Why is it that after a French lesson you can’t pack your bag fast enough, yet here I can’t part you from your paintbrush?” I am covering a Year 11 art class and the bell has gone, but Tim and his friends are still engrossed in their work. I am pretty sure I can predict his answer and he does not let me down.
“You get involved in what you are doing and you don’t want to stop,” he explains. “It’s different with French.” Especially if you are a boy. Every modern languages teacher knows it from bitter experience and the statistics bear it out. Sixteen per cent more girls than boys achieve A*-C grades at GCSE and of the successful male candidates, few continue into the sixth-form or beyond.
To understand what lies behind this male malaise, a team from Homerton College, Cambridge, led by Barry Jones, principal lecturer in modern languages, conducted a study for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Using questionnaires, interviews and discussion groups, they elicited the views of Year 9 and Year 11 students from seven schools, focusing mostly on boys but including girls to gain a female perspective.
One characteristic of language learning which sets it apart from other subjects is the content. “Boys like exploring ideas,” Barry Jones explains. “There is not much scope for that when you are practising a dialogue at the baker’s. One solution might be to spend a little time examining the relationships between English and other languages. They expressed an interest in that.”
Amassing vocabulary is another turn-off. As one boy put it: “It’s all words, words, words.” And while teachers may emphasise that communication is the name of the game, this is not reflected in the way work is marked or higher grades awarded at GCSE. One finding that comes as no surprise is the problem posed by the cumulative nature of language acquisition. “We all know the scenario,” he says. “For the first few minutes, Gary isn’t listening, misses out, can’t carry on and the downward spiral begins. That’s why it is so crucial to keep recycling language long after the initial flurry of all-singing, all-dancing tricks is over.”
He has a word of warning for teachers who “leap up and down” to engage interest. As one student in the survey remarked: “It looks good but I haven’t a clue what she’s up to.” What does count is the nature of the activity. “They like competitions, games, moving around, moving words around,” he says.
One of the clearest messages to emerge was the importance to the learner of understanding what is going on. “We have good reasons for our strategies but we don’t share them,” says Barry Jones. “Many pupils have no idea why they do choral repetition or listening tasks. Teachers may say they don’t have time, but they have to make it. Two minutes’ explanation in English can make all the difference.”
Recommended strategies * Every new topic brings another long list of vocabulary. Sugar the pill by encouraging the reuse of material learned in other contexts.
* Achieve a balance between rewarding grammatical accuracy and crediting successful communication.
* Involve pupils in their own learning by offering an element of choice.
* Ditch the tape from time to time. “Tapes are an important resource, but they are also disembodied and impersonal. The teacher has a face,” says Barry Jones.
* When boys fall behind, offer remedial help. One school which runs a departmental “surgery” has been surprised by the high uptake.
* Give language a meaningful context. Establish e-mail links with pupils abroad, bring in the foreign language assistant, kidnap other native speakers.
* Don’t be ruled by the course book, which is often unimaginative. To quote one boy: “I’m fed up telling you I’ve got blue eyes and a hamster.”
* Create activities that give pupils time to ask questions.
* In theory, knowledge of one foreign language makes learning a second easier, yet this is not the experience of the respondents. Draw attention to the similarities and differences and compare with the mother tongue.
* Set precise, achievable goals.
* Above all, be firm. “When we muck about she should come down on us like a ton of bricks,” was the verdict of some of the most recalcitrant boys.
“Boys’ performance in modern foreign languages” by Barry Jones et al is available from CILT, Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, pound;8.Tel: 020 7379 5101www.cilt.org.ukpublicationsequal.htm
