Evidence-based strategies for effective and enjoyable grammar instruction
- What is the role of grammar in the language curriculum at different levels of proficiency?
- How many and which grammar structures can be realistically be taught at KS3 and 4?
- What does it mean to have acquired grammar?
- What level of accuracy can be expected at each Key Stage?
- How should grammar structures be sequenced?
- How should we teach grammar across all four skills?
- How should we feedback and assess?
This course will answer the above questions, drawing on Cognitive Load Theory and Applied Linguistics research arguing that an intelligent mix of explicit and implicit instruction is the most effective alternative to the traditional PPP (presentation, practice, production) approach.
Techniques drawn and/or adapted from Skill-building, Input-processing and Usage-based instruction will be presented and their rationale discussed.
Founder, owner and CEO of the leading language learning website The Language Gym, Gianfranco Conti is an applied linguistics MA and PhD graduate with many years of classroom experience. He has taught Modern Languages for nearly 30 years both at primary, secondary and university levels.
He has researched the impact of metacognitive strategies training and error correction on L2 essay writing under the supervision of Oxford University Professor Ernesto Macaro both during his PhD and a large-scale project in English comprehensive schools documented in Professor Macaro's 2001 book. In his current role as Visiting Fellow at the University of Reading, he has lexicogrammar acquisition, listening instruction, metacognition, error correction and learner autonomy as his main research interests.
Formerly head of languages at various schools in England and abroad where he has developed and implemented his instructional approach (Extensive Processing Instruction), he is currently a renowned and highly sought-after conference speaker and CPD provider very active in the UK, South-East Asia, Middle East and Australia. He delivers keynotes in major international events all year around, conducts more than a hundred workshops for language teachers a year and visits many schools in the same period of time either to provide professional development or to help them improve their curriculum design and delivery.
His mission is to make current Cognitive Science and Applied Linguistics research available to the busy classroom practitioner and to translate it in implementable and impactful instructional strategies which make languages accessible for all.
He is well-known internationally for his teaching resources that have won him the TES Best contributor award and have been downloaded over 4,500,000 times by over 100,000 teachers around the world.
He runs a very influential blog on MFL pedagogy, The Language Gym (gianfrancoconti.com), which has won him several international awards. The professional development group he founded on Facebook, ‘Global Innovative Language Teachers’ (aka GILT) is one of the largest and fastest-growing communities of its genre.
Gianfranco is also a prolific book writer. In the last five years he has co-authored with Steve Smith the best-selling handbooks for MFL professionals, ‘The Language Teacher Toolkit’, ‘Breaking the sound barrier: teaching learners how to listen’ and 'Memory: what every language teacher should know. His most popular book, "Breaking the sound barrier", lays out the principles of the language teaching method he has created, E.P.I. (aka: Extensive Processing Instruction), a usage-based approach which has been adopted by thousands of language educators worldwide.
He has also published the best-selling Sentence builders series of workbooks aimed at classroom and independent learning for beginner to intermediate learners of Spanish, French, German and Italian, based on 'EPI', written with his former colleague Dylan Viñales, which is being currently adapted to Irish, Welsh, Dutch and other languages. He is also currently working on a series of revision books aimed at GCSE Modern Language learners, two of which have already been published, whilst German and Italian are still in the works.
His Twitter handle is @gianfrancocont9
Cost: £85 per delegate
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