Modern Foreign Languages

Modern Foreign Languages at Cloverlea

Purpose

At Cloverlea, we believe that learning a foreign language 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 (National Curriculum 2014).

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.

Progression of skills

In Key Stage 1, the teaching of a modern foreign language is not a requirement; however, at Cloverlea, we introduce the children to French and the language assistant covers basic language with them using a book or a finger rhyme as a focus.

In Key Stage 2:

Pupils should be taught to:

 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 clearly
 describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing

MFL Curriculum

	Autumn Term	Spring Term	Summer Term
Year 1	Trafford book project-language based around a book or finger rhyme	Trafford book project-language based around a book or finger rhyme	Trafford book project-language based around a book or finger rhyme
Year 2	Trafford book project-language based around a book or finger rhyme	Trafford book project-language based around a book or finger rhyme	Trafford book project-language based around a book or finger rhyme
Year 3	Greetings, classroom phrases, colours, Christmas vocabulary, numbers 1 to 6 The children listen to and sing French songs and perform finger rhymes. They are introduced to some French children’s books.	Numbers 7 to 10, classroom objects, social conventions: please and thank you The children listen to and sing French songs and perform finger rhymes. They continue to explore French children’s books.	Clothes, days of the week, numbers 11-30, revision of previous vocabulary. The children listen to and sing French songs and perform finger rhymes. They continue to explore French children’s books.
Year 4	Greetings, classroom vocabulary and phrases, animals, colours, masculine and feminine The children listen to and sing French songs and perform finger rhymes. They continue to explore French children’s books.	Months of the year, revision of vocabulary The children listen to and sing French songs and perform finger rhymes. They continue to explore French children’s books.	Clothes, French cities and towns, wishing someone Happy Birthday The children listen to and sing French songs and perform finger rhymes. They continue to explore French children’s books.
Year 5	Numbers 31-60, more animals, revision of vocabulary, using adverbs in sentences French songs, finger rhymes and children’s books	More adverbs, work on telling the time, revision of vocabulary French songs, finger rhymes and children’s books	Vegetables, likes and dislikes, more work on time and adverbs French songs, finger rhymes and children’s books
Year 6	Time and adverbs, numbers 61-100, revision of vocabulary French songs and children’s books	Masculine and feminine animals, revision of vocabulary French songs and children’s books	Adverbs of time and place, verb tenses, revision of vocabulary French songs and children’s books