Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

Intent

At Dilton Marsh C of E Primary School, we recognise that learning a modern foreign language is a statutory entitlement for all pupils during their time in Key Stage 2 and we are committed to the principle that learning another language helps foster a curiosity and deeper understanding of other cultures and the world in general. We believe that learning to understand, speak, read and write another language during Key Stage 2 will provide the basis for learning other languages, which in turn will provide important opportunities for future study and work in other countries. In our school we teach French.

Our Intent for the teaching of French is to promote the development of linguistic competence and confidence in speaking and writing as a well as an understanding and awareness of the world and other cultures and lay the foundation for the study of foreign language at Key Stage 3 and beyond. To accomplish this, we will help the children to do the following:

• Familiarise themselves with the sound and written form of French.
• Develop particular language-learning skills.
• Begin to understand a new language and communicate in it.
• Learn about different countries and their people.
• Use their knowledge of the foreign language with growing confidence, both to understand what they hear and read, and to express themselves in speech and writing.

Across KS2, each class has a 30-minute lesson timetabled each week. Lessons support the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.  Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games. Children develop an appreciation of a variety of stories, songs, poems and rhymes in French that are delivered through the curriculum content.

Teaching and learning

We recognise that language learning in its broadest sense has three core strands.

• Learning to communicate (with emphasis on oracy, i.e. listening, speaking and interacting).
• Learning about language (reading and writing in the foreign language and learning about the writing system, spelling and structure of the language).
• Learning about and comparing different cultures (inter-cultural understanding).

We will encourage pupils to apply knowledge already learnt about their own language to their own language. We aim to equip pupils with strategies for language that they can use in the future when studying other foreign languages. We base our teaching of French on the Kapow coverage of teaching French, which is broken down into five strands, and one overarching strand:

• Speaking and pronunciation
• Listening
• Reading and writing
• Grammar
• Intercultural understanding

Essential characteristics of French

• A willingness to have a go and join in with a wide variety of activities
• Curiosity and tolerance for differences in how we speak and live in France and at home
• The ability to listen to different sounds and to imitate them
• To look at patterns in the French language and to try to apply them
• Resilience and perseverance when French can be very different from English

Pupils in all year groups experience learning a language regularly. All classes have a weekly French session with our specialist language teacher starting with reception class. The pupils quickly get used to how different French sounds compared to English and enjoy joining in with lots of different activities, games and songs to practice everyday topics like colours, animals, numbers, hobbies, sports, food, shopping and much more. As the listening, speaking, reading skills and a little writing builds up pupils leave Year 6 ready for learning French and other Foreign languages at secondary school.