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Using wikis to promote independent work in the 14-19 MFL classroom
Principles of teaching
Wikis are an excellent tool for promoting collaborative writing. As they work in a similar way to blogs or websites such as Facebook or MySpace, students can immediately see the attraction of the medium.
Students can be given a topic to write about or, having established house rules (or 'netiquette'), can be given free rein to write on topics of their own choosing. For writing, students may work individually, or collaboratively in groups or pairs, to add content to a text, a story or a dialogue, which a teacher has begun but which is being developed interactively by the whole class. The narrative will change and develop with each contribution and so the students feel the need to explore new areas of vocabulary or grammar. They can leave questions on the wiki regarding vocabulary or grammar points for the teacher to answer. In this way, the wiki becomes a dynamic tool not only for generating language but also for interaction with the teacher and can be a constantly evolving resource for all students to consult.
Monitoring and correcting
The teacher can monitor the content and the accuracy of the students’ contributions and respond as needed. Contributions which breach the established netiquette or which are not in the target language can be deleted. Recurring grammar problems can be identified and codified, for example by changing the colour of all the German nouns which are missing a capital letter or by putting into italics all the French past participles that are without their acute accent. The teacher can then decide whether to explain the codification of the errors and exemplify correction or to invite the students to reflect on the grammar and work out for themselves how to improve it. Because anyone with the password to the site can edit the content, it will not necessarily be the individual who made the original grammatical error who actually corrects it. Alternatively, having identified and codified recurring grammar problems, the wiki could be called up on the interactive whiteboard and issues of accuracy could be tackled collectively in class. If the teacher has access to an ICT suite, or to a room with an interactive whiteboard and networked laptops, students could contribute in turn to a wiki which has been projected onto the interactive whiteboard.
Developing cultural awareness and understanding
Wikis can also be used with A-Level students as a way of exploring cultural themes in a collaborative way, perhaps as a collective project to be completed during the summer holiday between Years 12 and 13 when it is easy to lose touch with the target language. Questions can be placed on the wiki relating perhaps to a book students have to read or to a film they must watch. Students can then respond not only to the questions but to each other’s contributions. Links can be placed on the wiki to authentic target language websites which may provide additional insights into the book or film being studied.
Focus on revision
Given the appeal of the medium to students and the ease with which content can be added by teachers and accessed by students, wikis are an excellent tool for promoting a focus on vocabulary and grammar as an aid to exam revision. The content of a revision wiki might include
- word-processed documents or presentations containing themed vocabulary lists, sentence patterns, grammar points and exercises or advice on how to revise;
- interactive exercises for practising vocabulary or grammar, created using software such as Hot Potatoes, which is easy to use, downloadable and free to schools;
- past exam papers, exam specifications or revision guides downloadable from the exam boards’ websites;
- podcasts created using software such as Podium on PCs or Garageband on Macs;
- links to revision websites such as BBC Bitesize, including Bitesize Games;
- a web counter to show students that their peers are revising too.
Interactive revision activities, created using Hot Potatoes software, can provide a surprisingly engaging way of practising vocabulary and grammar, particularly, but not exclusively, with less motivated students. Activities, which are in essence multiple choice tests and which might generate complaint if done as pen and paper revision work, can be transformed by the wiki into something altogether more appealing. The activities can be introduced and practised in class by accessing the wiki on a computer or laptop linked to an interactive whiteboard or data projector. They can subsequently be set as homework or revision tasks. Hot Potatoes activities can be crammed with key words from past papers and programmed to select at random a limited number of words from the list, present them in random order and rearrange the multiple choice options each time. This can provide novelty, and even enjoyment, that masks the essentially repetitive nature of revision. Working with the wiki in class can provide the momentum needed to ensure that students continue to prepare themselves for their exam independently during study leave.
