NACELL best practice guide

Introduction

From 1999-2003, CILT managed the The Early Language Learning initiative, a DfES funded project to promote and develop early language learning (ELL). The project involved a considerable amount of work with schools and Local Education Authorities (LEAs), as well as all the national agencies which have an interest in ELL.

As part of the development and dissemination of successful practice, CILT set up a Good Practice Project (1999-2001) involving eighteen partners in a range of schools and settings. This was followed by the Development of Early Language Learning Project (2001-2003 ) which continued this action research firmly rooted in classroom practice.

CILT's work with schools and LEAs has provided useful information about different models of provision, as well as numerous examples of best practice in planning, teaching and learning. The NACELL best practice guide brings together possible curriculum models and a selection of examples in the form of case studies, guidance and schemes of work.

The materials in this guide represent only a small sample of some of the work currently going on around the country. They have become available thanks to the very generous support and hard work of many individual teachers, schools and LEAs across the country, who have agreed to share their work.

The NACELL best practice guide contains:

• models of provision, which can be applied to different schools and situations, including community languages;
• complete schemes of work and lesson plans for use in Key Stages 1 and 2;
• information on aspects of staffing and training;
• case studies and advice on planning and teaching;
• practical ideas for introducing and practising new language and games;
• guidance on planning and transition to secondary schools;
• case studies and advice on linking with schools abroad and using ICT.

The contents are shown below. Click on whichever area you would like to see.

• Sources of support
• Curricular models
• Who will teach MFL?
• Planning the curriculum
• Effective methods
• Schemes of work and lesson plans
• Cross-curricular links
• Assessment and recording
• Smooth transition to secondary
• Making links abroad
• ICT

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Acknowledgements

CILT is grateful for the generous support of the many teachers, schools and local education authorities across the country who have agreed to share their work. They include:

• Tara Deevoy, Vikki Schulze, Alison Wright, Frances Chiverton and Gloria Van der Woude and schools in the DfES Best Practice Research Project, Kent;
• Primary MFL Advisory Teachers, Liverpool Education and Lifelong Learning
  Service;
• London Borough of Enfield LEA Advisory Service and Middlesex University;
• Marion Vincent, French teacher and Simon Burch, ICT Co-ordinator, Hadley Wood School, London Borough of Enfield LEA;
• The Inspection and Advisory Service, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames;
• Susan Brown, Stewart Headlam School, London Borough of Tower Hamlets;
• Jamal Uddin, London Borough of Tower Hamlets LEA, Mother Tongue Education;
• Ted Last, former Headteacher, Buckland CoE. School, Oxfordshire;
• Mary Love, peripatetic German and Music teacher, Oxfordshire primary schools;
• Christina Skarbek, Oxfordshire Comenius Centre;
• Cynthia Martin, Universities of Reading and Southampton;
• Jo Cole, Rosanna Raimato, Mary Rose, International Learning and Research Centre and teachers in South Gloucestershire who contributed to a centre-based QCA research project (2002);
• Rosemary Bevis, Marple Hall School, Stockport;
• Therese Comfort, Headlands School, York.