Weald Student Feedback on national languages website

Our students have been getting to grips with the MYLO (MY Languages Online) Goverment funded language learning website recently and feedback from our students has been posted on the CILT Languages website "Languages Work". Take a look to see how our students are finding it!

(Students - you will find your comments under your MYLO screen names).


Mlle Hardman

Homework / Les Devoirs / Los Deberes... by Miss E Hardman

This is a great site - based on a recent discussion I had with one of my year 10 French class I've called my wall "Homework / Les Devoirs / Los Deberes" - what kind of languages homework would you like to do? Click on "Post a sticky" to add your ideas. (UPDATE - due to an error I have recreated the wall - thanks to those who added ideas previously but unfortunately we could not see them. Please try again! Thank you - Miss Hardman)

WOK YEAR 7s - why learning languages is fun

What we like about languages at Weald of Kent!!!
Hello! What we like about learning languages at Weald of Kent is that the lessons are not just boring writing and copying, but we do drama, posters, projects and many more interesting things to get the new language into our brains to help us in later life
Katrina and Ellen

I think that German is great and didn’t think it would be as good as it has been.

MFL @ W.O.K IS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Emma

I find German not too difficult and fun to learn. I like learning new words with different meanings. I think it is hard to learn verb endings but the posters and leaflets make it easier to remember. It is nice to be able to say things that people don’t understand. We also use great websites like KLAR and LINGUASCOPE. Valerie

WHY I WANT TO CARRY ON LEARNING JAPANESE

I have really enjoyed learning Japanese over the past two years as it has been interesting and fun, I have learnt a lot and have found out a vast amount about Japanese culture as well as the language.
We have done 4 external exams to get certificates. I liked doing this as it gets you used to the pressure of exams and I also got the chance to make sure that I knew and understood all of the new vocabulary that I have learnt.
I have learnt so much in the past two years. When I came to Weald in September 2007 I didn’t know any Japanese and now I know a lot of vocabulary. I have also learnt hiragana, katakana and kanji. This has been difficult at times but very interesting and is good to now know even though sometimes I still get stuck on a few symbols that I need to learn a bit more to enable me to use them with more confidence.
I have chosen to carry on with Japanese and take it for GCSE. I chose to continue with it because it is an interesting language and this way I can embrace learning even more and not forget what I have learnt in the previous couple of years. I have learnt so much Japanese now that I just want to know more.
In Year 10 or 11 there is a Japanese trip and I cannot wait for that and I am looking forward to the next three years in Japanese.


Melissa Year 8

STARTING JAPANESE

This is what Year 7 students say about learning Japanese at Weald...

"At first I thought that Japanese would be really difficult but now I've been doing it for a whole year it's not. I actually understand the language! The most difficult part was learning hiragana. English only has 26 letters. Hiragana is over 46 symbols and sounds."

"I found travel easiest to learn. I found remembering the 46 hiragana the hardest."

"Interesting and fun things about Japanese: playing games while learning, working in groups, doing origami, creating things, being able to write hiragana with fun added!"

"At first I thought Japanese was going to be really hard but by the time I was on my 5th lesson I found it easier. We learnt about nationality and pets which were fun to learn, as everything is."

"At WOK Japanese is great fun and extremely interesting. It gives us a chance not only to learn the language but to explore their culture as well. Learning the Japanese script has been interesting but very challenging as there are 4 Japanese alphabets! (hiragana, kanji, katakana and romaji!!) At the start of the year most of us knew little to no Japanese, but now we can confidently give a short speech about ourselves to the entire class!"

Listen to some of our interviews!

http://mbm-wok.podomatic.com/entry/2009-07-12T14_55_05-07_00
http://mbm-wok.podomatic.com/entry/2009-07-12T14_43_30-07_00

Project 1: Avatars - Student Reviews

By using the avatar Voki to create a person who speaks French and is set at my school helped me learn new skills in ICT. I now know how to set up my own avatar on a website quickly and easily. I have also learnt how to record my own voice into a small sound clip and upload it to a computer, and then upload that file onto my website as well as a photo of the school too.

The Voki website is useful for students, as you learn new ICT skills for avatars, and can listen to your accent and learn how to pronounce the words correctly.

Becky Yr 10



We created voki’s about our school by using photos of its surroundings such as the foyer, the canteen and the school field, so that they can be used by year 6 pupils to enable an understanding of the feel of the school. As with any new technology we had our issues, for example whilst trying to upload photos to set as our background, it took a while and would not always work.

By using avatars it created a fun tool for learning and incorporated the use of ICT, blogs etc, safely. By creating voki’s it can allow students to become more confident whilst speaking.

Katrina Yr 10

I had never created an Avatar before this and so was unsure what to expect, however I soon found creating Voki’s fun and a good way to improve my French- especially speaking as I could record myself and hear my fluency and pronunciation.

Sometimes the software was difficult to use as it did not always log on or upload backgrounds/sound files correctly. I found this tool useful for student learning as we had never done anything like this before, however it was prone to software difficulties. It was useful for the teacher as they can hear pupil’s pronunciation in the language and how they are in ICT. The software would be useful in other subjects – mainly languages as it would improve the pupils’ language skills.

Laura Yr10



I have never used Voki.com before so was a new experience for me, which I enjoyed greatly. It was useful for student learning because recording my French paragraph helped me improve and practise my French and it also helped me recap the school topic. It is also useful for the teacher because they can listen to my French accent and can watch the progess in my accent. This site would also be useful in art because you could upload your painting/work and talk about it etc It would also be helpful in ICT to help with your IT skills.

Helen Yr 10



Before using Voki.com I did not have an account before. I found using Voki very safe and friendly to use and also fairly easy. Using Voki is useful for student learning because you had the opportunity to speak French after the exam. It is a useful tool for the teacher as it involves the pupils to speak French. For languages Voki is useful and people got to improve the pronunciation of the French words. This website would be useful in other subject, such as Spanish and Japanese. Overall I enjoyed using Voki.

Suzi Yr 10




Using the Web 2.0 tool was user friendly because it was fairly easy to use.
Using the Easy Speak microphones were good because we could record our voices and then the teacher could say on what we could improve on with our accents, and the microphones were easy and effective to use. The teacher can monitor the progress that is being made too. We can practice our accents and our writing skills using the Voki’s and it was quite fun making them into avatars of ourselves. It can be useful for learning in other subjects such as ICT – to practice with technology, Humanities – for research into the subject.

Lucia Yr 10



Using the web tools was easy but it helped that other people already had experience with them. It is useful for what we used it for but I don’t see how vokis could be incorporated into everyday lessons, but something similar would be useful for the other departments too. Another way in which they could be used is in ICT lessons to learn about blogs and avatars. They helped improve our accents and French writing, and would be useful for language teachers to use for this purpose.

Sophie Yr 10



I have never used an account like this before but now that I have I found it very fun. It was use friendly as it was clearly set out with clear instructions. I think it is a good idea for student learning as it can let students from other schools or primary schools look at what are school looks like through the backgrounds and they can hear our opinions on the school. It is useful for teachers as it is a fun way to engage students with talking about the school. I think it is useful for languages because it’s a fun way to speak and present different languages. It could also be used in many other subjects such as English where people could talk about recent books that they have read in class with a picture of the book in the background. It could also be used to show other students what they have been doing in Drama.

Sasha Yr 10



[Read Harri's review on the previous post below...]

Harri Yr 10



I have enjoyed using the Voki’s, as they are fun to use and was a different way to use our knowledge of French. I think that they would be useful for younger students who have just started learning the language, as it is an interesting way to learn and it encourages them to use what they are learning.

Vickie Yr 10

I have enjoyed learning about the Voki’s and new forms of ICT I hadn’t heard about it, because they were a fun way of learning and allowed us to continue to use our French even after the exam. I think the Blog and Voki’s will be useful for year 6 students wanting to learn about Weald of Kent languages. It also presents interesting ways in which we learn and work within school.

Alexandra Yr 10

I found the Voki project very enjoyable and useful for our language and confidence skills. Recording our own scripts and characters gave us freedom and helped us with useful French school vocabulary. I really liked using this software as it was easy to use and good for student learning. This was also easy for teachers as it kept us busy and was not complicated. However, I think that this software is best used for languages as it may be too easy to create Vokis in other subjects.

Maddy Yr 10

Year 9 French Exchange, Buc 20-27 May 2009

On est de retour! We have just come back from another successful exchange trip to Buc near Paris. Instead of the teachers writing up the experience we asked our Weald students to answer a few questions about what they learned about France and the French during their stay.

Enjoy their responses below:



What were our best bits?

The hot weather.
The Paris boat ride.
Visiting Eurodisney.
Visiting the school.
Meeting great new people.
Becoming closer to people.
The P.E. lesson at school.
The Eiffel Tower (4 km high!).
Everything apart from leaving.
Visiting the gardens of Versailles.
Experiencing a different house and lifestyle.
The whole trip was immense and I didn't want to leave.
Visiting Montmartre with my French family on the weekend.
Staying in with my French family in the evenings and playing games.


What new French phrases did we learn?

Vraiment? (Really?)
On y va! (Let’s go!)
Je suis désole (I am sorry)
Je suis fatigué (I am tired)
J’ai une rhume (I have a cold)
À demain (see you tomorrow)
La même chose (the same thing)
De rien (no problem / it’s nothing)
Tourne à gauche/droite (Turn left/right)
Tu as bien dormi? (Did you sleep well?)
Je me suis trompé de chemin (I went the wrong way)
Vous prenez la carte bleue? (Do you accept debit card ?)
As-tu besoin de quelque chose? (Do you need anything ?)
Je regrette, je ne comprends pas. (I’m sorry, I don’t understand)
Je voudrais boire quelque chose (I would like to drink something)
Je voudrais du pain s’il vous plait ( I would like some bread please)
Quand est-ce que je peux prendre une douche? (When can I have a shower ?)

Familiar language

Quoi? (What?)
Salut! (Hi / bye)
Tu veux? (Do you want [some / any]?)
Allez, allez, vite, vite ! (Go / hurry / quickly!)
T’as vu ? - familiar form of : Tu as vu ? (Did you see?)



What did we learn about French culture / way of life?

La Nourriture!
Snails are nice.
They always eat bread.
They eat cereal out of mugs.
They don't drink fresh milk.
They eat cheese at most meals.
They put vinegar on their salad.
They eat a lot later than we do at home.
They drink coffee out of breakfast bowls.
They eat salade either before or after dinner.
They have a starter, main and dessert course every day.

Au collège Martin Luther King
They start school at 8.00 a.m.
The teachers were really strict.
They don't wear a uniform at school.
They aren't allowed to talk in lessons.
They learn history and geography together at school.

En général
The houses are different.
Lots of them speak English.
The French are really hospitable
The toilets are in a different room to the bathroom.
They kiss each other, even when they meet strangers.