The Language Lab Podcast

The Language Lab Podcast is back for Season 8. After a slightly longer pause than planned, Will is joined by the wonderful Juliette Claro to open the new season with a conversation about creativity, culture, exams, music, teacher autonomy and the joy of language learning. Juliette is a lecturer in education at St Mary’s University, lead link tutor for secondary PGCE MFL and IQTS, a fellow of the C...

No full episode this week, because it is exam week and Will is currently somewhere underneath a landslide of marking, feedback sheets, revision lists and possibly a missing microphone. In this short check-in, Will talks about the reality of exam marking, the strange things pupils write when they are trying to process language phonetically, and why looking after yourself during assessment season is...

What if better language teaching is not about adding more, but stripping things back? In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast , Will Marks is joined by Marie Massé, French and Spanish teacher, consultant, instructional coach and professional overthinker in the best possible sense. Together, they explore what “minimalism” in MFL teaching really means: not bare lessons, not dull lessons, but mor...

What happens when language learning stops being a worksheet and starts becoming real life? In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast, I’m joined by Jane Handley, founder of JLH Languages, to talk about immersive language teaching, restaurant-based learning, and why students often speak more French in one restaurant visit than they do in weeks of classroom lessons. We explore how food, role play,...

What does it actually take for students to become fluent in a language? In this episode, Will Marks is joined by Dylan Viñales, Head of Spanish in an international school in Malaysia and co-creator of the Sentence Builder books. They explore what sits behind real fluency. Not just producing correct sentences, but building automatised language that students can retrieve and use with confidence. The...

Grammar is one of those things we assume we understand… until we try to teach it properly. In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast , I’m joined by literacy educator and author Patty McGee to rethink what grammar actually looks like in the classroom. Moving away from rules, correction, and one-off lessons, Patty shares a much more practical approach — starting with sentences, building understan...

This week’s episode is something a little different. Recorded live at ALL Language World 2026 , we’re bringing you voices, reflections and moments from across the weekend — from teachers, trainees, researchers and leaders in language education. You’ll hear what stood out, what people are taking back into their classrooms, and what makes Language World such a unique space for collaboration. We’ve a...

No full episode this week… and yes, that is entirely on me. In this short update, I explain why the usual episode isn’t dropping — and what’s coming instead. After recording a lot (read: far too much) at Language World, I’m currently deep in the edit, pulling together something a bit special. This episode is a quick reflection on an incredible few days — from catching up with familiar faces like J...

German has been declining in UK schools for years — but in many classrooms the fightback is already underway. In this episode, Will speaks to Isla MacEachern, a German teacher with nearly two decades of experience, contributor to BBC Bitesize, and recipient of the German Embassy Teacher of German Award. Together they explore what it really takes to keep languages thriving in schools. They discuss:...

Season 6 begins with a big question: what does it actually mean to teach languages like a global citizen? In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast , Will Marks is joined by Amy Lennon to explore how language teaching can better reflect the wider world our pupils live in. From intercultural understanding to representation in the curriculum, Amy shares practical ways teachers can make meaningful...

In Part 2 of my conversation with Kedi Simpson, we move from theory to classroom reality. We dig into segmentation — what it actually means, why students struggle to “hear” words in the stream of speech, and how listening tasks can either build processing… or just create the illusion of it. We talk about cognitive load, noticing, task design, and why ticking the box isn’t the same as understanding...

Listening is often treated as passive. Dr Kedi Simpson explains why it isn’t. In part one of this double-bill season finale, Will Marks is joined by Dr Kedi Simpson — head of languages and researcher with a doctorate from the University of Oxford — to unpack what’s really happening when students listen in a language classroom. This episode digs into why “doing a listening” isn’t the same as teachi...

One Lesson a Week — and yet somehow, real progress still has to happen. In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast , Will Marks is joined by Clare Seccombe , founder of Lightbulb Languages and one of the most influential voices in UK primary languages. Together, they dig into what effective language teaching actually looks like when time is tight, expectations are high, and you’re often the only...

In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast , I’m joined by Vincent Everett to explore The Language Snowball — a simple but powerful way of thinking about how language learning actually sticks, grows, or quietly melts away over time. We talk about curriculum design, communication, spontaneity, GCSE reform, and why learning to use language matters far more than simply learning more of it. Vincent u...

Teaching abroad gets talked about a lot — but what does it actually change about the way you teach languages? In this episode, I’m joined by Megan Crean, who began her career teaching in Belper before moving to the Cayman Islands and is now teaching IB French in Bogotá. Together, we talk honestly about what teaching abroad really looks like beyond the Instagram version: the paperwork, the uncertai...

In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast , Will Marks is joined by Dr Liam Printer (International School of Lausanne, Switzerland) — French and Spanish teacher, instructional coach, researcher, and host of The Motivated Classroom podcast. Liam unpacks why story, narrative and co-creation are far more than “fun activities” and how, through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, compete...

In this season premiere, Will Marks is joined by Dr Andy Goldhawk — lecturer at the University of the West of England, teacher educator, and author of The Language Teacher Toolkit — for a grounded conversation about what really makes learning stick. Together, they explore: why so much CPD fails to change classroom practice the gap between learning theory and day-to-day teaching time pressure in la...

What happens when we stop chasing frameworks and start asking more careful questions? In this season-finale episode of The Language Lab Podcast , Will Marks is joined by Silvia Bastow for a reflective conversation about language education, professional identity, and the human side of teaching that rarely makes it into policy documents or CPD slides. This episode explores why teaching languages is...

In this episode, Will is joined by Hannah White — languages teacher, EAL lead, international schools coordinator, School of Sanctuary coordinator, trainer and co-founder of the Bristol ALL Primary Languages Hub. Together they dig into what EAL really looks like beyond the label, how multilingual learners enrich a school community, and the tiny but powerful adjustments that make classrooms feel gen...

In this episode, Will sits down with Tom Sherrington, better known as Teacherhead, to explore what great teaching really looks like. From evidence informed practice to curriculum overload, from target language debates to the joy of short books, Tom cuts through the noise with clarity, humour and a deep understanding of how children learn. They discuss the Learning Rainforest, Walkthrus, the tensio...

This week in The Language Lab, technology staged a quiet rebellion. A key piece of hardware and a key piece of software decided they would no longer speak to each other, which means the full episode could not be released on time. Everything is now sorted and the scheduled episode with Tom Sherrington will be out next week as normal. In this short update, Will shares a few quick thoughts for the fi...

What does a high-quality Primary French curriculum actually look like in 2025? In this episode of The Language Lab Podcast , host Will Marks sits down with Ellie Chettle Cully, primary languages specialist and coordinator of the ALL Primary Languages Hub. Together they explore how to build meaningful, sustainable KS2 language learning—from phonics and progression to cultural understanding, global...

What happens when a city decides that languages belong to everyone? In this episode, Declan Baharini (CEO of International Newcastle ) and Sarah Edgar (Schools of Sanctuary and EAL Lead) join Will to share how Our Newcastle, Our World and the Express Yourself Festival of Languages have turned partnership and passion into a movement. From international school links and heritage language projects to...

In the second half of her conversation with Will Marks, Maud Waret turns from curriculum to culture — asking what schools could look like if they were built around people, not policy. Together they explore wellbeing, empathy, equity and design: from nutrition and architecture to the way classroom spaces shape learning itself. Maud argues for an education system that nurtures curiosity and humanity...

What does it really mean to decolonise the curriculum — and why is it important? In this first part of Will’s conversation with Maud Waret, French and Spanish teacher, curriculum developer and writer, they explore how the stories we tell in classrooms shape what pupils learn about themselves and the world. From growing up in France to researching representation during lockdown, Maud shares her ref...