Teaching Teaching: Challenges and Opportunities in the MFL Classroom

Building on the Welsh Government’s commitment to multilingualism (see Global Futures (2015)), in 2017, the Department of Modern Languages, Translation and Interpreting at Swansea University reviewed all degree programmes available to post A-level students. As part of that review, the department decided to offer three pathways through its Modern Languages undergraduate degree programme. These pathways cover cultural studies, translation and interpreting, and language teaching and pedagogy. Depending on their future aspirations, students can choose modules from a single pathway or blend modules from different pathways according to their preference. This chapter offers a reflection and evaluation of the first three years of the Year One module associated with the language teaching and pedagogy pathway, and in particular the challenges faced over successive years as the module transitioned between in-person, online, and hybrid formats. In so doing, it demonstrates the creativity that can be borne out of necessity and offers a starting point for new directions in the cross-language classroom.