(Please scroll down to the bottom of the post to try the activity for yourself.)

This post refers to the optional text-based activity, Trapdoor, as introduced in this blog-post / user-guide:
http://textivate.posthaven.com/new-optional-text-activity-trapdoor

The end result of this blog post also requires you to include a parallel text translation in the L1 (which may or may not be divided into "chunks" by adding vertical pipes as in the example shown). See this user-guide on parallel texts and how to add them to your resource:
http://textivate.posthaven.com/parallel-texts-slash-extra-texts-along-with-a-textivate-resource

The procedure...

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The resources in this post were created based on texts taken from old GCSE Spanish papers, and which featured in a booklet uploaded to the Secondary MFL Matters Facebook group by Kate Jones. Here they are presented in the same order that they appear in Kate's booklet.

The images below are clickable and will open the menu for each resource in a separate browser tab. 

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Today I read a blog post on the Language Teacher Toolkit blog by Steve Smith entitled "Google Translate beaters". 

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If you are a textivate subscriber, you will be able to access the resources on the textivate plus section of textivate. (If you are not a subscriber, you will be able to see what's there, but you won't be able to open the activities.)

One part of textivate plus is the "Short texts" section for KS4 French. These texts are similar in length (and content?) to the L1>L2 translation texts on the new GCSE specifications. (Higher tier, admittedly, but these are still useful practice resources for Foundation candidates.)

Here is the link to the short texts for GCSE French: http://www.textivate.com/plus/French/KS4_Short%20texts_

Check it out.

Each resource contains over 50 activities (described below, or you could just click the link above and select one of the resources):

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We've created a new section on textivate with ready-made resources. So far it only has resources for French, but we'll be adding to it over the coming months.

We've tried to include plenty of activities with a focus on L1>L2 translation.

Check it out: http://www.textivate.com/plus.php

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Add text-to-speech to your Match activities to create audio-based spelling activities where the meaning is reinforced by displaying the L1 as a prompt.

To do this:

1. Make a Match activity with the items listed as L1>L2
2. Add a TTS voice to the right match (L2)
3. Use one of the "Fill in the letters" Match activities, with TTS on.

See the embedded example below:

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Match : Jumble.

Jumble works by jumbling up the right-hand side of your matching items, and students have to click the items in the correct order.

Jumble only works if there are 3 or more words on the right-hand side of the match. (If some of your matches have fewer than 3 words on the right-hand side, these are removed from the activity.)

Here is an embedded example (French):

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There's a renewed focus on translation in Modern Languages teaching in the UK. The GCSE exam will soon include some form of translation to and from the target language. 

Exactly what form that will take remains to be seen, but I thought I'd put together a post on the ways textivate can be used to help create scaffolded translation activities -- with varying levels of support provided to the student.

This post focuses on translation into the target language, which is where I think textivate can be more useful.

Parallel texts

The parallel text feature of textivate allows you to specify an additional text to appear alongside the textivate exercises. (See this blog post for more details.)

If this parallel text is in English, it's a great way of providing structured translation practice.

And you can provide translation-type activities at various levels, ranging from putting chunks together to putting words together to filling in letters etc. See the examples below. The ones toward the end of the list are more like true translation activities.

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