About languages online

languages online is inspired by our love of producing interactive resources to use with our own pupils. Their positive response has led the whole project. All resources provided on the site were thus initially designed for use by our own classes.

languages online authors are all practising teachers working in various schools in the south-east of the United Kingdom.

Our aim is to provide an interactive format through which pupils can practise the language we are teaching them in a variety of exercise styles. Many units come with explanations, but it is assumed that pupils should have been taught the material covered prior to attempting a unit. We use our work as reinforcement and consolidation to our teaching. In addition, units are available for pupils to use in their own time.

We aim to present language in a lively and entertaining way. Pages are designed to be bright and varied. In most units, each individual page is a different colour. As well as providing variety and change, we find this useful when working with a class in a computer room as it makes it easy to spot which pupil is stuck on an earlier page and therefore to target help.

Pupils are able to work through units at their own pace and owing to the self-marking nature of the exercises, they can have immediate feedback on their progress. They also have the opportunity to make corrections to their work and pursue accuracy.

Exercises mostly require pupils to get everything right first time in order to score 100%. There are point penalties for making mistakes, and also for using "Help" buttons where they are provided.

Most units incorporate differentiation in that exercises become more challenging as the pupil progresses. Units are designed to fill a 40 minute lesson for an average pupil. For those who finish early, we encourage them to redo any pages that they did not score 100% on first time, or to attempt a crossword or quiz, or consolidate a previous unit. The Games section can also be used to practise vocabulary.

We make no excuses for placing a heavy emphasis on grammatical accuracy. A key theme of many exercises is encouraging just that, as we believe this is essential for pupils wishing to become confident and competent users of the language.

Humour is important to languages online. We believe that pupils should have fun whilst learning a language.