New French, German and Spanish GCSEs | April 2015
Out with 'le tank top' and in with 'le tatouage':
OCR's lively new French, German and Spanish GCSEs drop tired topics
and bring back linguistic skills
> Contemporary content appealing to students
> Coursework preparation had lead to 'topic fatigue' and de-skilling
> EFL-style focus on skills allows for greater linguistic facility
> Literature extracts to be studied for first time ever
OCR's bold measure to make language learning more appealing as well as more effective for core new European language GCSEs in French, German and Spanish from 2016 was covered widely in the UK.
Coverage in the major media outlets are listed below.
> Coursework preparation had lead to 'topic fatigue' and de-skilling
> EFL-style focus on skills allows for greater linguistic facility
> Literature extracts to be studied for first time ever
OCR's bold measure to make language learning more appealing as well as more effective for core new European language GCSEs in French, German and Spanish from 2016 was covered widely in the UK.
Coverage in the major media outlets are listed below.
BBC Online
'French exams kick out les cliches' 14 April 2015 Online Cambridge News
'Old cliches to disappear in language spoken tests' 15 April 2015 The Guardian
'French is boring, German is dull' 14 April 2015 Online |
The Times
'School French updated for era of le tweeting et les tatouages' [p.10 lead] 14 April 2015 Online The Telegraph
'Pupils to talk about tattoos in European language GCSEs' 13 April 2015 Online The i
'Language students talk tattoos with GCSE update' 14 April 2015 Online |
The Independent
'Revamped language GCSEs will see students discuss tattoos' 13 April 2015 Online The Week
Story in 'Spirit of the age' column 18 April 2015 |