Information for Teachers & Parents

Introduction

Alien Language is an online Computer Assisted Learning site, designed to support the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages to school children aged 11-14, although can be used by any age.

It currently supports four languages: English, French, Spanish and German. These can be used in any combination - e.g. native speakers of French could learn Spanish. If a learner needs help, they can receive a translation of the instructions by holding down the CTRL key.

Produced in association with language teachers, and based on the UK National Curriculum, it provides supports for the classroom teaching of one particular topic: 'Parts of the Body'. It assumes users have already been taught basic vocabulary and sentences.

Pedagogy

The activities are designed to be enjoyable and imaginative, whilst teaching key aspects of language such as spelling, grammar and sentence construction. Detailed research went into creating the most educationally effective, whilst appealing multimedia activities for learners (a detailed report on the research and development carried out can be found at www.alienlanguage.co.uk/report).

Activities

There are four main activities:

	The Transporter Learners must identify how many of each body part the alien has in order to beam them aboard correctly. Tests reading and understanding.
	The Body Museum Learners must type the labels for the specimens in the body part museum. An accent keypad is provided. Tests spelling and understanding.
	The Hospital Learners must drag words to form sentences, to say what is wrong with each patient. Tests reading, sentence construction, and grammar.
	Who Wants to be a Winner A gameshow on the ship's interactive TV. Answer the multiple choice questions, and use your lifelines if you need them. Test reading, understanding, and summarises everything learnt so far.
	Dictionary A visual dictionary, with pronunciation is available at all times.

All actvities are against the clock - with bonus points awarded for quicker answers. All activities except 'Who Wants to be a Winner' have three 'lives'; opportunities to have another go at the question without being penalised for getting it wrong.

Time

The activities should take between 15 and 30 minutes to complete.

Other materials

A set of downloadable, photocopiable worksheets and activities are available in the downloads section. Full pronunciation guides are also provided within the activities.

National Curriculum

The site is NGfL (National Grid for Learning) and VTC (Virtual Teacher Centre) approved. (UK Government approval)

The activities cover the following Programmes of Study (PoS):

Technical problems

If you are having technical problems, please consult the 'Help' section.