Schools

Using electronic worksheets in modern foreign languages

Increasing access to computers in lessons means that there are more opportunities for pupils to draft foreign language work on screen. An electronic worksheet is simply a worksheet completed in a word-processing program rather than printed out for pencil-and-paper work.

Electronic worksheets should exploit the additional learning opportunities available, such as editing text, colour on font and pictures, drag and drop for sorting activities, hyperlinks to web and other documents, optional support features, and even the use of sound files. This enriched learning process means that such worksheets are often best suited to formative rather than summative assessment.

Real-time manipulation

The manipulation of text is one of the most powerful facilities offered by an electronic worksheet. Pupils can try out new language, whether they are spelling a new word or manipulating a new grammar structure. They can immediately see whether something looks right and check it in a book or with the teacher. Furthermore, as the pupils are working on screen, you as teacher can get a clearer view of what each pupil is writing and offer guidance as appropriate. Pupils can then change what they have written quickly and neatly, erasing all trace of the initial error. You can also set up a spelling and/or grammar checker for pupils to use, though they will need some strategy training first, as the suggested option is not always the right one!

As well as motivating pupils to take more risks with new language, some practical benefits are that pupils do not have to waste time handwriting and they can be proud of the neat and tidy end product. Pupils can draft directly into a document or you can provide them with some kind of writing frame to support and guide their writing. Pupils can also enhance a piece of text, adding adjectives or clauses to existing text, or reduce text to core information by deleting extraneous detail.

Font colour on text can be used on examples or throughout the worksheet to help pupils to internalise the concept of gender and remember the gender of individual words. If you are using a colour system however, do be consistent across languages and the department. When completing worksheets, pupils could be asked to apply font colour themselves to illustrate recognition of gender. Font colour can also be used to highlight the position of particular parts of speech in a sentence (for example, at second or end position). Obviously, when pupils are learning adjectives of colour in the target language, working on screen is ideal as you can set descriptive or matching activities using colour images.

Editing and arranging

You can move items of language around a worksheet by using the drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste facilities. You can easily set matching activities, such as copying and pasting some text from a pool of words next to the corresponding picture. These can be time- and paper-saving activities, giving an end result which is very visual and useful for revision. Sorting activities on paper would usually involve lots of preparation and bits of paper, but can be set up very effectively on screen. Pupils can work individually or in pairs to categorise words or chunks of language according to gender, parts of speech, singular/plural, meaning, positive/negative, type of verb, and so on, requiring pupils to think and make decisions, and engaging them at a deeper level with the relevant language. Pupils can be asked to compare their conclusions with others, discussing why they made the decision to categorise items in a certain way and making any adjustments necessary. Tables can be very useful as a framework to drag or paste into, using columns for each of the different categories.

Making worksheets more interactive

You can make your electronic worksheet more dynamic by using hyperlinks to link to other documents or web pages. You could link to a file such as a PowerPoint presentation introducing a verb's conjugation, for example, if your worksheet focuses on manipulating verbs. As well as providing optional support in this way, you can also enhance the authenticity and cultural content of an activity by linking to a target language website. An online newspaper article or weather report, for instance, could hold the answers to worksheet questions or act as a source of vocabulary. You can also use a hyperlink to link to an answer document for self- or peer-marking.

There are other ways of providing optional support, such as hidden text, screen tips or comments. You can also hide hints or answers under a text box or 'autoshape', or colour text in white font colour inside a box. Differentiating by support in this way as well as by question can offer a more inclusive approach to activity-setting, as you can ensure that all pupils are being challenged appropriately and exposed to a variety of question types. At a simpler level, you can differentiate the content of worksheets for different pupils, such as by providing a pool of words for a gap-fill activity for one set of pupils and omitting it for others.

You can also include target language sound files in an electronic worksheet, recorded using either Windows Sound Recorder or other software. Alternatively, you can record directly into your worksheet. Working with sound files allows you to combine listening and editing/writing activities or provide additional or optional support. As you develop skills in word processing, you could also investigate the use of drop-down lists, which offer an extra dimension to gap-fill activities.

Saving the file

An electronic worksheet must be saved as a read-only file in the shared area of your school network. You should make sure it has an appropriate file name for easy recognition; a file-naming system should be agreed at department level and might include, for example, year group or class or teacher name, a topic, and a worksheet number or specific title. After opening a file, pupils could save it with a new file name (adding their surname and initial, for instance) into their password-protected area of the network. This is important both for recognising an individual's work and also for preventing pupils from overwriting one another's work when they hand it in. As you may wish to print work out for marking, you should also train pupils to type their name into documents.

Pupils can hand in their work by dropping it into the protected 'homework' area of the network, from where they cannot retrieve their work (or anyone elses!) once they have handed it in. Alternatively, you may have access to a managed learning environment, or pupils could simply email their work to you as an attachment. If you intend to print worksheets for marking, make sure that the activities you set will show up clearly in black and white (pupils could underline selected options rather than change the font colour, for example).

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