Musical Translation

by David Agnew,
Teacher of MFL

Translation is back on the agenda and features on the new specification for MFL from 2018 onwards. Whilst translation is a very useful and practical skill for pupils of MFL to master, it can become a little dry over time. One very simple but effective solution for this is add a little music to the translation task.

Musical translation does not actually involve translating the lyrics of a song, the music is used purely to get pupils up and out of their seats and to bring some much needed kinaesthetic learning into the classroom! Of course, in MFL the song can be in the foreign language which lends itself to listening skills as well. The teacher reads out a sentence in either English or the foreign language, and pupils remain at their seat and write the first translation. The teacher then plays some music and all pupils stand up (they leave their exercise books on their table but bring a pen) and begin to circulate around the classroom. Once the teacher stops the music, pupils must sit down at the nearest available seat which must not be their own. The teacher then reads out the next sentence to be translated and pupils write the translation into their classmate’s book. Pupils are also encouraged to look at the previous translation(s) to see if they can improve them and pupils write their name beside the translation which they have written. The teacher then starts the music again and the moving around begins once more! This continues until the teacher is happy that enough translation has taken place. On the last sentence pupils return to their original seat to review the wonderful work left behind by their classmates! The teacher then goes through all of the sentences and pupils feedback as a class. 

Stretch and support: This activity is great for lower attaining pupils as they can see previous translations in their book and compare them with what they last wrote. They are much more likely to remember a piece of vocab or syntax if a classmate wrote it into their book! Furthermore, quieter pupils are much more likely to feedback at the end as they have a sentence in front of them which they are not responsible for writing.

Variation: Why not take a chair out each time and anyone who does not have a seat reminds standing and must translate some of the words verbally on the spot?