2020 Has Been Very Busy In The Spanish Department!
In KS2 we had a Restaurant seating in the class, created a menu. We went shopping looking for clothes, made hotel reservations and visited a travel agency to prepare our trip to one of the 21 Spanish speaking countries.
The KS1 students introduced their families, describing the clothes that they were wearing, naming the rooms in the house, and increasing their vocabulary in a fun way through the Rockalingua songs and games.
The students have been involved in real life communication situations, by allowing and making sure that their natural strategies for language acquisition are used. This has opened them up to learning and using the language.
As a result, the students, especially in Year 5 and 6, can see that what they are learning is useful.
Setting up different situations that students are likely to encounter in real life, like everyday conversations about the weather, your hobbies or the family, reading comics and telling stories using the vocabulary and topics that we are working on, have allowed them to learn in a more natural way.
I would like to continue working next year trying to increase the responsibility to participate in the lessons using the TPRS methods (Teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling), for the students to gain confidence in using the Spanish language.
Additionally, we also encourage the students to take more responsibility for their own learning, helping us create the appropriate and relaxed atmosphere needed for this second language acquisition process to be more successful.
Javier Vidal
Junior School Spanish Teacher
Why Afrikaans
With just around 7 million native speakers, Afrikaans is one of the world’s youngest languages.
Afrikaans originated in South Africa in the 17th century with the arrival of Dutch settlers in the Western Cape region. The language evolved from European Dutch dialects and drew influences from indigenous South African languages, Malay, Portuguese and Indonesian. Although sometimes described as a Dutch-based creole, Afrikaans is recognised as a distinct language in its own right.
Afrikaans is spoken in South Africa and neighbouring Namibia and Botswana. You’ll also find large expat Afrikaans communities in places like Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
So, let’s get into it. Here are 4 reasons you should learn Afrikaans.
It’s easy!
Afrikaans is considered one of the easiest languages to master for English speakers. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) classifies Afrikaans as a Category 1 language, meaning you’ll need around 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours) to reach proficiency.
It can help you learn Dutch
Afrikaans is a descendant or daughter language of Dutch. Although Afrikaans has borrowed from other languages such as Malay, Portuguese and French, around 90% of Afrikaans vocabulary is derived from Dutch.
If your plan is to become a polyglot, Afrikaans is a good stepping stone to mastering Dutch and Flemish (and maybe even German at a bit of a push).
Experience the vibrant South African culture
If you’re planning a trip to sunny South Africa, knowing a bit of Afrikaans will instantly make you the most popular tourist in the room. Throw in some isiXhosa and we’ll practically hand you the key to the city.
Although pretty much everyone speaks English, knowing the local lingo will enrich your travel experience and may even get you invited to a ‘lekker’ braai (a fun barbeque).
Access a whole new world of exciting literature
Afrikaans has a rich literary tradition. From the poetry of N. P. van Wyk Louw to the fast-paced crime thrillers of Deon Meyer, you won’t be wanting for good reading material.
Students favourite Afrikaans words:
| pikkewyn | penguin | Danie M (Year 9) |
| pannekoek | pancakes | Connor N (Year 7) |
| koejawel | guava | Tumelo M ( Year 11) |
| Leeu | lion | Brenden A (Year 8) |
| tannie | aunt | Oratile T & Damon M ( Year 7) |
| braai | barbeque | Keno T ( Year 9) |
| verlief | in love | Siena A ( Year 7) |
| spookasem | candyfloss | Layla M ( Year 9) |
| pantoffels | slippers | Chloe R ( Year 7) |
Carmen de Villiers
High School Afrikaans Teacher
From the German Classroom – Hallo BIS!
*Wir lernen Deutsch zusammen! Das ist einfach wunderbar! *(We are learning German together! That is simply wonderful!)
In January this year all the students were welcomed to German with a new workbook that is made up of a curriculum in the form of a programme that has age appropriate teaching materials specifically for German as a foreign language. These programmes are based on the levels from the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) which are “guidelines used to describe achievements of students of foreign languages and provide a method of learning, teaching and assessing which applies to all languages in Europe’’. The CEFR levels are for grading an individual’s language proficiency focusing on the areas of understanding (listening & reading), speaking (spoken interaction & production) and writing skills.
In Year 1, 2 & 3 we started the Hallo Anna workbooks, a Level A1 (CEFR level) introduction for ages 5-9.
This edition is specifically for children who are learning to read and write an additional language other than their mother tongue or 1st language. Therefore, it gently introduces German as a foreign language and concentrates on learning German mainly through listening and speaking in Year 1 and then the skill of reading and writing are gradually introduced in Year 2 and progress in Year 3.
These skills are taught using various methods including songs, comics, audios, experiment and a colourful workbook with lots of creative ideas.
The students are taken on an adventurous and exciting journey with the 2 main characters Anna and her friend Benno in the city of Munich in Germany.
These adventures take place at school in the classroom, with topics including my greetings, my day, my likes, my classroom and stationery and at home with my family and celebrations in Germany. The students enjoy seeing the characters come alive in the workbook and the interactive online programme I use in class.
In Year 4, 5 & 6 the students were introduced to the Wo ist Paula (Where is Paula?) range of workbooks and programme.
It has especially been created for the over 9-year olds and has a progression from book 1-4 to acquire the Level A1 (CEFR level) and then allowing for an easy transition into High School (Year 7) and the Cambridge curriculum.
The programme is set up to motivate participation using interdisciplinary teaching across subjects and a multilingual approach, perfect for a school with an international perspective.
It includes language training and vocabulary, various topics, songs, videos, learning about Germany and Europe, it has differentiation tasks for extension learning, revision and the students have opportunity for self-evaluation to see their progress.
The students have been introduced to using the audios to improve their listening and speaking skills at home anytime via CD, downloads or an app. I use the Blink digital educational platform to show the videos, audios and pages from the coursebook and workbook in class.
The students in Year 4, 5, & 6 are on a journey with Paula the tortoise with various topics including: answering questions about myself, name, age, where I live and come from, my family, my classroom, stationery, my hobbies, telling the time and what I do in my day.
“With 100 million mother tongue speakers, German is the most widely spoken language in Europe. A new survey has shed light on where people are learning German around the world. Some 15.4 million people are learning German as a foreign language all over the world” and you the students at Blouberg International in Cape Town South Africa are very much part of this growing number.
*Deutsch ist cool und genial! Deutsch ist International! *(German is cool and awesome! German is International!)
*Song lyrics from the Hallo Anna programme. See the Year 2’s singing the song Hallo Anna Hallo Benno filmed in Term 1.
Auf Wiedersehen, bis bald!
Frau Kerstin Pani
German Teacher Primary School
Learning Spanish Using The TPRS Methods
TPRS is a language teaching method based on the idea that the brain needs enormous amounts of Comprehensible Input (CI) to acquire a new language. It focuses on using interactive books and oral stories that contain the most used words and phrases in Spanish or other foreign languages to help students get familiar with the new language in an easily and more enjoyable way.
Story telling: Creating new stories where the students can identify the vocabulary or expressions that they have learnt previously in their books or during the class.
Stories like:
-My city: buildings and days of the week.
-The zoo: animal and parts of the body and adjectives.
-Maria and the vegetables: feelings and food.
-Pedro, and the mountain: work feelings and weather expressions.
Reading: Rockalingua comic’s: the adventures of Tapon and stories written by the teacher.
We are reading comics during class, and then answering different types of questions related with the story for example:
-Closed questions – yes/no or true/false, was it Monday?
-Open questions – which day of the week was it?
-Multiple choice – was it Monday or Saturday?
Video viewing: During the classes we also watch music video clips, short films, and YouTube videos. All of them relevant to the topic we are working on. The students acquire the vocabulary from the stories, answering questions, or completing the lyrics of the songs.
Story writing: The teacher posts or plays different audios of daily conversations and dialogues with a friend, about the family, in a Restaurant or about the weather. The students are asked to take active part during stories, reading for some of the parts and creating their own lines adding personalized, interesting, and comprehensible details to it, using the most common expressions that they have learnt.
What does a TPRS class look like at Blouberg?
Year 6 have stories about hobbies, likes and dislikes:
The teacher creates a story using repetitive structures of the topic that they are learning about (use of the verb “to like”), each student reads and translates some part of the story and the teacher asks the class several questions to ensure that the class understands the language. They answer different questions about the story (what food, sports or music the character in the story likes), and finally the teacher asks similar questions to the class about themselves to personalize, make it more interesting and comprehensible to the students. (What food, sports or music do you like?). Then the story is played again making sure that this time they understand 100% of the structures and vocabulary.
Javier Vidal
Countries In Reception
Our class bear, Coco, has been traveling all over the world visiting different countries every day. He has visited Australia, Russia, China, France, England, Spain and America. The students have made their own passports and add one picture every day as we learn about each new country.
We even had an interesting day of listening to different languages; afterward we made a short video featuring a few of our students who speak other languages. Please follow the link to watch our video: https://www.facebook.com/IES.Blouberg/videos/513221689421891/
We will end the countries series with a dress up day this Friday. Students will bring and share treats from multiple countries for everyone to try.
Monique Crawley
Reception Teacher
From The German Classroom: “Wie heißt du?”
Last term the Year 5 and Year 6 lessons focused on preparing the students in compiling a written presentation in German.
The presentation was comprised of 3 sections.
Section 1- Greeting & Questions:
The students included a greeting (eine Begrüßung) at the beginning of the presentation and were required to ask the class the following questions:
Wie geht’s? – How are you?
Wie ist das Wetter heute? – How is the weather today?
Section 2 – Introducing themselves:
Wie heißt du? – What is your name?
Wann ist dein Geburtstag? – When is your birthday?
Wie alt bist du? – How old are you?
Wo wohnst du? – Where do you live?
Was ist deine Adresse? – What is your address? (To practice saying your address in German.)
Section 3 – Introducing my Family (meine Familie) and my pets (meine Haustiere):
Wie viele? – How many? e.g. sisters or brothers.
Name – names of your family members. Including some uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents.
Geburtsdatum – Date of birth including date, months and years. (For extensive practice of the German numbers and dates).
Alter – Ages (write the numbers in words.)
This also included the preparation of a poster/PowerPoint or other resources to assist the student in presenting the above sections to the class.
It was very important for the student to use the format and structure required (i.e. follow the instructions), the appropriate vocabulary and pronunciation (as practised in class), the correct grammar and sentence construction, to ensure that the rest of the class would also be able to understand their presentation.
Then after much preparation, time for the presentations arrived. The students’ hard work in class really paid off in the quality of the presentations.
Star certificates for overall outstanding presentations awarded to:
Year 6 – Mia Bezuidenhout and Riley Hanning
Year 5- Akhula Qwemesha,Saumya Maharaj, Aiden Brandt, Faith Chivaka, Morgan Glanville, Amanda Nkomo
Well done and thank you Year 5 and Year 6 it was great to hear all about you and your family!
Kerstin Pani
Primary School German Teacher
Why Learn A Foreign Language
At Blouberg International, students have the privilege of studying foreign languages as part of the curriculum.
As Floria Lewis once remarked: “Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”
- In our foreign language classrooms, students step into another world. As they do the work of studying vocabulary and getting their head around the grammar, they are also broadening their cultural and linguistic awareness.
- Foreign languages may also help students to develop their creativity and think of new and interesting ways to speak and to write. Learning a foreign language opens possibilities to communicate with a whole new group of people!
- It also builds confidence – even though the grammar might not be perfect, they are getting their message across. The satisfaction of communicating and being understood is a great experience for many.
- Students learn to listen carefully to what others say and think before they respond.
- Knowing foreign languages is a invaluable skill when it comes to one’s career.
- Lastly, developing these skills will make learning a third language that much easier.
All in all, learning a new language is not just an isolated classroom experience, but instead engages the whole person. Students develop valuable skills that they can carry with them for life.
Ms Renate Yotti (High School German) & Mrs Elena Berger (High School Spanish)
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‘Karneval’
From the German Classroom,
We recently discussed the question “Wo wohnst du?” (Where do you live?) with the Year 5 and 6 students and were introduced to some children living all over Germany.
The children in Köln (Cologne) have recently celebrated carnival. Carnival time in Germany is one of the most popular traditions celebrated across Germany. It is known as ‘Karneval’, ‘Fasching’ and ‘Fastnacht’, depending on the region. It begins officially on the 11th November at 11:11 am in Cologne and lasts until “Ash Wednesday” the following year. Around this time, a few weeks before Easter, the processions and parties also welcome the spring and celebrate the end of a long, cold winter.
These processions include dressing up in costumes and a having decorative floats that go through the towns with lots of music and dancing. Everyone is on the street and the children especially enjoy all the sweets that are handed out during the parade. ‘Krapfen/Berliner’ (jam doughnuts) are a typical food enjoyed especially at the carnival time.
We decided to celebrate the ‘Karneval’ with our own party in class by adding some masks and other props and singing a modern carnival party song called ‘das Fliegerlied’ (The aeroplane song). The year 5 and 6 students were easily able to learn the words to the song and enthusiastically took part in doing the actions. For a little moment we felt like we were a part of the Carnival fever happening in Germany.
Frau Kerstin Pani
Primary School German Teacher
‘das Fliegerlied'(The aeroplane song) websites:
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Learning New Languages in Year 1
Students at Blouberg International School learn a number of languages from Year 1, including Spanish, German and Afrikaans. One of the benefits of learning another language is improved academic performance in areas such as Maths, reading comprehension and vocabulary tests.
In Year 1 the focus is on having fun while learning a new language. In our lessons the students learn poems, sing songs, listen to stories and role play. We try to encourage the students to speak to each other in Afrikaans, practising the new vocabulary they learn.
Language learning tip: We find it to be very beneficial when our students use their newly acquired Afrikaans to converse to Afrikaans speaking members of the community, read Afrikaans stories and watch Afrikaans programmes on television.
Nelson Mandela is believed to have said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.
Mrs Ann Cordner
Year 1 Teacher
The key benefits of ‘gamification’
Using ‘gamification’ in learning a second language
‘Gamification’ is fast emerging as an effective technique to engage learners and create immersive learning experiences. ‘Gamification’ is about more than just playing it is “the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems”.
***(resource: Wikipedia/gamefication)***
The key benefits of ‘Gamification’:
Better learning experience: The learner can experience “fun” during the game and still learn if the level of engagement is high. A good ‘gamification’ strategy with high levels of engagement will lead to an increase of retention of vocabulary fundamental in the process of learning a new language.
Better learning environment: ‘Gamification’ provides an effective, informal learning environment. This leads to a more engaged learning experience that facilitates better knowledge retention once again. Also helps the language teacher to maintain the attention and interest of the class for longer periods.
Instant feedback: It provides instant feedback so that learners recognize what they already know or what they should know and so facilitates better learner engagement.
***(resource: https://elearningindustry.com/6-killer-examples-gamification-in-elearning) (https://www.google.com/amp/s/elearningindustry.com/power-gamification-in-hr/amp)***
To ensure success of ‘gamification’ we (teachers and parents) need to work together to capture and retain learner’s attention allowing them to play the games and listen to the songs at home. Go to www.rockalingua.com
Playing the games and listening to the songs – challenges, engages and entertains them: It will be a weekly challenge with a ranking that will show the students results.
– Third week: Days of the week challenge.
– Fourth week: The numbers challenge.
Everyone loves games. Albert Einstein himself indicated: “they are the most elevated form of investigation”. He knew games are avenues for something deeper and more meaningful than a childish waste of time. Oftentimes, playing games are the first method children use to explore higher-order thinking skills associated with creating, evaluating, analyzing, and applying new knowledge.
‘Gamification’ in an educational context: While students are playing, I am collecting data, tracking progress and reward to build a positive class culture. Students become eager to participate and learn the vocabulary that they need in order to improve their results in the games, and when students show interest, they make learning a new language; – a game worth playing.
Days of the week challenge results Year 4 to 6:
-Best Year 6 time: 1st Gabrielle Adamson: 0,14”; 2nd Riley Hanning: 0,15”; 3rd Michael Zurnamer: 0,16”
-Best Year 5 time: 1st Faith Chivaka: 0,13”; 2nd Ayesha Hassen 0,14”; 3rd Amanda Nkomo: 0,15”
-Best Year 4 time: 1st Krishangi Naidu: 0,15”; 2nd Sanam Srikewal 0,16”; 3rd Isabella Lockhart 0,17”
Weekly champion:
Faith Chivaka (Year 5): 0,13”. Congratulations Faith!
Written by
Profesor Javier Vidal
Primary School Spanish Teacher
