• Provide a platform for, and guidance on, evidence-based practice with the use of authentic resources in the MFL classroom to develop creativity and fluency in the target language.
• Support the development of ready-to-use resources adaptable for teaching purposes by topics, themes and grammar points
• Add to the field of knowledge about creativity in the MFL classrooms through sharing practice and research

The objectives of the ALL SIG are:

• To collate and disseminate information about current research, policy documents and practitioner advice for the use of authentic resources, literature and media in the MFL classrooms
• To conduct a small-scale action research project to explore how teachers and secondary school students are currently using authentic resources to develop fluency, problem solving skills and literacy skills
• To collate and share good practice
• To work with partnership schools and trusts to develop good practice.
• To publish best practice and resources to share with the wider community of MFL teachers

The chairs of the Special Interest Group are Dr Charlotte Ryland from Queen’s College Oxford and Juliette Claro from St Mary’s University Twickenham.

Thereafter, the group will share good practice and research and will publish a collection of resources and ideas for MFL teachers on the ALL website SIG page. The SIG may also contribute through Languages Today .

Meetings will be advertised through the usual ALL Channels and others, and will be open to all interested.

By joining the group, participants agreed for the resources shared to be published for the Language teaching community on the SIG Padlet

The ALL Creativity in MFL Special Interest Group (SIG)  welcomes language teachers from across the world. Our community includes colleagues from all phases of education and from a wide range of countries, including currently the four nations of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Mexico and the UAE.

We host live sessions every two months open to all teachers of languages, where we explore how creative and authentic approaches can enrich teaching and inspire learners. Our work is grounded in the belief that phonics, vocabulary and grammar can be taught in ways that are imaginative, culturally rich and intellectually engaging. Creativity is not an optional extra or an end‑of‑term treat: it is a powerful pedagogical tool that deepens linguistic understanding and opens doors to culture.

The Creativity SIG aims to build capacity across the curriculum by supporting teachers to develop a creative toolkit that supports inclusion and belonging for all pupils including learners with SEND. We aim to share best practice in approaches that makes creativity systematic, purposeful and embedded in everyday language learning.

What we mean by creativity: 

"The use of skill and imagination to produce something new [or a work of art]" (OECD, 2)

Creative competencies:

• exploring the imagination by generating new ideas and content
• constructive curiosity
• open–mindedness, flexibility and lateral thinking
• problem–solving

(Collard, 2016 - Education Scotland)

What we mean by authenticity: 

"A stretch of real language, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience

and designed to convey a real message of some sort" (Morrow, 1977)

Why creativity and authenticity matter:

• to contextualise knowledge and language
• to develop cultural capital
• to improve engagement and intrinsic motivation for language learning
• to reduce language anxiety
• to develop inclusive practice and a sense of belonging for learners
• to develop linguistic skills
• to make language learning joyful and memorable

Because when these parameters are met, students are more likely to retain phonics, vocabulary and grammar in their long-term memory.

Join the Creativity in MFL SIG through the red button above.

See SIG meeting dates for 2026-27 here: Dates of meetings for 2026.

2026: SIG collaborations and recent developments (presentation slides are attached as pdfs below)

• NALA Conference 2026: Fostering creativity and authenticity within a standardised curriculum
• Language World 2026: Teachers and learners collaborating to inject creativity into the curriculum​
• AQA Curriculum Connect : Creativity and Authenticity in the Languages Classroom
• ALL Cymru: Integrating creativity and authenticity in the Welsh curriculum
• Solent Language Network - Portsmouth City of Languages (same slides as ALL Cymru)

• Language Lab Podcast
  • Season 8 - episode 1: Juliette Claro:  Bringing the joy back in MFL
  • links | The Language Lab Podcast Online
  • Spotify: The Language Lab Podcast | Podcast on Spotify

Collaboration and curriculum planning for creativity and authenticity in the language classroom

The SIG aims to support teachers and leaders to consider the impact of relevance to foster students' engagement with language learning. Developing communication and comprehension through real texts, and sources or media.

The SIG supports colleagues to collaborate across countries and share best practice around creativity and authenticity in languages.

The Permission to be Creative competition highlights the outcomes with young people using their creative mind to communicate in the language. The focus here is not perfection, but valuing the process and foster inclusive practice in language learning.

Languages Today 53 tells the story of one of the entrants to the 2026 competition. Her boîte explosive is used for doing a creative book review of 'Gangsta Granny', and self-evaluating. Each side of the box represents a different element of the book: plot summary, character descriptions, personal opinions, and favourite extracts. This is illustrated in the documents below:

How do you remember words?