Online Language Learning for All

In 2020–2021, school closures due to COVID-19 severely disrupted students' learning across all subjects, including foreign languages. Online materials such as blogs, websites, YouTube videos, and podcasts can provide valuable input to sustain language learning and motivation, but many students find it difficult to identify suitable resources on their own.

Together with teachers and students from five UK schools, we created a collection of free online resources in French that were both interesting and sufficiently accessible to support independent learning.

First, teachers in our partner schools conducted focus-group interviews with students in Years 8–13 to learn about their existing online contact with French-language resources, perceived barriers to engaging with such materials, and the kinds of activities and resources that most interested them.

Informed by the students' responses, we then searched for French videos, blogs, and other online content that corresponded to their interests. We used linguistic analysis to assess whether the resources were likely to be accessible to students at different levels.

Once we had produced a draft collection, we shared it with partner teachers and students, who tested the resources and provided feedback through a brief online survey.

The final catalogue included 111 online resources, organised by topic and linguistic difficulty to help students identify materials that matched their interests and proficiency. For each resource, we also included a link to a list of important words, to help students understand and study the materials.

We converted survey responses into star ratings showing how much other students enjoyed each resource and how easy they found it to understand. This helped students choose resources that were both engaging and not too challenging for their skill level.

We also added glosses of important vocabulary for resources that did not already include English subtitles or translations, helping students feel more confident about attempting more challenging activities and getting more from them for language learning.

The catalogue was published online and circulated to students through teachers and professional teacher networks. In the six months following publication, it was accessed by more than 20,000 users.