▼
Tuesday, 17 February 2026

Can I find examples to explain why step one of the knowledge approach is flawed?

›
 In a post on the knowledge theory of learning called "S pherical Children in a Vacuum ", I made this quick characterisation of Di...
Sunday, 15 February 2026

Spherical Children in a Vacuum.

›
 I do like the adage that, "There's nothing so practical as a good theory." In CPD, an insightful understanding that equips yo...

Oracy - Pupil Voice KS3 French

›
 French is a lesson where taking part and speaking is going to be important. We have done a "pupil voice" survey of Key Stage 3 pu...
Saturday, 14 February 2026

Reflecting with Pupils on Beliefs about Language Learning. Is there a right answer?

›
 In a recent post , I shared some work my Year 9s wrote in their writing assessment after the first half term's work. I enjoyed the con...
Sunday, 1 February 2026

The Language Lab Podcast

›
 I was a guest on episode 4 of   https://www.languagelabpodcast.co.uk  with Will Marks. We examined in detail where we are with teaching lan...
Sunday, 18 January 2026

Guest Post: A turning point...

›
In a major Camarón de la Isla / Bob Dylan / Judas Iscariot / Keith Jarrett adopts electric amplified music turn of events, I interviewed Gem...
Thursday, 1 January 2026

Let's enjoy and celebrate!

›
 This post is to start the year with some absolutely delightful examples of pupils' work. Have a look and see if it brightens your day t...
Monday, 22 December 2025

What do we mean by "meaning". And does it matter?

›
 In language teaching, we seem to be struggling with two different meanings of the word "meaning". On the one hand we have " ...
Saturday, 13 December 2025

AQA Conversation really not working

›
 At our latest ALL in the East meeting (scroll down for previous meetings on this ALL page ), we discussed the implications of the AQA marks...
2 comments:
Sunday, 23 November 2025

Is there Salvation for the GCSE Conversation?

›
 In a previous post , we looked at how this definition of "good development" is a joke. AQA exemplification of "amount of inf...
Friday, 24 October 2025

Marking the Conversation at GCSE (AQA) -- Not funny

›
 There are two meanings to the word "a joke". One is something deliberately risible, to make those in the know laugh. The other me...