Tom Cragg
Head of Client Success, MFL Consultant and Examiner, School Governor, former Head Teacher
What is target language?
The use of target language refers to all that learners say, read, hear, write, and view in their language of study.
The aim
The reasons below outline why a good aim is for learning to take place through the target language for 80% or more of classroom time in a school’s MFL lessons. The aim is to provide immersion in the target language unless there is a specific reason not to use it.
Why use target language?
Second Language Acquisition research has shown that learners need as much exposure as possible to the target language for acquisition to occur. Learners need to be actively engaged with the target language. Just like learning to ride a bike or any other important skill, learning is best achieved by doing. For many learners, the precious minutes in our classrooms are the only opportunity in their day to experience the target language. If we are achieving the 80% goal, then learners will:
- acquire language as a result of hearing large quantities of input provided orally by the teacher that is interesting and a little beyond their current level of competence
- acquire language through interactions with other pupils
- understand and retain what they hear and use it to form their own messages
How is target language used?
Teachers must ensure that learners are able to get the “gist” of what is being said, read, heard, or viewed and understand what they are supposed to be doing to participate successfully at all times, otherwise, frustration takes over.
Strategies that support an immersive environment for target language usage include:
1. Providing a language-rich environment:
A language-rich environment includes everything that the learners encounter. This includes what the teacher says and uses, what is read and viewed, what learners access or produce and the display in and around the classroom.
2. Supporting comprehension and production through context, gestures and visual support:
Learners’ comprehension needs a beginning context, which may be provided through gestures, visuals, objects or connections with prior learning or experiences. When introducing pupils to the family, for example, teachers might point to pictures of various families from the target culture and describe.
3. Focusing on meaning before details:
Learners at beginner and intermediate levels of proficiency need support to gain a general understanding of what is heard, read, or viewed before focusing on details. Whether listening, reading, or viewing, learners need a strong context, may need supporting visuals, and need initial teacher input on the new information or main idea.
4. Conducting comprehension checks to ensure understanding:
Frequent comprehension checks not only help learners to feel that their efforts are valued and understand what they need to improve upon but also indicate to teachers if their target language usage is pitched at the right level. Examples of comprehension checks include writing responses on mini-whiteboards, repetition games such as ‘beat the teacher’ or thumbs up / thumbs down in response to questions.
5. Modelling answers for pupils:
Modelling answers to questions can quickly builds pupils’ confidence in target language usage. One approach is to start with a basic answer to a question, then gradually build in additional levels of complexity. For example, when asking the question “Where do you live?”, the teacher could model the following answers:
- I live in Manchester
- I live in a city called Manchester
- I live in a city called Manchester in North-West England
6. Eliciting talk that increases in fluency, accuracy, and complexity over time:
Asking simple yes/no questions keeps learners at a basic level. Teachers can regularly ask learners to add more details by adding who, what, where, when, how, and even why to a basic question. As learners practise asking these questions in pair and group tasks, they help each other to improve and expand their language over time.
7. Encouraging self-expression and spontaneous use of language
It is important for learners to realize from the beginning that they can and should use the target language in the classroom, and that this will be celebrated. Teachers can support pupils by giving lots of choices using visuals and repetitive phrases that can be easily modified. As confidence builds, learners should be encouraged to mix and match their language ‘chunks’ to create their own messages. During pair or group activities, learners may need certain phrases to make their interactions more natural and these can be provided through ‘word walls’ in the classroom with high frequency language or ‘word mats’ on the tables with more specific, topic-related vocabulary.
8. Teaching pupils strategies for requesting clarification and assistance when faced with comprehension difficulties:
- To maintain target language use by both teacher and learners, teach learners phrases needed to ask for help or clarification in the target language (What? Pardon? What does that mean? How do you say ____? I don’t understand. Can you repeat that?). These learning aids, as well as other common classroom phrases, can be included in displays around the classroom.
- Don’t use English (the native language) as the default for checking on meaning or understanding. Examples of alternative methods are visuals or multiple-choice questions in the target language.
- Of equal importance is making careful decisions about when NOT to use target language (keeping that to 20% or less of what students say, hear, read, write, or view), and reserving that for explanations of grammar, deeper processing of understanding in one-two-one exchanges between teacher and student, for reflection on the learning process or for explaining deeper understanding on an assessment. English is reserved for strategic purposes, such as explaining why this approach is worthwhile and what learners should expect in this class (not knowing every word, but being able to guess at the meaning and show understanding in a variety of ways), to briefly explain a concept that would take too long to act out or demonstrate, or to allow for brief processing of an idea (e.g., from all the examples you have heard and used, discuss with a partner how you think French or Spanish expresses possession). English should not be an easy default choice – otherwise, learners simply wait to hear words given in English. When people are in a country where only the target language is heard or visible, learners from these immersion settings are the ones who will be comfortable figuring out a sign, understanding a shop assistant or ordering in a restaurant because they have worked to “make meaning” in their classroom setting.
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