Spanish

[MadameThisorThat]

If your dc has done well in their Spanish GCSE without being a native speaker or having had immersive experiences as a young child, what methods of learning worked for them? What did they do at home in addition to homework, e.g., learning vocabulary, reading simple books or news articles, TV programmes? What pattern of revisions did they do in year 10 and 11?

At GCSE level the work that school gives them alone should be enough. DD got an A with very, very little revision.

DD got a 9 last year. She didn't start learning til yr7. We've never holidayed in Spain, she didn't know a single word til that point. She used revision cards and she crammed vocab before class tests in yr9&10. Her teacher told her to watch Spanish soaps but she never really did. She did one school trip for 5 days in yr9. I think she just had an ear for the language tbh, sorry that's probably not much help

My daughter didn't do brilliantly, but used Duo Lingo for a couple of months and her grade improved.

I got an a* (as was) in gcse Spanish. My best tip would be to get a list of all of the vocab her exam board uses and then just learn all of it. That helped more than anything else I did.

@WhiteBedding did she make the revision card, or were they bought? We never really know quite how to put bought cards to use, we have them for science. What methods are helpful with these card? @CherryValley5, I must say that is a bit of a relief although perhaps it depends a bit on the school? Our comprehensive is a bit hit and miss so don't want to solely rely on their approach.

Hey @MadameThisorThat MFL is my subject. The spec changed as I am sure you know a few years ago, so the experience of anyone who gained a letter grade is of limited help as the GCSE was very different.

I would say the most important things to do well at GCSE MFL are vocab and verbs. Vocab lists are on the AQA website, broken down into themes, so thats a good place to start. Look at each topic already studied and see what you know. Then chop up the rest into 10-word sets and learn one each week (or each day, or whatever works). Use post-its, you test them, record and listen on their phone, write them out, whatever.

Then verbs - you need to know a range of verbs, regular and the main irregular ones, present, past and future tenses. Again it's a matter of learning them. Once you are pretty secure, it's worth drafting some useful phrases to use as answers to questions and in writing tasks – opinions and reasons, connectives, likes and dislikes, that kind of thing.

There's no need to be a native speaker or to have lived in Spain for five weeks to gain a grade 9. But you do need to do some work and it's a bit of a learning slog. Watching TV and reading simple books can't do any harm but it won't teavh you what you need to know.

i second that. DS in a comp with not great MFL provision, although they are trying. Verbs and vocab. Quizlet is brilliant for vocab. Search exam board, Spanish GCSE and flash cards will come up. Algorithms test them on what they know less well. They can also paste in the lists from the exam board website and generate cards in minutes. If they’re in year 10 start now because year 11 is so hectic.

Lots of different ways to learn vocab and verbs which work for any language.
Label things round the house, create little scenarios with mini figures/dolls and talk them through the situation, write lists of 10 and pin up by the sink to read when brushing your teeth, get a little bag and put in 200 words and do a lucky dip then swap out the ones you get right 10 times in a row. It’s good to do both ways ie sets of both house and casa.
Nice to watch something when you are reasonably secure as it’s a boost to confidence. Stuff like the weather forecast, opening of a news programme or a cooking show as the idea is pretty formulaic in all languages. Radio Garden online is lovely - globe and then you click onto the country to tune through stations, it sort of tunes in your hearing passively as background babble

In addition to the points made above, I think that in languages more than any other subject you can't compensate for a lack of steady learning with revision. A learner needs to be prepared to learn as they go along.