Modern Foreign Language - French
At St. Paul's we believe that learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children's curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable children 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 children to study and work in other countries.
Our MFL curriculum embodies our vision and values:
Learning Together Following Jesus
“Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart.”
Striving to be the best we can be as part of a world made up of people from different countries and cultures.
INTENT
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.
At Adlington St. Paul’s Primary School:
- Children have weekly lessons in French throughout Key Stage 2 (taught on alternate weeks), using the Rigolo programme of study in addition to other resources. Areas covered include: numbers, colours, house and home, in town, food and drink, the classroom, clothes and hobbies.
- It is intended that when children leave Adlington St. Paul’s Primary School, they will have a natural curiosity and confidence to explore, other countries, cultures and languages, accepting that, in a multi-lingual society it is a valuable skill to be able to communicate effectively with others in another language. They will be engaged and prepared to continue language learning at High School.
IMPLEMENTATION
In key stage 2, through the Rigolo scheme of work, each term children's knowledge and skills in French are built upon so that they can:
- Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
- Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
- Engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help
- Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures; develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others
- Understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
- Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
- Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
- Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
- Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
- Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clear
- Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
- Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.
IMPACT
MFL is a gateway to understanding the world around us and for children to experience a new language form which has influence on their own. Children will experience, at Adlington St. Paul’s, an introduction to one language which will hopefully provide a love of learning in this area.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Observing children speaking and listening in another language, French.
- Marking of written work in another language, French.
- Images and videos of children completing speaking and listening activities.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Book looks to understand the standard of work and children’s understanding.
- Learning walks.