“You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.”

Czech proverb

 

What do we want our French curriculum to achieve?

At Woodlands, our pupils experience a carefully sequenced, rich and varied French curriculum, which is delivered through the four strands of speaking, listening, reading and writing. We aim to introduce French in a way that is enjoyable and fun, while at the same time developing lifelong language-learning skills for the future. We want to see children grow in confidence as they experiment with a new language and feel the success of expressing themselves, being understood and understanding others. In addition, many of our topics encourage cultural and geographical awareness of France and French-speaking countries. Overall, our French curriculum strives to foster a curiosity in other languages, of other countries and their people and to build a sound basis for further language studies in KS3 and beyond.

Why is French important to us?

The learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our children. It also provides a new perspective on their world, encouraging them to understand and appreciate their own cultures and those of others. Learning a foreign language prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are often carried out in languages other than English. Focusing on one language facilitates long-term progression of knowledge and skills.

How does the curriculum structure support our aims?

We teach the children 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
• 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
• understand basic grammar, including: feminine and masculine 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

How do we make French real and meaningful for our children?

We base our units of work on everyday topics which are familiar to the children e.g. families, talking about oneself and one’s interests. Where possible, we include cultural links, such as following the Tour de France during our transport topic in Year 4 or comparing similarities and differences in our school topic in Year 6. We use games, songs, stories and role-play to engage the children and make their learning as interactive as possible. Many of our resources (Language Angels, Little Red Languages, Rising Stars) feature native speakers thereby providing our children with a range of different voices to listen to and assimilate.

How do we develop foreign language skills?

Learning a foreign language requires a structured approach that incorporates a lot of repeated practice. In the initial stages, this can often be seen in linking language with actions to aid recall or responding with an action to show understanding. Children move from single word responses to phrases to short sentences. We often share ideas on how to remember new vocabulary. Recall and retention of vocabulary paves the way to using this independently e.g. by asking and answering questions with the teacher and in partner work. The strands of reading and writing are introduced alongside speaking and listening so that children gradually increase their sound-letter correlation. This gives them the confidence and ability to read and pronounce new words and write words accurately. Lots of opportunity is provided to re-use language in different contexts and topics. Children are gradually exposed to longer pieces of French and are encouraged to use all the clues to aid comprehension (previously encountered vocabulary, familiar grammatical structures, cognates, context).

How do we use assessment in French?

At the start of every lesson, children recap last week’s learning which may take the form of a low-stakes quiz. Children’s work is assessed continually through observations and informal judgements during lessons. Verbal feedback is given to help guide children’s progress and is used to support teaching and learning and inform future planning. Written work is marked in line with school marking policy and the teacher assesses the children's progress based on their achievement of the learning intention. Children are encouraged to think about their own learning too and how confident they feel completing a particular task. At the end of a unit of work, children will demonstrate their learning by taking part in a quiz using their individual ‘Plickers’. The teacher can see the results of each pupil and this will be used as basis for assessing the progress of the child at the end of every term. This is also used, of course, to reinforce learning and to discuss any misconceptions or gaps in knowledge. Feedback on attainment is given to parents in the end of year reports.

How do we promote inclusivity and challenge in French? 

Children’s confidence is developed through constant praise for any contribution they make in the foreign language, however tentative. Our learning follows the ‘I do, we do, you do’ model so that all children have plenty of practice before they are called upon to speak or to answer individually. After whole class choral repetition, children often work in mixed ability pairs to encourage collaboration and support for each other. Visuals are very important in language learning and give access of understanding to all. Colour coding is widely used to highlight different parts of sentences and to introduce all new nouns to reinforce the complex idea of masculine and feminine. To challenge pupils, they are encouraged to generate their own language and to lead conversations. In reading longer texts, children can be challenged to deduce meaning rather than being given supports such as word banks and in writing our pupils could be challenged to write from memory.