Intent

Modern Foreign Language (MFL)  is taught at Summercroft because learning a foreign language is an important part of being a member of a multi-cultural society. It helps to provide children with an insight into other cultures and to deepen their understanding of the world. It encourages their natural curiosity about the world around them and enables them to learn practical skills which can be used in real life. This all helps to build foundations for learning further languages at secondary school, equipping children to study and work in other countries. The teaching of French should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both orally and in writing.

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.

Implementation

At Summercroft, the national curriculum objectives for MFL are taught through weekly French lessons In Key Stage 2, following the ‘EasyMFL’ scheme of work. This scheme provides a clear progression from Year 3 to Year 6, with opportunities to reinforce prior learning. There are unit plans, lesson plans and resources with audio to support specialist and non-specialist teachers. We also aim to develop opportunities to celebrate languages through days such as the ‘European day of Languages’ and to celebrate diversity by looking at diverse figures outside of our own country.

In Lower KS2, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills, including French phonics. These will be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts.

We aim to make the process of language acquisition enjoyable for the children. We use songs and rhymes to explore the patterns and sounds of language and explore links between the spelling, sound and meaning of words. The children are encouraged to listen attentively and show their understanding by joining in games to reinforce new vocabulary learnt. They learn how to engage in conversations with their teachers and peers, developing their ability to speak in sentences using the vocabulary and language structures learnt. As they progress, the children are encouraged to write words and phrases from memory. Confidence is built upon so that they are ready to approach languages at Key Stage 3.