Modern Foreign Languages
As part of a primary National Curriculum, taking effect from September 2014, learning a foreign language has become a requirement for children within KS2. The study of Languages prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly carried out in languages other than English. The process of learning a foreign language increases the understanding of the children’s own language and reinforces understanding of grammar and sentences structure.
Our aims in our teaching of Modern Foreign Languages are:
- understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
- speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
- write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
- discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
The Foundation Stage and KS1
The children in the Foundation Stage and KS1 receive an introduction to language teaching through cross curricular activities. They begin to learn languages in informal, fun ways through songs, games and learning to answer basic questions. We love to greet each other in French and have lots of fun. We particularly love taking the register in French!
In Years 3 and 4 (KS2)
Children listen carefully, join in and respond to the language they hear. We watch film clips about life in France and French children and repeat the vocabulary. We love to explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words. By singing French songs and learning repeating patterns, the children have the opportunity to practise their pronunciation. We all talk to each other in French as much as we can. We listen to classroom instructions and try to follow them! We ask and answer questions; we play games and use our partners to practise asking and answering!
We have a go at writing simple sentences in French, noting which words relate to the English word and spot any differences. We try to present our thoughts and ideas to different audiences as we gain confidence from our practice.
We read carefully simple stories and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing and have a go at writing similar sentences replacing words that we know with others. As we follow French text, we try to spot the words we can understand. We write phrases from memory, and begin to adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly We begin to understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, and to notice how this differs from English.
Although French is the usual modern foreign language taught, cross-curricular links are made, throughout the school, with other languages, whenever possible e.g. through geography work, whole school themed days and celebrations e.g. World Cup / Olympics.
The main objective throughout our language lessons are to have fun, to enjoy having a go at a new language, to have pride in being able to say words in another language; to instil confidence to have a go and to encourage resilience to have another go if we get it wrong first time.
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