Modern Foreign Languages

Our vision for modern foreign languages

The study of languages opens pupils’ minds to a whole world of opportunity. It develops their deep cultural awareness of how linguistic heritage links people of different cultures around the world. We enable all of our pupils to broaden their horizons, converse with other people from different by building for them a firm foundation in language learning.

The whole-school curriculum addresses pupils’ academic, personal and social development. These three individual elements of learning provide a different component to the education of every pupil. Intellectual, personal and social maturity are the goal of these structured layers of learning at the school. There are three guiding elements which are brought to life through the MFL curriculum:

Educational excellence: MFL teachers engender a love of language learning and a thirst to become fluent in the spoken and written word. Pupils are well prepared to continue their language learning post-16 whether within a career or educational context.

Character development: MFL teachers bring the country and culture into the classroom and support pupils’ broader personal development through appreciation of other countries and cultures.

Service to communities: MFL teachers promote teamwork and collaboration in the classroom. At GCSE, pupils grapple with social and global issues with the aim of developing pupils’ thinking around their civic duties.

Modern foreign languages curriculum intent

Pupils learn to:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of carefully selected sources, including authentic audio texts where appropriate.
• 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.
• Read and respond to a wide range of textual sources in each target language, including authentic and literary texts; and to enhance their linguistics knowledge and fluency, and learn more about parts of the world where each language is spoken, through reading for enjoyment from an extensive MFL reading list.
• 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 the countries and cultures where the language is used.

The following principles underpin the MFL curriculum:

• Essential substantive knowledge carefully sequenced across units of study and year-on-year to support fluency in the spoken and written word.
• Disciplinary knowledge that includes vocabulary, grammar and phonics.
• Procedural knowledge is captured through listening, speaking, reading and writing.
• Explicit disciplinary knowledge components that lead to a series of composite tasks at the end of lessons, topics and units of study. These help to secure fluency in the spoken and written word over time (fluency composites).

Modern foreign languages curriculum implementation

Plan: Each lesson is planned around learning outcomes linked to substantive and disciplinary knowledge components. Listening, speaking, reading and writing activities are planned to help pupils know and remember more with increasing complexity.

Teach: The Star Trust MFL Charter supports teaching and learning of the MFL curriculum [See Appendix: MFL Charter]

Assess: Pupils’ understanding is monitored regularly through spontaneous listening, speaking, reading and writing activities in each lesson, in addition to planned composite tasks that assess pupil longer term retention of knowledge components taught over each topic and across series of topics.

Intervene and re-teach: Where gaps in knowledge are identified through lesson monitoring or end of unit assessment of composite knowledge, these are re-taught to ensure pupils are ready to progress to the next stage of their future learning without these knowledge gaps widening.

Adapting the curriculum for pupils with SEND in modern foreign languages

• Teachers promote a love of language learning and a ‘can do’ attitude. This is particularly important for pupils with SEND.
• Teachers’ use of the target language is carefully planned. They tailor it to pupils’ language ability levels and build systematically on pupils’ prior knowledge. Enunciation may need to be exaggerated and the speed of language and content slowed down.
• Teachers create opportunities for pupils with SEND to practise using the target language in a supported way by building confidence through cognates and prompts.
• When using authentic texts, teachers do not expose pupils with SEND to large amounts of unfamiliar language. Teachers use different techniques to help breakdown the language (find the verb, noun, colour etc.).
• Memory games are used effectively to help pupils with SEND consolidate new language without cognitive overload.
• Grammar is taught lexically and then reversed engineered to help pupils work out the rule.

Our MFL Charter

• Bring the country and culture into the classroom to promote a love of language and culture.
• Use the Target Language in lessons. Ensure English is the exception for teachers and pupils. Make the target language accessible (mime, drama, cognates etc.) to build confidence.
• Ensure it is pronounced well with the correct intonation by emphasising the sounds of words (phonics). Highlight letters that are pronounced differently from the spelling. Enunciate the starts and ends of words for beginners.
• Ensure spontaneous conversational Target Language takes place in each lesson building on prior learning.
• Introduce new language in chunks (rather than as a lexical item) to minimise cognitive load. Use sentence builders to help pupils understand linguistic patterns. Recite new language using memorisation techniques in listening, speaking, reading, and writing to aid pupils’ long term retention.
• Use mind maps to breakdown language and build it up to develop fluency in the spoken and written word with increasing complexity. For example: 1 J’ai onze ans. 2. Je suis né en 2008. 3. J’aurai 12 ans en juin. Withdraw prompts to develop confidence and fluency.
• Share authentic literary texts to develop pupils’ reading skills. Share strategies to deduct meaning (highlight the verbs in the past tense; the nouns; the cognates, words that link to family etc.).
• Model how to transfer language from texts (idioms etc.) when speaking and writing independently.
• Teach grammar through a thinking skills approach. e.g. What is the difference between phrase x and phrase y? Is a pattern emerging? Reverse teach grammar where possible in the Target Language so that pupils learn the grammatical terms.
• Recycle prior language and build on it with increasing complexity.
• Share sentence builders within each new topic and provide top tips on how to learn new language.
• Display phrases in the Target Language so that pupils are exposed to the language as much as possible.
• Provide every pupil with a Star Writing Passport (separate book for extended writing to help pupils recycle prior writing and build on it with increasing complexity through a series of composite tasks).
• Ensure pupils record the Target Language and English (or vice versa) when completing translations in the back of their MFL Writing Passport.
  Check new language is being retained in the working memory and recycled in subsequent lessons to develop automaticity

Curriculum Overview

French at KS3

Assessment

Internal assessments take place every half-term.

French KS4

Assessment

Internal assessments take place every half-term.

Spanish at KS4

Assessment

Formal assessments take place every half-term.

Year 10 and 11 French and Spanish (AQA GCSE)

Enrichment Offer

The Department will be offering enrichment clubs for pupils to further promote cultural capital. We also lead overseas educational visits and run regular competitions as part of European Day of Languages and whole-school Language days. Intervention sessions are offered to consolidate prior learning, develop key skills and ensure maximum progress.

Useful Resources and Revision Support

Year 10 Italian and current Year 11 specifications:

• https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/french-2016.html 
• https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/spanish-2016.html 

AQA specifications:

• https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/french-8658 
• https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/spanish-8698 

Language learning websites:

• https://www.linguascope.com/ 
• https://www.memrise.com/