Foreign language Intent Statement
The National Curriculum for Foreign language 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
At Slimbridge Primary School, the intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what the value of learning a foreign language is, through listening, reading, speaking and writing, whilst stressing the active, practical and positive aspects of language acquisition.
Our objective at Slimbridge Primary School is to develop a love of language, as well as an understanding of foreign language and an awareness of the different cultures associated with countries where the chosen foreign language is spoken. We believe that it is vital that children value and appreciate different languages and cultures as well as their own, so that they can become tolerant, informed and valuable citizens in the future.
We are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of being able to understand and speak a foreign language and we strive to include elements of fun in language learning, whilst stressing the benefit to mother tongue language skills, which the acquisition of a different language can provide.
Foreign language Implementation Statement
The foreign language curriculum ensures students feel confident to participate in lessons, contributing orally and in written form, whilst developing listening and reading skills to ensure that the receptive skills are fully embedded. Once this has been achieved, the productive skills of speaking and writing can be further developed and children can feel a real sense of achievement when they can produce language that enables them to communicate clearly in the target language.
The teacher responsible for foreign languages leads language activities but every teacher is encouraged to foster a love for languages in their everyday lessons.
The idea that all four language skills are linked is essential and children will see that skills overlap and can be easily transferred when awareness of structures have been embedded. Songs, games and oral repetitions can effectively enhance pronunciation and comprehension and such tasks are integral to presentation of language specific goals. Children learn how to communicate efficiently in all four skill areas and are encouraged to participate fully in all aspects of the target language. In KS2, each class has access to foreign language lessons for 45 minutes per week.
Foreign language Impact Statement
The integral nature of languages and the learner can allow students to gain more general life skills such as self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others, self-reflection and a real sense of achievement. Foreign languages can also encourage good communication skills and allow students to display greater levels of empathy and understanding, including an awareness of culture and history in countries from across the world.
Children are able to enjoy language acquisition in many ways – as listener, creator, reader or performer. They can dissect language and comprehend its parts. They enjoy the feeling of togetherness created by confidently communicating with others and achieving things on an individual basis.
Furthermore, students who can conquer a different language often go on to achieve greater success in life. As Voltaire said, ‘the person who knows two languages is worth 2 people.’