Chapter 6 builds on unit planning and analyses the fundamentals of modern foreign languages lesson planning and the features of a successful lesson. It emphasises the importance of planning learning across a series of lessons and walking through your planning in advance. Successful lesson planning must be based on a sound knowledge of pedagogy and teachers need to know the most effective ways of learning and teaching languages. This in turn needs to be coupled with skilled use of the appropriate modes of teaching used at the appropriate time. This all needs to happen within a planned framework, which allows and supports pupils’ development and progress across a sequence of learning goals. Chapter 6 gathers these factors together and leads student teachers through the essential steps of effective lesson planning.

It is very important that teaching and learning activities and assessment are designed to cater for the needs of schools and pupils. Chapter 8 looks at the connection between learning and assessment and includes approaches and strategies for both formative and summative assessment. How to plan for and manage assessment of learners’ progress is examined in detail with practical advice on how to do this in a structured way. How to use assessment for learning within a framework of formative assessment is detailed, including self-assessment and peer-assessment techniques with practical examples for use in class. The development of metacognitive strategies in learners is explored and advice is given on how to promote and develop this in learners in stages. The importance of giving regular feedback to pupils on their learning is also emphasised. Techniques and suggestions in this chapter can be adapted for different classes and year groups.

Continuing professional development (CPD) is examined, emphasising the importance of maintaining skills and keeping abreast of current research and curriculum developments in the teaching of modern languages. Examples of professional learning are given, as well as advice on how collaborative working with colleagues locally, nationally and internationally can enhance learning and teaching. In addition, links are given to sources of further information and advice on a range of opportunities available to teachers to help them with their career-long professional learning (CLPL). Finally, the chapter discusses the important area of teacher well-being and gives guidance and advice on how student teachers can build emotional resilience that prepares them for a career in the classroom, noting sources of support for their own mental health and well-being.

In recent years remote and hybrid approaches to learning, teaching and assessment have risen in prominence. Starting with the strict lockdown measures enforced during the Covid-19 pandemic when schools, colleges and universities had to find alternative ways of providing learning, teaching and assessment quickly, there has been a dramatic expansion of online teaching. This chapter looks at how and when teachers can incorporate remote learning, teaching and assessment approaches in a modern languages class and the practical implications related to doing so.

Chapter 7 examines why it is necessary to differentiate learning and how to plan for and manage differentiation in the language class. A range of strategies is given with practical examples of how both content and skills can be differentiated in terms of reception and production of the foreign language. Areas studied include differentiation by length, presentation and density of text; design of task, graded tasks, parallel tasks, branching tasks; differentiation by outcome, differentiated expectations; organisation of class and appropriate use of teaching modes. The chapter examines how to respond to the needs of all learners, from helping pupils with specific learning difficulties (SLDs) to using appropriate strategies with more able learners, and examples are given. The wide variety of additional support needs (ASN) is discussed, with advice on how to respond to multiple needs within a mixed-ability class setting.

Vital to successful learning and teaching and a necessary pre-stage to lesson planning is constructing a long-term and a mid-term plan. In order to ensure successful progression in pupils’ language learning, careful thought is necessary in terms of deciding what pupils need to learn and in which order. Chapter 5 looks at the fundamentals of syllabus and unit planning, taking account of providing meaningful progression through the foreign language, related directly to appropriate pedagogy, and walks student teachers through the stages needed to create successful unit plans, and mid-term and long-term schemes of works for teaching modern languages.

Technology has become central to both the personal and social aspects of our lives. In the classroom, digital literacy is the pupils’ ability to discern quality sources and evaluate the appropriateness of online content as it relates to the task or activity they are undertaking, while respecting the intellectual property rights of the content owners. The chapter discusses online safety and the use of social media in a considerate and respectful manner, and examines what these issues mean for the student teacher in a modern foreign languages classroom. In addition, it looks at the benefits of technology in modern foreign languages learning and teaching, and highlights important caveats and common pitfalls.

Chapter 1 sets out who the book is aimed at: student teachers, experienced teachers and teacher educators; and justifies why a handbook for student teachers of modern languages is needed. The chapter outlines the structure of the book and summarises the aims and content of each of the subsequent chapters. Advice is given on how to use the book most effectively with an explanation of its special features, ‘Food for thought’, ‘Try this out’ and ‘Reflective questions’. The chapter suggests how student teachers can organise and structure their thoughts on the different chapters and the idea of keeping a professional development portfolio is introduced.

In order to deliver effective lessons, teachers must choose appropriate resources, materials and equipment to suit the pedagogical aims of each lesson. Chapter 12 looks at the importance of organisation and management and how to achieve a productive, interactive and positive learning atmosphere in class. The chapter examines why planning ahead by walking through lessons in advance is essential, and warns that teachers ignore this at their peril. It also discusses how to involve colleagues in planning and the benefits of collaborative working. Finally, the chapter also examines behaviour management and how to maintain a safe and orderly environment in the modern foreign languages class that is conducive to successful learning, noting potential causes of disruption and strategies to prevent it, as well as what to do if that disruption still occurs.

Readability assessment has been a key research area for the past 80 years, and still attracts researchers today. The most common measures currently (2011) in use are Flesch-Kincaid and Dale-Chall. Traditional models were parsimonious, incorporating as few linguistic features as possible, and used linear regression to combine two or three surface features. Later models used psychological theory, measuring such things as coherence, density, and inference load. A variety of machine learning models were used and one neural network. Key surface linguistic features were average syllables per word and sentence length. The Machine Learning methods performed well. Machine Learning methods can improve readability estimation. The process is data-driven, requiring less manual labour, and avoiding human bias. Current research seems to focus on deep learning methods, which show great promise.

In this chapter, new computational models will focus on whether environmental health texts are suitable for parents rather than the general public. Logistic regression models will identify linguistic features that are important contributors to the prediction of the suitability of environmental health materials for parents and caregivers of young children, who are more likely to be affected by environmental health risks such as water pollution, excessive sun exposure, and radiation in natural and indoor environments.