LANGUAGES & EPI
Practical support for language teachers who want students to understand more, remember more and use language with confidence.
Language teachers face familiar challenges: limited contact time, mixed-ability classes, fragile student confidence and the constant battle to keep students learning languages into the senior years.
The Languages & EPI stream helps teachers build a clear pathway from supported input to increasingly independent communication, so more students experience success and remain engaged over time.
Grounded in Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI), refined through five years of classroom implementation and firmly connected to the realities of teaching.
How EPI Builds Confidence and Fluency
Comprehensible Input
Students learn best when they understand what they are hearing and reading. EPI prioritises clear, accessible language that allows students to focus on meaning rather than simply decoding unfamiliar words.
Processing for Meaning
Understanding language requires more than exposure. Students need repeated opportunities to process language for meaning, make connections and strengthen understanding over time.
Structured Practice
Practice is carefully sequenced and supported so that students can experience success while gradually developing confidence and independence.
Confidence and Success
Students are more likely to engage, persist and communicate when they feel successful. EPI deliberately creates opportunities for students to experience success early and often.
Recycling and Retrieval
Language is revisited regularly through planned recycling and retrieval. This strengthens memory, builds automaticity and helps learning stick over time.
THE MARSEARS SEQUENCE
A practical pathway from input to independence
MARSEARS provides a clear sequence for moving students from supported exposure to increasingly confident, independent language use.
Each stage has a distinct purpose. Teachers model new language, build understanding through repeated processing, guide students into controlled production and gradually reduce support. Students then retrieve, adapt and use familiar language with greater fluency and spontaneity.
The sequence is not a rigid lesson formula. Teachers revisit stages, adjust the level of support and respond to what students need. With each new set of language, the cycle begins again.
Want to explore EPI and MARSEARS further?
Gianfranco Conti's blog - The Language Gym
Steve Smith's blog - The French Teacher
Key texts including Breaking the Sound Barrier and Memory, What Every Language Teacher Should Know (Smith and Conti)
Follow the Fluency Classroom on Instagram for practical classroom examples
Ways to work together
Language Workshops
Practical professional learning tailored to your staff, faculty or network.
Ideal for schools, faculties and networks looking for practical strategies that improve language learning and student confidence.
Curriculum & Assessment Support
Support with curriculum design, assessment, sentence builders, scope and sequence planning and implementation.
Ideal for schools and faculties looking to strengthen curriculum alignment, assessment practices and long-term program development.
Six-Session EPI Suite
A structured professional learning program designed to support implementation over time.
Ideal for departments seeking a systematic approach to implementing EPI and embedding sustainable change in classroom practice.
Implementation Support
Targeted support for language teachers and teams seeking deeper implementation guidance.
Ideal for teachers looking for personalised support, feedback and guidance as they refine their classroom practice.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Whether you're exploring EPI for the first time or refining an existing program, get in touch and we'll work out the best place to begin.
Get In Touch
If you're interested in working with Milthorpe Education or have a question (or five), complete the form with a few details about what you're hoping to achieve and I'll respond within two working days.
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Professional Learning Hours
All Milthorpe Education workshops, programs and Teacher Growth sessions may be recorded as professional learning hours in line with your school's professional learning processes.