Languages

Purpose of Study

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.

Aims

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

 

Please see below documents giving more information on our French Language Day, French Long Term Plan and French Progression Grid:

 

French Curriculum Information

 

 

Key Stage 1: French 

 

Pupils should be taught to:

 

Speaking and listening

• 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 

 

Reading

• read carefully and show understanding of words 
• appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language 
• broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words 

 

Grammar 

• how words differ from or are similar to English
• masculine/feminine introduction (Year 2)

 

Key Stage 2: French 

 

Pupils should be taught to:

 

Speaking and listening

• 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 structure 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 audience
• describe people, places, things and actions orally

 

Reading

• explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words 
• develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
  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 

 

Writing

• 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 clearly
• describe people, places, things and actions in writing 

 

Grammar

• 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.

 

Please see below examples of the work done around Languages in KS2:

KS2 Languages