BHPS MFL Curriculum

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.

Our aim is to develop the confidence and competence of each child in the foreign language they are learning. Our goal is for them to be passionate, curious and confident about their own foreign language learning abilities when they finish the primary school phase of their education.

Intent

Learning a foreign language is part of the primary National Curriculum and is a requirement for all children within Key Stage 2. BHPS has adopted a whole school approach to the teaching of Spanish to all KS2 Pupils, where we provide children with a challenging and engaging MFL curriculum by offering Spanish. By the end of Key Stage 2, we want our children to be in line with their peers nationally by providing experiences which encourage a love for learning a new language but equally have the opportunity to use transferable language skills. Children will be able to understand simple spoken and written language; be able to speak aloud and take part in short conversations and have the ability to write simple sentences. They will have an understanding of different cultures, have knowledge of how languages work and how to learn them.

Our Spanish MFL curriculum is designed to allow children time to think, discuss, practise, explore and embed. This allows time for teaching, practice and repetition – both in a year group and across both key stages. Curriculum coverage is mapped out carefully from Year 3 to Year 6, which allows some key primary themes to be developed at a deeper level of learning, understanding and mastery. Throughout their study, the children will acquire and develop the conceptual and procedural knowledge that has been identified within each component of learning and across each year group.

Primary conceptual knowledge is taught in sequences that build on prior learning. It is the key content – ‘what’ is being taught. Procedural knowledge is the ‘linguistic skill’ – how to use what is taught.

Conceptual knowledge is taught in sequences that builds on prior learning. It is the key content – ‘what’ is being taught. This is the carefully sequenced, factual knowledge learnt in a foreign language curriculum at primary phase. In simple terms, the phonemes, grammar, vocabulary and linguistic structures taught in every component of learning or teaching phase. It also includes cultural information, such as facts about target language countries, customs, festival

Implementation

Our MFL curriculum provides a clear and comprehensive scheme of work that is based on the Language Angels Curriculum. It is sequential, allowing pupils to build their conceptual and procedural knowledge, applying them in a range of ways. Our MFL curriculum is designed to allow children time to develop and demonstrate substantial progress in the 5 key language areas necessary for learning Spanish: speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar. All pupils develop solid foundations in these key language areas in order to develop their ability to understand what they hear and read and enable them to express themselves in speech and writing. The curriculum is designed to allow teaching, practice and repetition. It is based on proving learning experiences that engage, enthuse and motivate all learners to extend their knowledge of how language works and explore the similarities and differences between the foreign language they are learning and English.

Our KS2 scheme of work is designed to fulfil National Curriculum requirements, providing learning experiences that engage, enthuse and motivate all of our learners. To aid progression within our curriculum depth maps, we draw on the non-statutory KS2 languages framework guidance. In line with these guidelines, all pupils in KS2 will have a weekly Spanish lesson. This time allocation is made up of a combination of dedicated language lessons, teaching language through other subject areas and using language for real purposes in daily classroom routines. Curriculum coverage is sequenced carefully from Year 3 to Year 6 which allows key primary themes, conceptual and procedural knowledge to be developed and revisited at a deeper level of learning.

Lessons seek to introduce new knowledge and Primary Themes in small, logical steps, in line with cognitive load theory. Children’s knowledge will be built up gradually, making links, wherever possible, to previous knowledge and other areas of learning. We seek to further children’s ability to commit new learning to long term memory by assessing their retention and revisiting key knowledge. Potential misconception will be addressed through carefully selected lesson content and effective feedback.

The languages curriculum is aligned wherever possible is cross curricular in its approach, to enhance the cohesion of learning experiences for our pupils. In the early stages of language learning, pupils engage in a lot of learning to train the ear, to tune into and learn how to produce the sounds of the language, through the teaching and learning of phonics and phonics-related activities. Joining in with songs, rhymes, stories and poems all serve to reinforce the sound-writing patterns. Pupils then begin to develop, from the earliest stages in Y3, the ability to form simple sentences of their own, with relation to Component of Learnings of close, personal interest, such as self, family and pets. As learning develops, pupils are given more and more opportunities to engage with Spanish culture, learning about places, festivals and other aspects of daily life in countries where the language is spoken. As they develop confidence in writing from memory, building up over the course of KS2, to having the ability to write a short paragraph – with information on two to three Component of Learnings. A wide variety of resources are used, including ICT, and learning activities, including games, information-finding (research), pattern-finding, and quizzes to stimulate interest and general literacy and other learning skills.

La fonética (phonics and pronunciation) – within Language angels there are four Spanish ‘Phonics and Pronunciation’ lessons. These are individual lessons, which are sequential and designed to be appropriate for each year group of KS2.As a language, Spanish contains many sounds that we do not have in the English language. Each year group is taught the appropriate phonics and pronunciation lesson (s) at the start of each academic year before embarking on a full component of learning unit. The four lessons in the ‘phonics and pronunciation’ series have been designed to introduce each phonic sound/phoneme on its own first and pronounced in an exaggerated form to help the pupils hear it pronounced clearly so as to be able to repeat and practise it. Pupils will then see the sound in a Spanish word before finally seeing each of the sounds in a piece of unknown text.

The precise methodology and pedagogy have three clear steps:

1. Hear and say the individual sound
2. Hear and say the sound in a word
3. Hear and say the sound in a piece of authentic text

The more sounds the pupils hear, learn and recognise, the more able they will be to decode and read unknown words and text in Spanish. Over the course of the four lessons the pupils are gradually and systematically introduced to twenty key Spanish phonic sounds and phonemes with five sounds being introduced per lesson.

The pupils will also explore the following linguistic concepts which are particular to the Spanish language as they progress through the four lessons:

• Pronunciation of Spanish vowels
• Pronunciation of specific letter strings in Spanish
• The use of accents in Spanish

Impact

The impact of our MFL teaching can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities, such as low-stakes tests/quizzes, rapid recall opportunities, varied activities. Each subsequent lesson within a component of learning is progressive, the ‘teaching type’ organisation of Language Angels directs, drives and guarantees progressive learning and challenge. Components of learning increase in their level of challenge, linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move from early learning units through to intermediate units. Early Learning units will start at basic noun and article level and will teach pupils how to formulate short phrases. By the time pupils reach Progressive units they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge. They will be able to create longer pieces of spoken and written language and are encouraged to use a variety of conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives, opinions and justifications.

 

Pupils will continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language will be recycled, revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.

The opportunity to assess pupil learning and progression in the key primary themes speaking, listening, reading and writing is provided at the end of each 6-week component of learning. This will help teachers and subject leaders monitor school, class and individual progress in foreign language. Pupils should leave BHPS equipped with the requisite skills and knowledge to succeed in key stage 3 MFL.

The expected impact of our MFL curriculum is that children will:

• have the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries
• be aware that a language has a structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.
• develop their language and communication through development of the four key primary themes of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
• enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of the Spanish culture.
• transfer to KS3 effectively and successfully and will be well prepared to continue and develop their knowledge of  language
• be able to express their ideas and thoughts in another language
• be are able to explore the relationship between language and identity
• be curious and have a deeper understanding of the world

BHPS Curriculum Depth Map – MFL Spanish