Hi! ¡Hola! Bonjour !
I'm Fiona and I'm from Glastonbury, England. As a child I loved learning languages, even as far back as Primary school I would use a pocket dictionary to translate Beatrix Potter books from French to English. I would write out long vocabulary lists and then try to memorise them when I should have been learning long division!
It wasn't until I started university that I decided to apply that same technique to the news. I'm fascinated by memory, and I was amazed that by reading an article a day I started to notice patterns in the types of words and phrases used in different types of publications. More than that, the news gave me an insight into the cultures I was learning about and the stories shaping their worlds. It made the languages I was learning feel more real, in a way that other content never had even if I was a bit out of my linguistic depth at first.
The beginning of HeadLang
When I became a language teacher, I knew I wanted to use the news in my lessons, the issue was finding the time to scour the internet for stories that were both interesting and relevant enough to use with students…
While teaching from home during the pandemic, I decided to tackle the problem and started writing a weekly newsletter called MFL A Level News. It shared French and Spanish news articles that I thought would be useful for A Level learners and teachers. I was overwhelmed with the positive feedback that I received, and it was also great to see people subscribing to boost their wider reading in their subjects.
I always knew I wanted to take the idea further, but it took me another three years (and the support of a close friend and talented developer) to finally launch HeadLang. We want HeadLang to be a go-to tool for teachers, tutors and learners looking to build their comprehension skills with interesting, up-to-date news content. If you've got this far and want to know more, have a look at our Blog, where we have articles explaining exactly what teachers, tutors, and students can get out of the site. Alternatively, create a free account and have a look for yourself!
