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    Programme 2020-2023
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    Mediation in teaching, learning and assessment
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Mediation in teaching, learning and assessment

Teaching materials database

The METLA task database contains sample (cross)linguistic mediation tasks in different languages for different contexts. Materials are available for these languages:  Arabic, Croatian, Danish, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Maltese, Portuguese and Spanish.
35 teaching materials on 1 page
page: 1 

Grocery list (Task 1)

Students should work in pairs (Student A-B). Each student will receive a different worksheet: Student A will receive the Worksheet Grocery List A in Language A. Following the scenario instructions on the worksheet, Student A should relay information related to food and practise polite question forms in Language B. Using the Worksheet Grocery List B, Student B listens carefully to the information introduced by Student A in Language B and then B selects the fruit and vegetables just mentioned by Student A and writes them down in Language B.

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A Londoner in Greece! (Task 15)

This lesson focuses on written mediation. The main tasks included aim at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from source texts of different genres, summarising messages into a target language and developing the mediation strategies of paraphrasing, providing synonyms, distinguishing major from minor information.

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School World Song Contest (Task 37)

This activity is about incorporating learners’ home languages and the (inter-/pluri) cultural component. The students will watch a video news item about the Eurovision Song Contest and/or read an accompanying online text - both in Language A (the language of schooling). They will condense and summarise three key points in Language B (French) about Eurovision from the two source texts for the school newspaper or the school whiteboard. They will then collaborate to produce a poster in Language B based on the information in the texts - the aim of the poster is to advertise a multilingual school song contest. They will prepare for an oral presentation about music in their home countries in Language B (with help from their families). They will use their mediation skills to record a voice message in their home language (Language C) to explain the information in the poster to their families.

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Reasons to learn Spanish (Task 38)

This activity aims at providing practice to students into gathering information from a specific text in Language A (Greek) by identifying the main points in order to give a presentation on the reasons why someone should learn Spanish.

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Italian menu (Task 43)

Students will perform a number of mediation activities as they go through the process of reading the menu, choosing, and ordering food and drinks for each member of their family while on holiday in a foreign country. The tasks aim at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from a source text and relaying it into a target text in another language.

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Transition Year work experience (Task 46)

The aim of the task is to compile a class Padlet (in Irish) comprising a series of video and text summaries of information students gather online about work experience placements. Students firstly watch a video in which other students share ideas in English for work experience placements, then they use a specific web resource in English to learn about various work experience possibilities for their Transition Year placements. They choose an experience which interests them, and they learn relevant vocabulary in Irish related to careers to help them complete a task in Irish which involves contributing a video recording and short text to a class Padlet.

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Lost dog (Task 4)

The aim of this activity is to practice a specific vocabulary, introduce students to different text media, and raise intercultural awareness. Students read a short text in Language A about a friend’s missing dog, and they will have to create an Instagram post and a “lost dog” flyer in Language B.

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Proper use of face masks (Task 6)

Students are expected to relay information and explain data about the correct use of face masks with the help of poster diagrams, and also to produce an approximate translation.

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Filmmaking competition (Task 7)

Students will perform a number of mediation activities as they go through the process of getting to know about a language film design competition and actually writing the script for the competition. The tasks aim at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from source texts and relaying it into a target text in another language.

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Airport instructions (Task 9)

This is a project activity that focuses on cross-cultural communication and the way we communicate parts of this information to different people. First, the students will read a text regarding airport transportation, and they will write informal short messages as part of written text communication with an exchange student. Then, the students will have to use the same information and write a formal email to the student’s parents.

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Students’ housing problems (Task 10)

The activity discusses the living situation of university students in Germany and other European countries and invites students to reflect their plans after graduation. First, the situation is displayed in an info text and graphics. The students then mediate the contents to a friend in the form of a voice message and explain it further in a WhatsApp message. Then, the students compare the situation in Germany to their friends’ and family’s experiences in other countries. In task 4, another text about living with the parents is read and mediated to another friend. Finally, the students prepare a panel discussion (in groups) about the advantages and disadvantages of living with the parents during university. They receive two texts in favour and two texts against living with the parents (in English) and watch a video (in German) in order to prepare the discussion.

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Maths family connect sessions (Task 11)

Students are to relay information and explain data from a poster about Maths evening classes for students accompanied by their parents.

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T-shirt design competition (Task 12)

Students will perform a number of mediation activities as they go through the process of getting to know about a language t-shirt design competition and a final presentation of their work. The tasks aim at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from source texts and relaying it into a target text in another language.

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Tower of Babel – WhatsApp group (Task 13)

The aim of this activity is to practise the student’s reception and production skills in an authentic situation. Firstly, the students discuss the features of a typical social media (WhatsApp) message. Then, working in small groups, they read five different WhatsApp messages (Language B/C), and provide an answer either in Language A and/or B(/C), depending on the instructions given in the message. Finally, they share their answers with the rest of the groups. As a follow-up activity, students have to write their own message in Language A as part of their homework, and next time, in pairs, they answer their own messages in Language B (/C).

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A visitor from Mexico (Task 14)

Students learn how to describe places through the use of adjectives, and at the same time become familiar with different text types. They practise their skills in comprehending texts in Language A and producing meaning in Language B. The lesson plan consists of five parts, each containing several steps. Communicating touristic information to people in another language is a common practise which can be taught in the classroom with steps 1-3 in the first part of the lesson plan. The second part (step 4) involves intercultural aspects and uses a text format that students are familiar with: a social media message. In the third part (step 5), students can reflect on their multilingual practises. In the final two parts (steps 6 and 7), students are exposed to multimodal texts (song, video and text) and are asked to transfer information from one language to another on a relevant topic, i.e., learning foreign languages.

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Hot topics and digital media (Task 16)

Engaging students in the crisscrossing of information available in several media in different languages, this task aims at developing their critical thinking and skills of relating and interpreting. Because young people consume information in several languages, this task intends to bring their multiliteracy skills to the foreign language classroom. The tasks, even if classroom-specific, are oriented towards students’ authentic, every day needs as consumers and producers of media.

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Healthy diet! (Task 17)

This lesson focuses on written mediation. The main tasks included aim at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from source texts and relaying it into a target text in another language.

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Student-teacher e-communication (Task 18)

This is a project activity that focuses on email communication between students and teachers. The duration of the project is two lessons. There are eight distinct steps in this project. The aim of this activity is to familiarise the students with the style of email communication in general, and raise awareness of intercultural communication in particular.

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First-aid poster (Task 22)

This is a project activity that focuses on first-aid instructions. Students will create informative posters and present them in front of a small group of students.

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First-aid instructions (Task 24)

The aim of this activity is to practise student’s reception and production skills in an authentic situation. Students first read a short text tin Language A about fainting, and then role play a phone call scenario in pairs.

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The internet and its dangers (Task 26)

This lesson focuses on written mediation. The main task aims at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from different source texts, one of which is written in Language A (English) and another in Language B (Greek), and relaying messages into Language B (foreign language).

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Mediation in intercultural daily communication (Task 27)

This task aims at developing students’ abilities to evaluate the use of mediation strategies in daily situations. By means of analysing a cross-linguistic (Arabic-French) and intercultural situation as depicted in a literary work, students will be able to discuss how intercultural differences, linguistic skills, and power structures impact the outcomes of mediation in daily interaction. Even if the task is almost exclusively thought to be developed in the target language (French) at an advanced level, students can rely on their knowledge of the official/school language (Language A) and of Arabic (as possible heritage language).

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Celebrating Mother’s Day in Portugal (Task 29)

Students are put in a role play situation: Celebrating Mother’s Day in Portugal. They will go through some “adventures” to get to buy a present together with their dad, who doesn’t speak a word of Portuguese. The aim of the lesson is to activate students’ previous knowledge and develop their mediation strategies, skills needed to deal with informal situations encountered in daily life.

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A Mexican in your town (Task 30)

This task aims at familiarizing students with different text types and practising their skills in comprehending texts in Language A and producing in Language B and vice versa. In the first part, students mediate a German text about touristic information into Spanish. In the second task, a Spanish text is mediated into German or a heritage language, involving intercultural aspects and using a text format that students are accustomed to: a WhatsApp message. In the third task, students reflect on their own experiences with mediation.

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World mythology (Task 31)

The aim of this activity (which could be adapted to include Languages A-B-C) is to familiarise the students with different cultures and media texts. Firstly, the students discuss the features of myths. Then, working in pairs, they listen to a YouTube video about a myth in (Language B/C), and do the activities (e.g., to collect new vocabulary). Next, they listen to another YouTube video or read a text about a myth with the same topic in Language A and take notes in Language B. Based on their notes, they will have to create a short podcast in Language B. Finally, they have to write an article for the school newspaper where they compare the two myths and discuss in Language B (/C) how myths could be used as examples of different cultures.

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European Day of Languages (Task 33)

Students in groups prepare one product: a short video, a poster, or a leaflet promoting multilingualism for the European Day of Languages (26th September) at the secondary school. Students prepare their video/poster/leaflet about the advantages of multilingualism, and then present their products to the class.

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Organising a school trip to Germany (Task 35)

The activity is based on the visit of the Maltese students to Leipzig, Germany. First, the German-speaking students read a brochure about the main sights in Leipzig and relay the information (in English) from the brochure (on Activity Worksheet; text 1) briefly in the forum discussion with the Maltese. After that, the Maltese-speaking students agree on a specific area of interest (in Maltese) and report back to the German-speaking students in an email (in English). The German-speaking students then read the part of the brochure (online; text 2) regarding the chosen topic and report information about the topic (in English) to the Maltese-speaking students, orally, in a virtual meeting. Potentially, as a follow-up activity, the Maltese-speaking students present and discuss (in Maltese) the options they heard about in the previous step.

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Eat and throw away - Lessons learnt from the pandemic (Task 36)

During the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to statistics most people had to change their life drastically. Many gained weight. At the same time, the use of plastic increased, having an environmental impact. This activity provides the same source text on which students will work in different languages, English, French, Spanish, Italian and German, and leaves room for the teacher to decide what language(s) will be used as Language A (language of source texts) or Language B (that of the end product of the students, which will be a leaflet). An additional aim of this activity is to raise students´ awareness of health and environmental issues during the pandemic, and to find some solutions to the problems.

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A visitor from Scotland (Task 39)

Students learn how to describe places through the use of adjectives and at the same time they become familiar with different text types. They practise their skills in comprehending texts in Language A and producing in Language B. Communicating touristic information to people in another language is a common practise which can be developed in the classroom with the first task. The second part involves intercultural aspects and uses a text format that students are accustomed to: a social media message. In the third part students can reflect on their multilingual practises. In the final two parts, students are exposed to multimodal texts (song and text) and are asked to transfer information from one language to another on a relevant topic: Learning foreign languages.

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The Earth’s spheres (Task 41)

This lesson focuses on written mediation (filling in a table). The main tasks aim at: a) developing learners’ skills in selecting information from a source text (a scientific text), b) organising relevant information in specific groups, c) summarising messages into a target language, and d) developing the mediation strategies of paraphrasing, providing synonyms, and distinguishing major from minor information.

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Social media and teenage life (Task 42)

This lesson focuses on written mediation. The main tasks aim at: a) developing learners’ skills in selecting information from a source text (a blog entry), b) summarising messages into a target language, and c) developing the mediation strategies of paraphrasing, providing synonyms, distinguishing major from minor information.

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Volunteering (Task 44)

Through this lesson, students will have the opportunity to practise their cross-linguistic mediation skills in a variety of ways. But it is not only the different languages that are involved, but also the different genres across languages.

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Visiting Paris (Task 45)

This task aims to familiarise the students with the process of transferring information from one language to another with the use of videos which focus on specific monuments of Paris.

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Transition Year work experience (Task 46)

The aim of the task is to compile a class Padlet (in Irish) comprising a series of video and text summaries of information students gather online about work experience placements. Students firstly watch a video in which other students share ideas in English for work experience placements, then they use a specific web resource in English to learn about various work experience possibilities for their Transition Year placements. They choose an experience which interests them, and they learn relevant vocabulary in Irish related to careers to help them complete a task in Irish which involves contributing a video recording and short text to a class Padlet.

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A newcomer in our class (Task 89)

Students welcome a newcomer from Poland in our class. They learn how to describe our classroom rules to the newcomer by using the imperative form of verbs (affirmative or negative form) and the appropriate nouns and adjectives. They practise their skills in comprehending a short text in Language A and producing meaning in Language B. The lesson plan consists of six steps, each containing three steps. Communicating classroom rules to a peer in another language is a common practise which can be taught in the classroom with steps 1-4, in the first part of the lesson plan. The second part (step 5) involves collaboration and creativity, as students make their own posters for our school’s classes. In the final part (step 6) students reflect upon their multilingual experience, producing short texts which will be published in our school’s blog.

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