Useful websites for the MFL classroom.

I am constantly looking for new websites to keep my students enthused and engaged in their learning.

Here are some of my most used sites.

www.memrise.com

Brilliant for helping vocabulary to stick. Students are shown the word/phrase in the target language as well as a picture which links to the word/phrase. Students can choose from a selection of photographs or add their own. The pictures act as a memory aid to help the students to remember the words/phrases. Students build up points for every question they get right. Their points then build up and are shown on the leaderboard. 

Students can also follow each other's progress and compete on the leaderboard for extra motivation.

Each student needs to create an account and then select the language they are learning. It's also available as an app.

www.memorizenow.com 

This website is great for helping students to learn their controlled assessments. They need to type in their text and then click memorize. Words will be omitted and they have to try and remember what is missing. There is also a flashcard function which checks they understand each word.

In addition to this, there is the function to only show the first letter of each word, therefore challenging students to remember exactly what they wrote.

My students absolutely love www.lerndeutsch.org.uk  There is a wide range of topics for both KS3 and GCSE German and a great selection of games including "penalty shoot out" and "Fling the teacher". Also on the site, are links to Polish and Spanish resources.

www.quizlet.com  is another great website for vocabulary learning. You can create your own games as well as using pre-made ones.  There is the option to use flashcards, scatter match-up or spell out the word. It's also available as an app.

As well as having a languages site www.bbc.co.uk/languages  which itself is brilliant, the BBC also offer short video clips which are perfect for the classroom as well as for homework. There are clips in a variety of subjects across primary and secondary levels. 

Each clip has a list of keywords which you can link to your lesson as well as the duration of the clip. To get the most out of the clips, I give students a list of words to listen out for and as a challenge, a list of questions to answer.