The Language Lab Podcast
Podcast Description
A podcast exploring the art of language teaching within the UK education system. Host Will Marks dives into the challenges of the modern MFL classroom, behaviour management, and student engagement. Each week features interviews with teachers, parents, and experts, offering practical insights and fresh ideas to inspire the next generation of linguists.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores a variety of themes including challenges in modern MFL classrooms, behaviour management, and student engagement. Episode topics, such as the role of technology in language learning and practical EdTech tools, provide teachers with fresh ideas to enhance their teaching techniques.
A podcast exploring the art of language teaching within the UK education system. Host Will Marks dives into the challenges of the modern MFL classroom, behaviour management, and student engagement. Each week features interviews with teachers, parents, and experts, offering practical insights and fresh ideas to inspire the next generation of linguists.
What does it actually take for students to become fluent in a language?
In this episode, Will Marks is joined by Dylan Viñales, Head of Spanish in an international school in Malaysia and co-creator of the Sentence Builder books.
They explore what sits behind real fluency. Not just producing correct sentences, but building automatised language that students can retrieve and use with confidence.
The conversation covers:
- how sentence builders support automatisation rather than memorisation
- why recycling and cognitive load are essential for long-term learning
- what it takes to move from structured support to genuine communication
And at the centre of it all is one key idea.
Trust.
Trust in the classroom.
Trust in the process.
And trust in the language itself.
Because when that trust breaks down, particularly through the way we assess languages, confidence follows.
From GCSE listening to wider questions about testing, this is a clear-eyed look at the gap between how languages are taught and how they’re measured.
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