How to Decorate Your Foreign Language Classroom

If you’re reading this, you’re likely in the midst of decorating your foreign language classroom. You’ve looked at the content you’ll be teaching, you’ve got an idea of what your students will be like. But what exactly should your classroom look like?

Obviously, every teacher’s preferences and tastes will differ. This list on how to decorate your foreign language classroom is meant as a starting point for a practical, useful, and inspiring learning environment.

Cultural Resources

Yes, you’re teaching students a new language, but you’re also responsible for teaching them culture. Some great cultural resources include maps and, literally, any culturally significant object(s).

Cultural objects include flags, money, clothing, musical instruments, or anything else that is unique or important to a particular group of people. Now, it’s completely understandable if you don’t have access to these items or the money to purchase them. Displaying pictures or posters of these objects goes a long way too.

In regards to maps, make sure students have access to them. This can be as simple as showing the location of your target language’s country (or countries) on Google Earth. Schools are much less likely to have physical maps readily available and/or hanging in the classroom nowadays, but students still need to understand where the target language is spoken and where it is in relation to their home country.

Younger students will need this reinforced throughout the year. Little ones may not grasp the idea of what a “country” is or where theirs is located.

Picture Task Cards

Because a picture is worth a thousand words.

For the youngest learners, have a set of task cards that include steps like “cut,” “write your name,” “glue,” “color,” and so on. Make sure the cards have a picture AND the task written out in your target language. When you are giving instructions for a class activity, post the picture task cards on the board. Your students will better understand what is expected of them and can reference the list as they complete their work.

I’ve created a set of English and Spanish Classroom Task Cards available in my teachers pay teachers store, but anything of a similar nature will work wonders in decorating your foreign language classroom.

A Word-rich Environment

Label everything. And make sure it’s in your target language.

Your stapler, the window, the door knob, whatever you can find. This will help when you ask a student (in the target language) to retrieve something for you.

Also, that bored student looking around the room? At least he’ll have something educational to look at. #ConstantReinforcement

Additionally, start a word wall, which is very literally, a wall of vocabulary words. At the beginning of the year, set aside some precious wall space. As the year progresses, add vocabulary words that have come up organically in class. It’s your choice how you would like those words to be organized (alphabetically, by topic, or by unit). But it’s an extremely useful, student-created, constantly evolving, giant dictionary.

Dictionaries

I don’t necessarily mean the paper kind, though that’s great if you have them. But you can offer an easily accessible resource (even if you can’t technically consider it a decoration) by having online dictionaries on standby.

For those of you with computers or tablets, you can set your homepage to one of the many language dictionaries online, or download language learning apps to your tablets. Either will be a welcome (and ever-present) resource for your language learners.

Online dictionaries like, Linguee, for a variety of languages, or SpanishDict, specifically for Spanish, are helpful resources for your learners.

As long as they understand the limits and appropriateness of using certain online resources -ahem…Google Translate. (As always, please reinforce that copy and paste is not OK.)

Reading Materials

Always have a student that finishes early?

Have some books, newspapers, magazines, or websites on hand that students can access when they have downtime in class. Make sure they’re in the target language and in a wide range of reading levels.

Anything that Sparks Your Students’ Interest

Anything that helps you inspire your students is a fantastic resource to have at the ready.

Are your students interested in Harry Potter? Have a few Harry Potter books in the target language mixed in with your reading materials.

Do they show interest in a particular city, actor, movie, or sport? Incorporate that into your room decor and lessons.

Has your knowledge of the target language led you to travel or live abroad? Decorate with pictures of yourself and your travels. Share your experiences with your students. I promise that at least one kiddo will be inspired to follow in your footsteps.

Show them that you care about their interests and are willing to learn from them too.