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thelinguist.uberflip.com AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 9 FEATURES This can be undertaken individually, in pairs, or with groups competing against each other. Packaging an activity as a game, albeit a simple one, has a huge impact. I once observed a Year 10 boys' class being asked by their teacher to conjugate the verb pouvoir, with each boy standing up to say the correct part of the verb. They were challenged to declare how quickly they would be able to do this accurately and were desperate to prove that they could achieve their rather optimistic estimate. Overestimation of ability is another trait commonly observed in boys. The older pupils in my research often lamented the disappearance of games. One boy underlined their importance when he was asked to rank languages on a scale with his favourite subject at the top: 'It's nearly at the bottom for me… That little bit at the bottom is just for the games.' Learning for a purpose Boys are less inclined to learn if there is no clear purpose or information gap. One class of boys were learning how to describe themselves with little enthusiasm. The task became much more engaging when the teacher asked one boy to describe someone else in the class and the rest of students to guess who was being described. For many boys, MFL is seen as a non- serious subject in which they do more speaking than in any other area of the curriculum. This is perhaps why pupils often come into class asking 'Are we doing any work today, Miss?'. It is important, therefore, to emphasise how speaking is a means to an end too. Outlining the purposes of speaking in the aims of the lesson, and reviewing them both during the lesson and at the end, is a good way of doing this. Boys are less likely to produce much language if they are describing their own lives, rather than someone whose life is more interesting. To this end, it is worth encouraging them to be creative. Rather than describing their own room, they can describe a celebrity's and then challenge the rest of the class to guess whose room it is when they read it aloud. Similarly, they can take on an alternative identity when asked to describe themselves. One of my students once described himself as waking up at midnight, dressing in black, feeling thirsty and leaving the house. The rest of the class guessed that his alter ego was, of course, Count Dracula. Tuning into boys' interests A good way of finding out about boys' interests, and where they feel their strengths and weaknesses lie in languages, is to ask them to complete a basic learning styles questionnaire. All pupils respond very positively if you make it clear that you have planned your lessons to accommodate their responses. My book, Getting the Buggers into Languages, 2 contains an example of a simple questionnaire. Engaging boys' interest in sport is helpful, but we cannot all be football pundits, and not all boys are football fans. The Tour de France is a good alternative, with lots of potential for exploring such angles as the French towns cyclists pass through, and cyclists' profiles. Helen Myers' website is an excellent resource (www.mflresources.org.uk/french.htm#Culture). Culture is an area of interest to many boys, but it is often neglected in lessons. One simple activity involves presenting pupils with a 'Fascinating facts' sheet about the countries where the target language is spoken, and challenging them to produce a more fascinating fact. The class then votes for the most interesting fact. What about the girls? While this article explores strategies that can be seen as boy-friendly, we should remember that many girls also underachieve. The key to raising achievement lies in high-quality teaching that offers personalised learning. Reviewing the way in which we teach all individuals should benefit girls' learning too. A pedagogy for boys may be unfeasible, or unnecessary, but what is clear is that boys are generally more sensitive to poor teaching than girls, who may naturally be more at ease with language-based subjects. Notes 1 Nuffield Foundation, 2000, Languages: The next generation, London, The Nuffield Foundation 2 Barton, A, 2006, Getting the Buggers into Languages, Continuum IMAGES: © SHUTTERSTOCK