Modern Foreign Languages - French
What is the purpose of teaching a foreign language?
The National curriculum in England states that 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.
What are the aims of teaching a foreign language?
The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:
- 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
- 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.
How are foreign languages taught at Birkby Junior School?
At Birkby Junior School, all children are taught French. They learn about France and other French speaking countries around the world. We also share pupils’ experiences of speaking another language, finding similarities and differences between these languages and French.
Children begin by listening to learn new vocabulary, grammar and skills. They then use this to practise their speaking skills. Next, children take part in simple reading activities and finally build up to writing words, sentences and short conversation in French.
We use a range of activities in class for example songs, rhymes and games, to ensure that children have fun while they are learning a new language. We use the CPG Salut! scheme to support our teaching, which enables children to hear native speakers of French to model accurate pronunciation of new vocabulary.