Departments should assemble a range of support and extension materials for both pupils and teachers. These should support extension and enrichment work across the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), and, where possible, encourage integrated skill activities. It may be possible to set up a central access point within the department covering different languages, so that the material is available to different groups of pupils at different times.

For independent reading, listening and viewing to enrich their language experience and extend their language knowledge, pupils should have access to authentic materials -- literary and imaginative as well as factual. These materials should have follow-up tasks that focus pupils' learning and consolidate new language. Follow-up tasks can also develop other skills, for example, summary, presentation and review-writing, and can provide opportunities for pupils to use language for their own purposes and in different contexts. Pupils should also have access to suitable reference material to extend their classroom learning, such as dictionaries, grammar references, information books in the target language and CD-ROMs. Games or puzzles in the target language can engage pupils' interest, as well as produce more extended language work.

Teachers also need a range of resources to draw on when planning lessons and tasks for pupils. These may include more demanding texts on particular topics, extension grammar work, additional reference material for pupils to use in the lesson and photocopiable task sheets linked to different contexts and/or language activities.

Computers are an important resource for pupils of all abilities, but they are particularly useful for gifted pupils because they can be used independently in lessons, free time or at home. Pupils can be encouraged to:

• research topics of cultural interest using the internet
• set up e-mail links with pupils in a school, country or community where they speak the target language
• use various programs to develop and extend their work and to improve presentation.

CILT (Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research)
20 Bedfordbury,
Covent Garden, London
WC2N 4LB

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