Modern Foreign Languages at St Michael's

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

 Aims 

The National Curriculum for Languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of 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
• can 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

Intent

At St Michael’s, our intent for the MFL curriculum is to have clear progression in the understanding of French, which is introduced in Year 3.

The purpose of study a foreign language is to provide our children an opening to other cultures. Learning languages contributes to mutual understanding, a sense of global citizenship and personal fulfilment. The ability to understand and communicate in another language is a lifelong skill for education, employment and leisure in this country and throughout the world.

Learning languages gives children opportunities to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and to express themselves with increasing confidence, independence and creativity. They explore the similarities and differences between other languages and English and learn how language can be manipulated and applied in different ways.

We aim to enable our children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both orally and in writing. Our language teaching purpose is to provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

Implement

 The following aims are at the heart of our MFL planning:

• To integrate and consolidate language learning opportunities throughout the school via the implementation and use of classroom displays, French instructions and French signs around the school.
• To have French monitors in each KS2 class who write the date in French every day.
• To provide the children with purposeful lessons which help them develop their language skills.
• To support children in becoming confident, tolerant and enthusiastic learners who listen to and learn from each other.
• To use Eurostars scheme of work to support teachers planning and teaching.

Impact

• Children are encouraged to understand the relevance of what they are learning in languages and how it relates to everyday life and travel.
• French is taught using a variety of resources including games, songs, role-play and storytelling.
• Progression through a topic should be evident in the development of key skills and acquisition of main vocabulary.
• Evidence of work is kept in French folders.
• Lessons are carefully planned to ensure progression and are based on the KS2 Scheme of Work for Languages.