Modern Foreign Languages

At Aberdour, the learning of an additional language provides our pupils with a valuable educational, social and cultural experience. It helps them to develop communication skills, including the key skills of speaking and listening. It also supports and extends our pupils' knowledge of how language works. We aim to develop pupils' language skills to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and writing.

Our MFL (Modern Foreign Languages) curriculum provision intends to foster our pupils' natural curiosity to explore languages and other cultures, valuing that in a multi-lingual society, communicating effectively with others in another language is a valuable and rewarding skill.

At Aberdour, the chosen language taught is French. Pupils learn French from Nursery to Year 6 which provides them with a strong foundation on which to continue language learning at secondary school. In addition, Pupils in Years 5 and 6 also have the opportunity to study additional languages in half termly ‘tasters’.

 

Intent

Our MFL curriculum fosters pupils’ curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world. The teaching enables pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. Pupils also have opportunities to communicate for practical purposes and learn new ways of thinking. Throughout their language-learning journey, pupils are exposed to a variety of authentic materials such as songs, books and videos to enhance their thirst for knowledge.

Our goals of learning Modern Foreign Languages at Aberdour are to:

• Foster an interest in learning other languages.
• Introduce young children to another language in a way that is enjoyable and fun.
• Stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language.
• Help the children develop their awareness of, and celebrate, cultural differences in other countries.
• Develop their speaking and listening skills, enabling them to 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.

 

Implementation

MFL at Aberdour is taught in accordance with the KS2 National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages and draws on guidance for teaching French in KS3. The EYFS Early Learning Goals are used for our youngest pupils in Nursery and Reception.

Our Head of MFL oversees all planning ensuring a consistent approach and progression across the school. This includes:

• A long term overview of the topics each class will be studying
• A medium term breakdown of the objectives from the National Curriculum that will be taught across the year in each class.
• Short term objectives for each MFL lesson that the children can understand and master.
• We are an inclusive school and recognise that children will be of different abilities.
• We provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task. This includes: –
  • Setting common tasks which are open ended and can have a variety of responses.
  • Setting tasks of increasing difficulty.
  • Grouping children and setting different tasks to peer support and challenge.
  • Providing resources of different complexity according to the ability of the child to support their learning.
  • Using classroom assistants to support the work of individual and groups of children.

MFL is taught in timetabled lessons from Nursery too Year 6 by our specialist MFL teachers. Pupils receive the following each week:

Nursery	French	20 mins once a week
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2	French	30 mins once a week
Years 3 to 6	French	40 mins twice a week
Years 5 and 6	Languages	40 mins once a week

 

Impact

The Head of MFL ensures MFL knowledge and skills are being taught rigorously and will develop a portfolio of monitoring, assessment examples and pupil voice to ensure our curriculum is having an impact on the children’s knowledge and skills in the following ways:

• Children will be able to communicate with others in French using the four key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
• Children will become aware that a language has a structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.
• Children will learn how language skills can be applied to a range of languages.
• Children will enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of different cultures.
• Children will transfer to KS3 well prepared to continue and develop their language skills.