Teaching and learning

10 tried and tested language learning activities that never fail to engage students, brought together by Languages editor and experienced MFL teacher Sheena Newland.

Ben Crystal is internationally renowned for performing, teaching and writing about Shakespeare. Here he introduces a tool you can use with your classes to reveal characters' feelings through Shakespeare's hidden stage directions: the 'heartbeat' of his works.

James Crossland, Senior Lecturer in International History at Liverpool John Moores University, offers a much needed historical perspective on the contemporary problem of fake news, and explores its strategic use in Churchill’s wartime government.

John Foot, Professor of Modern Italian history at the University of Bristol, discusses the return of fascism in contemporary Italian politics, and provides a useful context for students studying its origins and role in WW2.

Dr Martha Vandrei, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, shares her observations about historical bias and the changing narratives of ‘history’ by exploring the retelling of Boudica’s story.

Dr Kehinde Andrew, Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, explores our increasingly uncomfortable relationship with historical figures, such as Colston and Columbus, whose legacy was built on slavery and genocide. He argues that we need to interrogate our complicity in the unjust world they bequeathed to us.