Are year seven students taught how to revise?

[user1498927651]

My DS didn't do well in a French test. He has only just started learning the language this year. Teacher was asking if he had done enough revision and how he was revising. However, I don't know if he has been taught how to revise yet.

I asked what he should do and the teacher suggested look-cover-write-check, which hasn't worked for him in English. He struggles with spelling in English but is expected to be able to spell correctly in French. I think he will disengage from learning if he knows the language but then loses half the marks on spelling.

Should he be being taught what to do to revise? When I learnt a language I just turned up, did classwork and homework and got an A, but I studied Japanese, which I think is easier than French.

Japanese easier than French??!!! I'm French and German teacher and am attempting to teach my self Japanese. It's a million miles harder than French imo.

Anyway... your son may have trouble with the spelling, but hopefully less so as he gets used to how French words work. Also, writing is only one part of what they get marked on in MFL. The speaking, listening and reading elements don't really require spelling skills, so hopefully he'll be able to do well on those.

As far as being taught how to revise... there aren't any obvious ways of learning spellings except the look-cover-write-check that I can think of tbh.

Our school uses Vocab Express for languages. My DS seems to have picked up a lot of basic vocab through that.

My DC1 is a languages nut and recommends Memrise. It's free and great for repetitive vocab learning.

Quizlet is excellent for this! Unfortunately, the only way to learn foreign vocabulary is to keep looking at it, copying it, saying it....The same way we picked up native words and phrases. Self-made flashcards are fun. #languagegeek

Has he tried the duolingo app? It's free and the idea is that you do little and often. Ten mins a day while waiting for the bus for example.

My DD wasn't taught to revise in yr 7, just got told to do it for homework, which wasn't massively helpful!

I learned my own way to revise. Colours, highlighting, rewriting what I'd already written, repeating phrases and writing the words over and over. I did struggle with the grammar of another language as it's not my forte but when it came to phrases I could remember those as I learned them as a set.
My brother on the other had is a language whizz. Currently living in Greece but can speak several languages at a decent conversational level but plans to be totally fluent in them in he next few years. Came naturally for him and it drove me crazy. But I'd practice having conversations with him in French or Spanish at random times and my mum would do the same. It meant I had to think without my notes in front of me.

You have 2 points there that are entirely different.

Learning is what I think you want to happen with the spelling.
Revising is going over what you already know.

You can't revise something you haven't learned yet.

Get him to practice spelling and ime none of ours were taught how to revise.
they were given websites to use though.

ImminentDisaster, yes DS was just told to revise for the test for homework. No revision homework sheet with similar questions to the test or anything.

I will look at the apps and websites and see if he will use any. He doesn't have a smartphone, he uses a laptop for homework.

DS has an aversion to writing anything, so getting him to write things down repeatedly is a real struggle. I got him to spell his numbers twice yesterday, and that was an good day. He also doesn't notice if he leaves out letters, so can't do it independently.

Thanks for the suggestions :)