Modern Foreign Languages Subject Lead - Mandy Mailling mandymailling@boringdon.plymouth.sch.uk

Boringdon Primary School MFL Statement

'A Boringdon linguist is able to communicate in French with confidence and understanding. They can listen and respond using a breadth of relevant vocabulary and understand the grammatical nuances of the language and how it relates to English.'

At Boringdon Primary School we utilise the Rachel Hawkes scheme of work to develop all learners into competent and confident French linguists. Our intention is for every child to:

▪ 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

▪ 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.

Essential Knowledge

We teach three core strands of essential knowledge: 

1.     Phonics – the key components of the sound-writing relationship

2.     Vocabulary – a set of the most frequently used words

3.     Grammar – the essential building blocks required to create simple sentences independently (including gender of nouns, singular and plural forms, adjectives (place and agreement), and the conjugation of key verbs)

Our French curriculum is designed to enable our children to:

· Develop linguistic and communicative competence

· Extend their knowledge of how language works

· Explore similarities and differences between French, any heritage languages our children have, and English

The curriculum provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3.  It enables pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing, focused on familiar and routine matters, using their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary. 

Pupils are 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

▪ broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material

▪ 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 appropriate to the language being studied, including: feminine, 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.