TILT Show – Technology in Language Teaching

On 21st January, the MFL (Modern Foreign Languages) department hosted a one day event on Technology in Language Teaching in association with Sanako UK at Hayes School. Sanako provide the 33 position Lab 300 installation in the Digital Language Centre (DLC) at
Hayes.

The seminar, attended by 30 delegates from state and independent schools in the South East region, offered an opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and skills related to the use of technology in language teaching and learning. Steve Whittle, Deputy Headteacher and former Head of Languages at Hayes, outlined how the DLC was set up and what an asset it is for the school in making language learning more interactive and engaging for students.

Keynote speaker Wendy Adeniji, Regional Support Adviser for the New Curriculum & ICT Specialist, gave an excellent presentation on using multimedia activities to help teachers deliver the new secondary curriculum for MFL, by providing stimulating resources to get students actively involved in speaking, listening and understanding those tricky grammar issues. She
showed various interactive websites, including Voki where students can create custom made cartoon identities and record their own voice as a podcast. The other speaker, Sarah Wullink from the University of Nottingham, led a practical session on creating audio visual exercise materials.

In our hands on sessions in the DLC, we used a sample Digital Learning Plan, with hyperlinks to audio and visual resources, websites, and specialist language software. We demonstrated the functions of the Sanako Lab 300 system, which enables teacher/student communication, including linking students up in pairs to practise speaking to each other through headphones.
We received excellent feedback from the delegates attending and both Hayes MFL department and Sanako felt it was a very worthwhile and successful day.

Carole Howarth, MFL IT Support