9293	1909	70.28581	0.1668	61.095

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Transcript: Slide 21

One way in which practitioners can begin to do this is to think very carefully about the words that appear on the word lists that underpin their vocabulary strands.

I just want to take opportunity here to clarify what I mean by word list. This is not a vocabulary list for pupils, or even really teachers, but a chance for test developers and materials creators to think about the type of vocabulary and themes they wish to test, and define constructively-aligned content.

A large proportion of the words on the NCELP word lists are informed by frequency in large modern corpora that are representative of some global varieties of French, German and Spanish worldwide. But we acknowledge that these corpora are not fully representative, and age relatively quickly, so some words on the list must be identified by other means. One approach has been to run a keyword analysis to identify the words with the biggest ‘jump’ in frequency over a particular year; you can see that for last year, the majority of these are to do with Covid-19, of course. We’ve also worked closely with teachers and native speakers to ensure a wide range of stakeholder views is represented on our list.

22 of 28

Les règles covid en France

Océane et Léa parlent des défis de la pandémie. Que disent-elles ?

Quelles règles sont les mêmes qu’en Angleterre ?

On�respecte une distanciation d’un mètre entre les personnes.

2. On/il est impossible de

1. Il est difficile de �sortir en France en ce moment.

1. On/il est difficile de

4. Mais, on�a un couvre-feu* à 18 heures.

4. Mais, on/il est bizarre d’

5. Il est interdit de�manger ou boire dans le cinéma et dans le train.

5. On/il est interdit de

8. On

sait que les règles sont importantes, mais c’est une situation difficile.

8. On/il est essentiel de

6. On�ne peut pas voyager.

6. On/il est important de

3. Il est possible de �participer aux activités sociales avec un passe sanitaire*.

3. On/il est possible de

7. Il est nécessaire d’�annuler beaucoup de vols.

7. On/il est nécessaire d’

*passe sanitaire = proof of vaccination or negative test�*le couvre-feu = curfew

Transcript: Slide 22

Speaking of covid-related vocabulary, it’s a good example of the type of structure students need to talk about their personal experiences of major and current events in their lives.

The grammar point covered here is the appropriate use of impersonal structures to comprehend and produce language about situations that affect everybody, while the comprehension element asks students to think about Covid regulations in the UK compared to France.

------------------------------

Timing: 8 minutes

Aim: Written recognition of impersonal pronoun on + short form and impersonal expressions with il est + adjective + de + long form; listening comprehension; cultural awareness: similarities and differences between COVID laws in France and the UK.

Procedure:

1. Students read the non-bolded parts of the sentences and decide whether on or an impersonal expression must precede them, based on the verb form they see.

2. Answers revealed on clicks.

3. Students sketch two columns headed les mêmes and différentes. They re-read the sentences, decide whether the rules are have also been in place in England at some point, and write and English summary of each rule in the appropriate column.

4. Answers may be found on the next slide.

Word frequency of unknown words (1 is the most frequent word in French):

couvre-feu [>5000], sanitaire [4501]

Source: Lonsdale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

Word frequency of cognates (1 is the most frequent word in French):

certificat [3604], bizarre [2756], essentiel [675], mètre [1534], respecter [673], distanciation [>5000], passe [4295]�Source: Lonsdale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

23 of 28

Wer ist was von Beruf ?

Grammatik

Wolfgang und Mia treffen die neuen Nachbarn. �Wer ist was von Beruf?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Herr Müller

Frau Becker

Frau Weber

Herr und Frau Fischer

Die Pfeiffers

Die Schreibers

Herr Kohler

Die Schusters

Transcript: Slide 23

Moving on now to think about representation, and the importance of students seeing themselves and people they know represented in resources.

You might have noticed that in some of the activities I’ve shown you so far, there are some recurrent characters. An advantage of using a fictional narrative thread is that it gives resource writers control over the range of character backgrounds represented.

No particular feature is made of this element of diversity as such because the point I suppose exactly that; not drawing attention to it. So, the activity collection for this one includes all sorts of language features. The slide you’re looking at now practices the irregular verb sein (to be), while at the same time normalising the inclusion of characters of different ages, sexualities and with disabilities. �--------------------------------------

Timing: 6 minutes [2 slides]��Aim: Aural recognition of forms of sein and masculine and feminine job titles.

�Procedure:�1. Explain that in conversational register, it’s now common in German to refer to married couples and/or families as ‘die +surname+-s’, as we do in English (e.g., the Smiths, the Walkers etc..).

2. Click numbers to hear sentences with the names blanked out.

3. Students use both the form of sein and the form of the noun to work out who the sentence refers to. Students should be made aware that the past tense form war is used to indicate that someone is retired, i.e. this will refer to someone older. Otherwise, singular forms of sein indicate a single person and plural forms a couple. The noun ending should then be used to identify the gender of the person and give the answers. Since there are two comprehension elements here, the students may need to hear the recordings several times.

4. Students note down the job and who it relates to. Job titles are either known nouns or nominal forms of known verbs.

5. Answers on next slide.��Note: Teacher will likely want to display the next slide briefly to support students to lay out their work, numbering 1-8 with three column headings.

Transcript:�1. [Frau Weber] ist Lehrerin von Beruf.

2. [Die Schreibers] sind Ärzte von Beruf.

3. [Herr Müller] war Musiker von Beruf.

4. [Herr Kohler] ist Fußballspieler von Beruf.

5. [Herr und Frau Fischer] waren Künstler von Beruf.

6. [Die Pfeiffers] sind Schauspielerinnen von Beruf.

7. [Die Schusters] waren Lehrerinnen von Beruf.

8. [Frau Becker] war Sängerin von Beruf.

Word frequency (1 is the most frequent word in German): �Musiker [2577], Fußballer [>5000], Künstler [789]�Source: Jones, R.L. & Tschirner, E. (2019). A frequency dictionary of German: core vocabulary for learners. Routledge

_____

24 of 28

Aquí tienes un texto sobre la vida de Diana Trujillo. Debes �escribir el verbo correcto. Las opciones son: fue, hizo, tuvo.

Cuando Diana Trujillo tenía 17 años, _______ a Estados Unidos con solo 300 dólares. Al principio _______ que trabajar limpiando casas. No hablaba inglés, así que _______ un cambio y empezó a aprender el idioma. Soñaba con ser ingeniera, por eso _______ a la universidad.

Un día estaba mirando una revista cuando encontró un artículo sobre mujeres en misiones del espacio. Entonces _______ una idea: ¡trabajar para la NASA! _______ a la academia de la NASA y, poco tiempo después, consiguió un trabajo allí. _______ mucha suerte y logró ser jefa de misiones diferentes. Además, _______ un gran esfuerzo en proyectos importantes y _______ mucho éxito.

En la misión “Marte* 2020” _______ la responsabilidad de dirigir un equipo de quince personas con el objetivo de encontrar vida pasada en Marte.

fue

tuvo

hizo

fue

tuvo

Fue

Tuvo

hizo

tuvo

Diana Trujillo

*Marte = Mars

Transcript: Slide 24

Another part of representation is of course diversity in the choice of authentic texts, and we have taken care to ensure parity in the gender, race, sexuality and religion of the figures who have written, or are represented in, the texts we use in KS3 to discuss historical and contemporary events and achievements.

The activity on irregular past tense forms features the biography of Colombian aerospace engineer Diana Trujillo, who is both a woman excelling in a traditionally male-dominated profession, and a migrant worker with a successful career, challenging the stereotype of the unskilled migrant worker.

------------------------------------------------

Timing: 8 minutes

Aim: to practise understanding of three irregular verbs in the preterite: ‘fue’, ‘hizo’ and ‘tuvo’.

Procedure:

Students read the text and decide which is the correct verb for each gap: ‘fue’, ‘hizo’, or ‘tuvo’.
Then, students listen to the recording and check their answers.
Finally, students can be also encouraged to provide an oral translation of some of the sentences, particularly the ones including the target verbs.

Sources:

‘Mars 2020: la historia de la colombiana Diana Trujillo, una de las líderes del rover Perseverance’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dDNw7IlGTU&t=9s

‘No sabía inglés, salió de Colombia casi sin dinero y hoy es ingeniera de la NASA explorando Marte‘ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofTnZpKdH04

Frequency of unknown vocabulary:

dólar [677]; artículo [458]; academia [2293]; Marte [>5000]; responsabilidad [915]

Some of these words are not glossed as they are more than six letters long and only differ from the English equivalent by one letter.

25 of 28

L’imparfait (pronoms neutres)

The pronouns iel, ielle, iels and ielles are starting to become more widely-used in French. To reflect the increase in usage, particularly among younger generations, the words were recently added to the Petit Robert, a major French dictionary.

Verbs with gender neutral pronouns take the il/elle/on endings:

The development has been criticised by some who oppose the addition of new words to the French language.

Chaque matin, iel commandait un café. They used to order coffee every morning.

For more information:�Labeau (2022)

Transcript: Slide 25

To finish, I’d like to spend a minute discussing our approach to dealing with aspects of inclusive language that are still in flux, taking as an example the case of gender-neutral pronouns in French, which is a far more gendered language than English is.

To cut a long story short, the decision taken by the Le Robert dictionary in October last year to add gender neutral pronouns iel and ielle, which are a portmanteau of the masculine and feminine pronouns il and elle, caused quite a significant amount of controversy amongst government officials and members of the Académie Française, who accused the dictionary of a militant act of ‘wokeism’ and of perpetuating the infiltration of non-French ideologies into the language.

If you’re interested in knowing more about that debate, I’ve included a link here to a very informative presentation on the topic from Emmanuelle Labeau at Aston University, who discusses some of the social and linguistic challenges around the use of iel in more depth. These include the fact that the pronouns are not yet widely used outside the non-binary, trans and queer communities other than by students or journalists writing about inclusive language, rather than actually using it. This raises questions around whether or not the words meet the frequency requirements for inclusion in the dictionary.

She also talks about the fact that iel is not the only gender neutral pronoun that can be used, as other coinages exist, and raises the valid concern that the appearance of the masculine pronoun il at the beginning of iel may continue to perpetuate a long tradition of the masculine forms coming first.

But she does also talk at length the about the fact that the rise in trans and non-binary identities of course necessitates a language change, and she goes into quite a lot of detail about other aspects of inclusive language which are also still in flux, such as nominal and adjectival agreement.

So where does this leave us as developers of resources for French as a second language? Well, in short, it is clear that we cannot make prescriptive decisions about how to teach an evolving aspect of a language, and so at NCELP our approach to this has been to inform students about the discussion, and involve them in it.

--------------------------------------

Timing: 3 minutes

Aim: To introduce use of gender-neutral pronouns with third person singular verb forms; to introduce students to the concept of language change; cultural awareness: Académie française.

Procedure:

1. Click to bring up the example of a gender neutral pronoun used with the -ait ending in imparfait. Students first encountered gender neutral pronouns in French in 9.1.1.1.

2. Clarify the pronunciation of the four gender neutral pronouns (like the word ‘yell’). To listen to examples of pronunciation, see the Petit Robert entry here: https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/iel

3. Click to bring up the note about the addition of iel to the Petit Robert. If students are not familiar with it, the teacher could bring up the online version to show the class. Introduce the idea of language change as variation in the features of a language over time to reflect its usage in society.

4. Click to bring up the note on some controversy around the move, and again to bring up the tweet from François Jolivet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Jolivet) and then the note about the Académie française. With a bit of help with some phrases (venir de, n’avoir rien de) students should be able to get the gist of Jolivet’s comment. They may pick up on his somewhat ironic use of the word ‘wokisme’ ! At higher levels, interested students may have some thoughts to offer on the dichotomy between language change and preservation of the historical roots of a language.

5. Invite students to think about other aspects of language change they have noticed in English, French or another language.

Here are some links to articles on the matter:

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2021/11/17/le-robert-confirme-l-ajout-du-pronom-iel-dans-son-edition-en-ligne_6102440_3224.html

https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/dis-moi-robert/raconte-moi-robert/mot-jour/pourquoi-le-robert-a-t-il-integre-le-mot-iel-dans-son-dictionnaire-en-ligne.html

Word frequency of (near) cognates used (1 is the most frequent word in French):

immortel [>5000], gardien [1924]

Source: Lonsdale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

__________________

26 of 28

Les pronoms* neutres

Morgan, une personne non-binaire, arrive de l’Angleterre �dans la classe. Léa a des questions sur les pronoms neutres.

1. Salut Morgan ! Quels pronoms utilises-tu ?

3. J’ utilise ‘elle’. Tu utilisais ‘iel’ en Angleterre aussi?

4. Non - il y a déjà un pronom neutre en anglais. On dit ‘they’ pour une personne non-binaire. Mais il n’y avait pas un mot comme ça en français. On a créé un nouveau mot alors.

5. Oui, c’est vrai – ‘leur’ et ‘leurs’ sont des mots neutres, mais ‘elles’ et ‘ils’ sont genrés*. Tu disais quoi avant ?

6. Pendant longtemps, je demandais le pronom ‘on.’ Après, j’ utilisais ‘iel’ seulement avec mes amis proches dans la communauté non-binaire. Maintenant, on trouve ce pronom de plus en plus* dans la langue générale, mais la fréquence d’utilisation est moins qu’en anglais et chacun a ses préférences personnelles.

2. Bonjour ! Je préfère ‘iel’. Quels sont tes pronoms ?

tu/on ?

Tu/Je

J’/tu

Tu/on

j’/il

On/tu

tu/il

je/on

chacun/tu

tu/on

j’/on

On/tu

Transcript: Slide 26

For example, in this activity, in which a female French character and a non-binary British character discuss cross-linguistic differences in pronoun use, and the challenges in finding an equivalent for the English pronoun ‘they’, which is already an established grammatical feature of the language.

Now, you may have noticed earlier in the talk that we did make the decision to include the pronouns iel and ielle on our example word list. The intention here was not to offer these as a direct translation of ‘they’, but to ensure the issue is represented in the course materials to encourage wider discussion of the topic, with the overall aim of empowering students to make informed decisions on how they wish to refer to themselves. In practice, students who identify as non-binary or trans are encouraged to use whichever pronouns they like, as long as they are consistent in doing so.

-----------------------------------------

Timing: 8 minutes [1/2]

Aim: written recognition of singular forms of verbs in the present and imperfect tenses; cultural awareness (inclusive language); reading comprehension.

Procedure:

1. Students read the text, and choose the missing pronouns based on the verb endings. Note that there are a mix of verbs in the present and imperfect.

2. Click to reveal missing pronouns.

3. Draw attention to the very last sentence. It is important to note that although iel is becoming more widely used, it is not integrated into the language in the same way that they is commonly used in English. There are many different gender-neutral pronouns, and not all people who identify as non-binary use a gender-neutral pronoun. It is important to ask individuals how they would like to be addressed, using phrases such as Quels pronoms utilises-tu and Quels sont tes pronoms ? as exemplified above.

See here for more information:

https://divergenres.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/guide-grammaireinclusive-final.pdf

https://lavieenqueer.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/petit-dico-de-francais-neutre-inclusif/

4. Click again to reveal comprehension questions.

5. Answers are on the next slide.

6. As a follow-up discussion, invite students to share any information about inclusivity in other languages they know.

Word frequency of (near) cognates used (1 is the most frequent word in French): �neutre [2785], préférence [2970], personnel [398], rare [1233], exemple [259]

Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

Word frequency of unknown words used (1 is the most frequent word in French): �genré [>5000], pronom [>5000]

Source: Londsale, D., & Le Bras, Y. (2009). A Frequency Dictionary of French: Core vocabulary for learners London: Routledge.

27 of 28

4. Summary and next steps

1. NCELP and the new GCSE Subject Content

2. Resources to support building students’ familiarity with the language and culture of global communities responsibly

3. Resources to support understanding of social diversity and communication of personal identity��Looking ahead …��- Schemes of Work for KS4 (Years 10-11, ages 14-16)�- Supporting teachers and Awarding Organisations

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Transcript: Slide 27

And that brings me to the end of this presentation, in which I’ve talked about NCELP and its role in supporting the implementation of the new GCSE subject content relating to diversity, inclusion and representation.

I have to say I am very proud of what we have achieved here so far in this regard, and going forward I hope to be able to speak to you more about the schemes of work we are creating for KS4, and the work that we are doing to support teachers and Awarding Organisations as they work towards implementing the new recommendations in their classrooms and in tests.

In the meantime, thank you very much for listening. You’ll find references on the next slide, and then further example of activities in the appendices.

I look forward to your comments and questions.

28 of 28

References

British Council. (2021). Language Trends 2021. https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/language_trends_2021_report.pdf

Department for Education. (2022, 4 January). GCSE Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) subject content review. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/gcse-modern-foreign-languages-mfl-subject-content-review.

Labeau, E. (2022, 20 January). When a pronoun makes the French 'iel’. Aston Centre for Applied Linguistics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqDwqfLzx88

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes