Listening has long been the least well understood skill in MFL teaching — and the new GCSE has quietly raised the stakes. Increased lexical density, faster delivery, and less predictable task demands mean that listening success now depends far more on secure processing skills than on test technique alone.

Research in second language acquisition and cognitive psychology consistently shows that listening comprehension develops through repeated exposure, pattern recognition, and controlled processing of spoken input, rather than through one-off practice tasks (Field; Vandergrift & Goh; Graham).

This evidence-based CPD session explores what the new GCSE listening tasks actually require students to do and why many struggle despite "covering" the content.

Drawing on research into listening processes, working memory and comprehension breakdown, we will examine how classroom practice can better prepare students to cope with authentic speed, unfamiliar voices and increasing language load.

The workshop will introduce practical, classroom-ready approaches to building listening skills over time - from early decoding and segmentation through to inference and detail retrieval - with examples directly aligned to the new GCSE task types.

Throughout, the focus will be on realistic strategies for mixed-ability classes, including approaches that better support lower-attaining and SEN pupils, for whom listening is often the primary gateway to language acquisition but also the greatest source of anxiety. Teachers will leave with concrete ideas they can implement immediately to improve listening confidence, resilience and exam performance.

This workshop examines what it means to prepare learners effectively for the demands of the GCSE listening examination, with a particular focus on the often-underestimated transition from KS3 to KS4.

Drawing on cognitive psychology, second-language listening research, and process-based instructional principles, Dr Gianfranco Conti will outline a coherent, research-informed approach to developing listening proficiency over time.

Key areas explored include:

• Understanding the cognitive processes involved in L2 listening, including phonological decoding, lexical access, chunking, and meaning construction, and how these processes interact under exam conditions.

• The role of diagnostic listening in identifying fine-grained gaps at the level of phoneme–grapheme correspondence, lexical recognition, syntactic parsing, and automaticity—and how such diagnostics can guide precise instructional decisions.

• Strengthening the KS3–KS4 progression, ensuring that early-stage listening experiences lay foundations for GCSE-level demands rather than creating cumulative gaps in phonology, lexis, and grammar processing.

• Process-based instruction and its implications for listening pedagogy: designing tasks that foreground modelling, rehearsal, guided practice, and structured repetition aligned with learners’ cognitive load constraints.

• Integrating metacognitive strategy instruction, helping learners plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening approaches; develop realistic expectations of task demands; and refine strategies through explicit reflection.

• Creating balanced exposure to input, including micro-listening, focused phonological training, controlled floods of comprehensible input, and principled exam-style practice as part—not the centre—of a long-term progression model.

The session combines theoretical insights with concrete pedagogical recommendations, offering participants a clear framework for supporting diverse learners as they move from KS3 foundations to GCSE readiness.

It will be especially relevant for teachers, curriculum designers, and school leaders seeking a systematic, evidence-based approach to listening development.

Presenter Profile

Founder, owner and CEO of the leading language learning website The Language Gym, Gianfranco Conti is an applied linguistics MA and PhD graduate with many years of classroom experience. He has taught Modern Languages for nearly 30 years both at primary, secondary and university levels.

He has researched the impact of metacognitive strategies training and error correction on L2 essay writing under the supervision of Oxford University Professor Ernesto Macaro both during his PhD and a large-scale project in English comprehensive schools documented in Professor Macaro's 2001 book. In his current role as Visiting Fellow at the University of Reading, he has lexicogrammar acquisition, listening instruction, metacognition, error correction and learner autonomy as his main research interests.

Formerly head of languages at various schools in England and abroad where he has developed and implemented his instructional approach (Extensive Processing Instruction), he is currently a renowned and highly sought-after conference speaker and CPD provider very active in the UK, South-East Asia, Middle East and Australia. He delivers keynotes in major international events all year around, conducts more than a hundred workshops for language teachers a year and visits many schools in the same period of time either to provide professional development or to help them improve their curriculum design and delivery.

His mission is to make current Cognitive Science and Applied Linguistics research available to the busy classroom practitioner and to translate it in implementable and impactful instructional strategies which make languages accessible for all.

He is well-known internationally for his teaching resources that have won him the TES Best contributor award and have been downloaded over 4,500,000 times by over 100,000 teachers around the world.

He runs a very influential blog on MFL pedagogy, The Language Gym (gianfrancoconti.com), which has won him several international awards. The professional development group he founded on Facebook, Global Innovative Language Teachers (aka GILT) is one of the largest and fastest-growing communities of its genre.

Gianfranco is also a prolific book writer. In the last five years he has co-authored with Steve Smith the best-selling handbooks for MFL professionals, The Language Teacher Toolkit, Breaking the sound barrier: teaching learners how to listen and 'Memory: what every language teacher should know. His most popular book, "Breaking the sound barrier", lays out the principles of the language teaching method he has created, E.P.I. (aka: Extensive Processing Instruction), a usage-based approach which has been adopted by thousands of language educators worldwide.

He has also published the best-selling Sentence builders series of workbooks aimed at classroom and independent learning for beginner to intermediate learners of Spanish, French, German and Italian, based on 'EPI', written with his former colleague Dylan Viñales, which is being currently adapted to Irish, Welsh, Dutch and other languages. He is also currently working on a series of revision books aimed at GCSE Modern Language learners, two of which have already been published, whilst German and Italian are still in the works.

His Twitter handle is @gianfrancocont9

Feedback from teachers on Gianfranco's courses

Putting Gianfranco's MARS EARS sequence in place has meant:

• Full engagement from students of all abilities
• Much better progression within the lesson and from one lesson to another
• Increased participation in class
• Increased confidence
• Better use of the language
• Increased accuracy
• Better grasp of the grammar when seen more formally in the EARS part of the sequence
• Less anxiety for students who might not see Languages as an easy subject

Aurélie Lethuilier, Curriculum leader, Hillview School, Tonbridge, Kent

Just wanted to let you know that year 8 (who have only ever been taught MFL using your methods) have just done their options and 75% have chosen an MFL. This is in contrast to current y11 which is around 15% doing an MFL - thank you for giving me the courage to push for the change in curriculum - I am so happy and thankful.
Vicki Brownlee, Head of MFL, The Howden School

I was at one of your live training sessions in Guildford in 2019. Since I started using your methods, uptake of Spanish GCSE has doubled, so thank you.

Penny Riddell, Spanish teacher, UK

I am very proud to see you standing up for real language teaching as it should be, and grateful that the presentation I witnessed was 1)grounded in real research and hard facts related to language acquisition. 2) refreshingly honest and unashamed to present these facts with no ulterior motives but to share ones passion for teaching languages and learning languages.
Adam Joe Fletcher, Deputy Head MFL, London

I cannot recommend taking on the journey to 'Contification' highly enough, and here are some of the considerations that we are keeping in mind at this time: we have seen a tremendous change in our students engagement and participation rates in class. We are regularly receiving very positive feedback from students and parents about what is happening in our classes, which is wonderfully affirming. Our purpose was to empower our students and to give justice to their potential as future language speakers, which required a huge change embraced by all parties. ..this sure does feel like we have contributed to something much bigger than us in this journey of exploration and discovery. When one lets go of the need to be perfect, magic happens.
Chloe Briand, Head of MFL, Methodist Ladies College, Melbourne

Cost: £95 per delegate

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