Institution: North Warwickshire and Hinckley
College
Introduction
The students have two hours
of Spanish per week throughout the academic year and they all work
towards NOCN accreditation. It is easy to imagine that this kind of
student is not used to sitting still in a classroom so the teachers
have to be imaginative and innovative to get their attention. The
prospect of an exchange visit to a Spanish college with an active
interest in motor sports helps with motivation.
Read full case study
Associated video clips
Description of lesson - Directions for motor sports
students
Tutor: Belen Lamperez
The video clips below show good practice in the teaching of
non-specialist language learners, following a vocational course.
The learners are 16-19 year old students on a motor sports course,
mainly boys, who are learning Spanish for the first time. The topic
of 'directions' is a general topic but is taught within the context
of the students’ vocational course. All resources, activities and
language have been carefully created to be both relevant and
interesting to the learners’ needs.
Making the language learned
relevant
It is important that non-specialist language learners
understand why they are learning the language and what relevance it
has to their main area of study. In this clip, the teacher explains
why a general topic like ‘directions’ is relevant to motor sports
students.
View video »
Inspiring confidence
It is important to inspire confidence in
non-specialist language learners, especially boys, and encourage
them to have a go even if it isn’t perfect. Hear how the teacher of
this group of 16-19 year olds does this, and see the students take
part.
View video »
Using fun activities (2
videos)
After having practised all the necessary vocabulary,
students are given a fun activity in which to practise their new
language. In this activity, students get to move toy cars around a
mini town. The use of the cars is amusing yet appealing to the
learners, it gets them moving around and they are able to see the
usefulness of what they are learning. The language produced is not
perfect, yet easily understandable.
View first video »
View second video
»
The interviews:
Tutor: Belen Lamperez
What is the difference between teaching an applied language
course and a general course?
Hear about the importance of making the language
course relevant to the vocational subject.
View Video »
How do you motivate students for whom language is not their main
learning aim?
Hear how the creation of relevant resources and the
use of computers can help to motivate boys. Activities which match
their needs are important and one activity described is where they
are asked to create a catalogue about cars in Spanish. Hear about
the importance of changing activities regularly (every 15 minutes)
to keep learners interested and how helping them to use some
technical vocabulary can improve motivation.
View video »
How do you design a tailor-made syllabus for a
vocationally-related language course?
Hear about the need to create tailor-made resources
and how the materials needed to teach such a group cannot be found
in text books. It is important to match the learning preferences of
students. In this case, the teacher has taken into account that
motor sports students learn well by following demonstrations and
being active, moving from one activity to another quite quickly and
using visual clues.
View video »