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HEAD OF MFL

Mr I Astbury

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• Expose students to different cultures, different ways of thinking and different ways of expressing themselves.
• Encourage students to become independent and free-thinking individuals
• Develop abilities to appreciate, analyse, produce and deconstruct technically appropriate language.

The Modern Foreign Languages department aims to offer TKAW students an exposure to a different culture, to a different way of thinking and different ways of expressing themselves. We aim to allow students to become independent and free-thinking individuals, understanding of the wider world, and ready to engage with it and take their place in it following appropriate teaching of how to appreciate, analyse, produce and deconstruct technically accurate language. Modern Foreign Languages at TKAW aims to engender a wider world view, supporting British Values in a world context, and encouraging the traditional Sikh values of lifelong learning, tolerance and appreciation of other cultures and a caring, considered and generous approach in self-development and readiness for employment and success in the future.

KS3:

Teaching MFL at TKAW focuses on developing the breadth and depth of pupils’ competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing, based on a solid foundation of core grammar and vocabulary.

• TKAW students can, by the end of KS3, identify and use a range of tenses or other structures which convey the present, past, and future. They are able to use and manipulate accurately a variety of key grammatical structures and patterns, including voices and moods, as appropriate.
• Students are expected to learn, develop and employ a wide-ranging and deepening vocabulary, allowing them to give and justify opinions with correct spelling and punctuation. Students will be given the opportunity to listen to a variety of forms of spoken language to obtain information and respond appropriately. They will also speak both in English and the Target Language coherently and confidently, with increasingly accurate pronunciation.
• MFL students will be able, by the end of KS3, to read and show comprehension of original and adapted materials from a range of different sources, understanding the purpose, important ideas and details, and provide an accurate English translation of short, suitable material.
• They will also receive opportunities to write prose using an increasingly wide range of grammar and vocabulary, write creatively to express their own ideas and opinions, and translate short written text accurately into the foreign language.
• Students will be given the opportunity to showcase their digital and creative skills in KS3 by producing a presentation giving information about an area that speaks TL and comparing or contrasting with their own local area or an area that they know well.
• KS3 MFL at TKAW provides suitable preparation for ongoing study of languages at KS4.

KS4:

During the course of KS4 studies in MFL, students will be taught to:

• Identify the overall message, key points, details and opinions in a variety of short and longer spoken passages, involving some more complex language, recognising the relationship between past, present and future events
• Recognise and respond to key information, important themes and ideas in more extended spoken text, including authentic sources, adapted and abridged, as appropriate, by being able to answer questions, extract information, evaluate and draw conclusions.
• Convey information and narrate events coherently and confidently, using and adapting language for new purposes - speak spontaneously, responding to unexpected questions, points of view or situations, sustaining communication by using rephrasing or repair strategies, as appropriate
• Initiate and develop conversations and discussion, producing extended sequences of speech with appropriate pronunciation commensurate with student’s level of understanding.
• Deduce meaning from a variety of short and longer written texts from a range of specified contexts, including authentic sources involving some complex language and unfamiliar material, as well as short narratives and authentic material addressing relevant contemporary and cultural themes
• Recognise and respond to key information, important themes and ideas in more extended written text and authentic sources, including some extracts from relevant abridged or adapted literary texts
• Demonstrate understanding by being able to scan for particular information, organise and present relevant details, draw inferences in context and recognise implicit meaning where appropriate
• Make accurate use of a variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures, including some more complex forms, to describe and narrate with reference to past, present and future events
• Manipulate the language, using and adapting a variety of structures and vocabulary with increasing accuracy and fluency for new purposes, including using appropriate style and register
• Make independent, creative and more complex use of the language, as appropriate, to note down key points, express and justify individual opinions and points of view
• KS4 study of MFL at TKAW will prepare our students

Students are expected to be able to show the following abilities commensurate with the expected level of progress:

Listening: understand and respond to spoken language

• Demonstrate general and specific understanding of different types of spoken language
• Follow and understand clear standard speech using familiar language across a range of specified contexts
• Identify the overall message, key points, details and opinions in a variety of short and longer spoken passages, involving some more complex language, recognising the relationship between past, present and future events
• Deduce meaning from a variety of short and longer spoken texts involving some complex language and more abstract material, including short narratives and authentic material addressing a wide range of contemporary and cultural themes
• Recognise and respond to key information, important themes and ideas in more extended spoken text, including authentic sources, adapted and abridged as appropriate, by being able to answer questions, extract information, evaluate and draw conclusions.

Speaking: communicate and interact in speech

• Communicate and interact effectively in speech for a variety of purposes across a range of specified contexts
• Take part in a short conversation, asking and answering questions, and exchanging opinions
• Convey information and narrate events coherently and confidently, using and adapting language for new purposes
• Speak spontaneously, responding to unexpected questions, points of view or situations, sustaining communication by using rephrasing or repair strategies, as appropriate
• Initiate and develop conversations and discussion, producing extended sequences of speech
• Make appropriate and accurate use of a variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures, including some more complex forms, with reference to past, present and future events
• Make creative and more complex use of the language, as appropriate, to express and justify their own thoughts and points of view
• Use accurate pronunciation and intonation to be understood by a native speaker.

Reading: understand and respond to written language

• Understand and respond to different types of written language
• Understand general and specific details within texts using high frequency familiar language across a range of contexts
• Identify the overall message, key points, details and opinions in a variety of short and longer written passages, involving some more complex language and recognising the relationship between past, present and future events
• Deduce meaning from a variety of short and longer written texts from a range of specified contexts, including authentic sources involving some complex language and unfamiliar material, as well as short narratives and authentic material addressing relevant contemporary and cultural themes
• Recognise and respond to key information, important themes and ideas in more extended written text and authentic sources, including some extracts from relevant abridged or adapted literary texts
• Demonstrate understanding by being able to scan for particular information, organise and present relevant details, draw inferences in context and recognise implicit meaning where appropriate
• Translate a short passage from Panjabi into English.

Writing: communicate in writing:

• Communicate effectively in writing for a variety of purposes across a range of specified contexts
• Write short texts, using simple sentences and familiar language accurately to convey meaning and exchange information
• Produce clear and coherent text of extended length to present facts and express ideas and opinions appropriately for different purposes and in different settings
• Make accurate use of a variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures, including some more complex forms, to describe and narrate with reference to past, present and future events
• Manipulate the language, using and adapting a variety of structures and vocabulary with increasing accuracy and fluency for new purposes, including using appropriate style and register
• Make independent, creative and more complex use of the language as appropriate, to note down key points, express and justify individual thoughts and points of view in order to interest, inform or convince
• Translate sentences and short texts from English into L2 to convey key messages accurately and to apply grammatical knowledge of language and structures in context

As a department we will regularly include recall and retrieval as an expectation through the delivery of DO NOWs and low stakes formative testing. We focus on recycling and reusing a range of tenses and structures from previous work and topics that can be learnt and carried forward to enable easier production of grammatical structures in future speaking and writing opportunities.

Modern Foreign Languages should lead the school in use of grammar and will contribute to Literacy across the school by making explicit the teaching of key grammar points and offering examples in English and Target Languages that we teach. We also emphasise questioning and scaffolding through use of writing frames, expected details, checklists, range of vocabulary and grammar structures along with modelling responses to show students our “thinking out loud”.

Modern Foreign Languages insists upon high level of recall and retrieval, teaching memory strategies and methods of revision and understanding how to adapt and manipulate verbs, grammar and vocabulary.

Students will be expected to use a range of skills across different contexts to handle, dissect and produce messages intended for native speakers of L2.

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Curriculum:

Students will be shown how to speak L2 with increasingly accurate pronunciation; to listen attentively and effectively to messages appropriate to their level; to read and understand texts incorporating increasingly complex and sophisticated language, and to respond to these texts with accurate, detailed and creative responses in written language. Opportunities to study cross-curricular and cultural content will be provided with regards to the historical, geographical and technological position of the countries that speak the target language. MFL also aims to teach explicit numeracy (time, dates, numbers and statistics) and literacy (grammar, spelling, punctuation, translation and extended writing.) As a theme taught in KS3 and KS4 we focus on aspects of careers, university and studying towards, applying for and obtaining a job and the language required to achieve this is discussed in both English and TL.

School values are referred to regularly in lessons, as we discuss a wider-growing world around our students, we consider how our personal opinions and tastes affect those around us. We then look at how we can, or ought to, interact with others and moving up to higher levels, how our behaviours can affect society and the environment. We aim to model positive values and encourage students to do the same in both thought and with the written word.

 

European Day of languages 26th September

French National Day (14th July)

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