Now is the time that many languages teachers will be thinking, as you peruse your new GCSE modern languages specifications: “Shall we opt for the written coursework option or the end-of-course writing examination?” Writing forms 25 per cent of the GCSE exam, whether as coursework or as a final exam. Each of the three main examining bodies, AQA, Edexcel and OCR, offers a choice of doing all the written part of the exam as coursework or all of it as an end-of-course examination.

Although examining bodies do not need to be informed until well into Year 11, it is a good idea to let students know as early as possible in Year 10 if they are going to be submitting written coursework.

Look at the workload question first - if you decide on the coursework option, you are taking on quite a lot of marking that would have been done for you by the examining body. If you do not want this responsibility, you need read no further. Yet marking coursework does bring its own advantages, encouraging members of a department to come together to moderate their students’ work, thus sharing good practice while monitoring progress and standards across a year group.

Rosanna Raimato of Sir Bernard Lovell School, a language college in Bristol, certainly finds the advantages outweigh the extra marking burden:

“We have found that the coursework element gives us a focus as we move through topic areas, as well as allowing us to develop students’ sense of purpose as they progress.”

The motivation factor of coursework is a significant consideration for students. Some young people respond better when they know the assignment they are working on might count towards the “real exam”. You will recognise the plaintive cry: “I couldn’t do my French homework because I had to finish my geography coursework.” Why shouldn’t French have its turn? But maybe you do not relish the thought of the inevitable chasing up that occurs when the coursework is not handed in on time.

Lisa Littlewood of Brockworth School in Gloucester explains how motivation was an important factor in her department’s decision to choose the written coursework option: “It focuses the students’ minds on our subject, giving it a similar importance to other subjects that contain coursework elements,” she says.

Bilingual dictionaries are no longer to be allowed in the final exam, but if you are not yet ready to consign all those dictionary worksheets to the bin, consider their usefulness to coursework. Training students to use dictionaries efficiently to complete their assignments will not be time wasted. We have not yet said goodbye to such howlers as: “J’ai gauche mon sac dans le train.”

Consider carefully, however, especially if your students have only been learning the language for a short time, the amount of progress they are likely to make during Years 10 and 11. You may feel that completing assignments during the first half of Year 10 that will count towards the final mark would be unfair on the students and that they may get a better grade if they wait and take the writing exam at the end of Year 11, when they have had plenty of practice.

Helen Myers of Ashcombe School, a language college in Dorking, finds this possible negative outweighed by a positive factor: “Written coursework is grouped into themes. Assignments can be undertaken while the language of the theme in question is fresh in the students’ memories.”

A complaint about the coursework option is that it is easier to cheat than with more traditional assessment methods. There are various ways to reduce this risk. Examining bodies now provide special sheets for the teacher to comment on the first draft, helping to ensure that each student receives the same level of comment and rendering the whole exercise more objective. You are asked to sign each piece you submit to the moderator to certify that it is the student’s own work. If you do not feel happy about doing this, then the coursework option is probably not right for you.

A recurrent feature in the new GCSE specifications is the use of ICT, and here coursework has an important role to play. The various pieces can be wordprocessed, so that, instead of having to rewrite their final version from scratch, students can save a draft file and amend it in light of the information on the comments sheet. They can also present their work in interesting ways and add graphs and photographs.

In their research for their coursework tasks, students can use the internet (for example via www.yahoo.fr) alongside other sources. The choice is not straightforward, but considering these points should help clarify whether written coursework will be appropriate for your students.

Jackie Coe is a freelance consultant for modern languages and has moderated GCSE coursework for various examining bodies