Providing teachers and students with simple and effective tools to teach and learn spoken language

The SpeakEasi approach teaches the rules of pronunciation in French, German and Spanish. It accelerates progress for learners of all ages. The use of phonics is now recognised by the Department of Education and Ofsted as an essential and effective teaching method for modern foreign languages.

"Planet Phonics online lessons are simple to set either in class or for homework and allow you to easily track individual progress with phonic sounds.  There are a variety of activities that are engaging and fun.  Learners particularly enjoyed that they could see their scores as well as their classmates."
Jenny Thompson, Head of Languages and Leader of Whole School Literacy, Upton-by-Chester High School

Teacher testimonials

"Phonic Planets resources are essential to the language learning process. A combination of modelled sounds with audio visual interaction enables more effective pronunciation for both pupil and teacher. A space style jingle introducing each planet phonic sound, creates an unforgettable sensory experience! Activities ensure opportunities for immediate practical use of newly acquired sounds. This can ensure a greater feeling of self-efficacy due to increased success in pronunciation."

"Our department uses the Planetes Phoniques resources to teach the important French phonemes to Y7 students. As we introduced this, it quickly became one of the most engaging and fun parts of the lesson. The resources are well sequenced which has allowed our students to apply their phonics learning throughout Key Stage 3. As the students are becoming aware of accurate pronunciation, they are more confident in reading aloud."

"In our Trust we’ve started a renewed phonics in our languages lessons this year. Colleagues and students from across our own school have benefitted from the excellent resources within the Planète Phoniques pack - it’s really transformed the way we teach phonics, reduced our planning, and given our students new skills and confidence. Would definitely recommend."

Our mission

SpeakEasi supports schools and teachers in making language learning fun, engaging and easy to learn.

What is SpeakEasi

SpeakEasi is a set of fun and engaging teaching resources built around French, Spanish and German phonemes.

Each phoneme is taught as an imaginary planet, such as la Planète oi for the French phoneme ‘oi’ and el planeta j for the Spanish phoneme ‘j’. The lessons are carefully sequenced so that the most common phonemes are covered first and as the learner progresses, retrieval practice of previously taught phonemes are inter-woven, repeated and reinforced. This repetition enhances recall and ensures that this knowledge is embedded in long-term memory.

Flag - French   Flag - German   Flag - Spanish
French   German   Spanish
ai gu eu quill sch

Why?

A proven method of learning languages more quickly

These resources have been evolved and developed since 2010 and are now used by over 2,500 schools in England and Wales. The resources are based on the highly successful ‘synthetic phonics’ approach which is used to teach children to read, write and sound out words in English.  Each lesson lasts around 15 minutes and can be inserted into existing schemes of work. The ‘planets’ technique is highly engaging and motivating with substantial and undisputed evidence of accelerated learning.

Now a statutory requirement

The use of phonics has now become part of the English government’s expected method of teaching Modern Foreign Languages (MFL). This follows publication of the Department for Education’s French, German and Spanish GCSE document (January 2022). From 2026, all exam boards are now required to specifically assess phonics for new MFL GCSEs. This followed the Ofsted MFL Research Review (June 2021), which states that phonics, along with grammar and vocabulary, is one of the three pillars of language learning:

“Clear and reliable pronunciation and the links between sounds and spelling are integral parts of second language learning.”

“A strong awareness of phonology (the sounds that convey meaning, like the difference between ‘back’ and ‘pack’) is important. When listening to the language, learners’ ability to understand and visualise the language is supported by having a strong phonological awareness. The ability to decode words (turn the written word into sounds) also helps learners when reading texts, enhances autonomy and can improve vocabulary learning.”

Phonic Planets (11-13 years)

Lesson material

Each phoneme is taught in turn, with previously taught phonemes recycled and practised, helping the learner embed the knowledge in their long-term memory, enabling rapid recall when conversing. Once pupils learn the rules of pronunciation, their ability to pronounce any words in their new language in tangibly and dramatically improved – this breeds confidence, enjoyment and enthusiasm for their new skills.

Put simply, it makes learners want to speak more - the holy grail of language learning!

Choice of 3 languages:

  • French - 31 Lessons Plans, 31 PowerPoint Presentations
  • Spanish - 25 Lesson Plans, 25 PowerPoint Presentations
  • German - 34 Lesson Plans, 34 PowrePoint Presentations

 

Lesson Plans reflect current curriculum requirements and a presented in a consistent and structured way, clearly setting out the learning outcomes, curriculum adaptations which may be required for high or low prior attainers, retrieval practice, a variety of listening and speaking activities and links to the KS3 national curriculum and the 2022 Department for Education GCSE content.

PowerPoint Presentations include embedded native speaker sound files which can be used to practice pronunciation of the phonemes in key high frequency words, with rhymes, songs and tongue twisters to support the learning.

Additional resources include Phoneme Flashcards which can be used for displays and when teaching or reinforcing particular phonemes.