Modern Foreign Languages
Curriculum Intent Statement
Our aim is to broaden students’ horizons and to encourage them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries. We intend to inspire students to deepen their understanding of the world by challenging insular mentalities and behaviours and by making them aware of the importance of learning a language.
MFL Department: Department Overview, Years 7-11
“A different language is a different vision of life.” — Federico Fellini.
"Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things but learning another way to think about things." – Flora Lewis
Learning a foreign language is a skill for life which will enhance both communication skills and employment prospects. It also provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster students’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
The MFL department at Spalding Grammar School believes that learning another language raises awareness of the multilingual and multicultural world and introduces an international dimension to students’ learning enabling them to better understand their own culture and those of others.
The MFL curriculum has therefore been designed to meet the varying needs and interests of boys in years 7-11 whilst providing for them many opportunities for challenge and enrichment. Our overarching aim is to produce confident communicators who can successfully participate in an ever-expanding global economy.
Across Key Stages 3 and 4, the department is committed to using Dr Gianfranco Conti’s Extensive Processing Instruction model of language acquisition to develop our students’ knowledge of Phonics, Vocabulary and Grammar and we have planned for frequent opportunities for recall, repetition, and reuse in a variety of contexts leading over time to mastery of the language being studied.
The teaching of the Target Language is focused on individual “chunks” of language rather than on individual words as this supports fluency and long-term memory recall. When communicating, 75% of the time is spent on listening and speaking and 25% on reading and writing (Adler, R., Rosenfeld, L. and Proctor, R. (2001)), therefore each unit of language focuses first on listening and speaking before progressing to reading and writing.
Grammar plays a role in each topic and through interleaving the complexity and expansion of knowledge progresses as each year is completed. Grammar is taught explicitly and implicitly throughout all years and is a running thread through all planning and teaching.
Depth has been built into the curriculum in place of breadth to challenge our students to achieve highly and to achieve, maintain and surpass, their academic potential sooner and for a sustained period. Through this model of instruction, we intend to challenge our more able students to attain beyond their capabilities.
By ensuring that there is a mix of group and individual tasks set in class, closed and open-ended tasks and that the pace of lessons is varied, we are able to identify those who need support, based on how they’re performing in that lesson, rather than on a previous test result.
The use of IT programmes such as The Language Gym and Sentence Builders are well-established for reinforcing newly acquired knowledge or for setting homework for supporting retainment in the longer-term memory.
French, German and Spanish are taught by a team of 4 specialist teachers with all students studying a modern foreign language until the end of year 11.
Currently, all students in years 10 and 11 study Spanish and all students in year 9 study French. Year 7 and year 8 are divided into two cohorts. In year 7, the boys are taught either German or Spanish and in year 8, the students study either French or Spanish. Moving forward, the school will offer Spanish, French and German on rotation as part of a 2-language model whereby whichever language is not taught in year 7 will be on offer the following academic year alongside Spanish.
We aim to give students the opportunity to engage and excel in at least one language and a second language is offered at the end of year 9.
French, German and Spanish A levels are offered in Key Stage 5.
The MFL department also enriches our students’ language experience by offering extra-curricular activities such as trips abroad, the Language Ambassadors programme and promotion of languages in the workplace.
During Flexy week in July 2023, Steve Eadon from Mingalaba (previously a football coach with Arsenal FC) worked with our year 9 boys in understanding the importance of having a foreign language in the workplace by discussing the opportunities that he had at Arsenal because he is multilingual. He also ran footballing skills workshops through the medium of Spanish. This is an event that will take place during Flexy week with year 9 in the future.
MFL Department: Department Overview, Years 12-13
"He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart." – Nelson Mandela
Learning a foreign language is a skill for life which will enhance both communication skills and employment prospects. It also provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster students’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
The MFL department at Spalding Grammar School believes that learning another language raises awareness of the multilingual and multicultural world and introduces an international dimension to students’ learning enabling them to better understand their own culture and those of others.
The MFL curriculum has therefore been designed to meet the varying needs and interests of the students in years 12 and 13 whilst providing for them many opportunities for challenge and enrichment. Our overarching aim is to produce confident communicators who can successfully participate in an ever-expanding global economy.
At A level, we offer French, German and Spanish and the department follows the AQA specification for A levels in French, German and Spanish. These are linear qualifications.
The teaching is split collaboratively with Spalding High School. Two teachers share the year 12 and 13 teaching in each language, specialising in specific assessment objectives and units, and working as a team to support students. Students have access to high quality resources: AQA approved textbooks and online resources. Students are expected to carry out a significant amount of independent study to support their learning.
Study at A level builds upon the skills, understanding and knowledge that the students have acquired in Key Stage 4 and GCSE topics such technology and family life are revisited and expanded upon to allow students to discuss trends and analyse data and statistics from the TL country in these areas. It constitutes an integrated study with a focus on language, culture, and society. It fosters a range of transferable skills including communication, critical thinking, research skills and creativity, which are valuable to the individual and society.
They also study either one book and one film or two books. They must appreciate, analyse and be able to respond critically in writing in the Target Language to the work they have studied.
In addition, students develop research skills in the target language, demonstrating the ability to initiate and conduct individual research on a subject of personal interest, relating to the country or countries where the Target Language is spoken.
A strong emphasis is placed on improving the students’ confidence in speaking in the Target Language and students are taught to understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources. They are encouraged to 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. To this end, the students have 2 hours of speaking practice with a native speaker.
The MFL department also enriches our students’ language experience by offering extra-curricular activities such as trips abroad, trips to the theatre or cinema to watch plays/films in the TL, the Language Ambassadors programme and promotion of languages in the workplace.
A Level students often volunteer to support other students in the lower school with speaking workshops.
Staff
- Miss S Jahangir (Head of Department)
- Mrs D Taborda (2nd in Department)
- Mrs C Howard
- Mr M Peckitt
Resources
The MFL department has four dedicated classrooms with exam board issued textbooks in Spanish, German and French that follow the updated curriculum. In addition, online resources are used as well as authentic texts, video clips and music which are accessible from home by the students in order to use in their homework assignments or for their own learning.
Curriculum
Students have opportunities to develop their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in 2 modern languages throughout Key Stages 3-5.
Curriculum
The MFL curriculum has three key aims:
- To enable students to understand and communicate in a foreign language for their own enjoyment and to prepare them for the challenges of the current modern life.
- To promote a deeper understanding of foreign cultures and give students the opportunity to appreciate and understand world diversity.
- To build on grammar skills taught in English language lessons, promoting a better understanding of how language works, which will give them independence and ownership to use the foreign language.
Key Stage 3
Key stage 3
In Key stage 3, the skills and topics that are covered in each year are filtered down from the GCSE requirements. There is repetition of the skills and topics throughout the learning journey, in order to consolidate understanding; with the work becoming progressively more challenging each year to allow for a greater depth of knowledge. The MFL curriculum is structured to allow equal coverage of the key skills areas (listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation in both ways) in every year group.
In years 7 and 8, students learn Spanish. Using the Viva 1 and 2 books they study topics that are relevant to their daily life. This year, the year 9 cohort is divided between French and Spanish learners. During the latter part of the year, students begin the AQA GCSE course.
Key Stage 4
Key stage 4
For GCSE we follow the AQA course. In addition to covering the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing to cover the required content, lessons are also enriched with authentic source material to ensure a varied educational experience. Currently, one half of the year 10 cohort studies Spanish and the other German, while in year 11 the cohort is split between French and Spanish learners.
Key Stage 5
Key stage 5
Currently, we offer Spanish and German at A Level, which both follow the AQA course. Students are able to expand their skills learned at GCSE. In addition, they will study a film and a book.
For Spanish this is:
‘La casa de Bernada Alba’ by Federico García Lorca
‘El Laberinto Del Fauno’ directed by Guillermo Del Toro
And for German:
‘Der Besuch der alten Dame’ by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
‘Das Leben der Anderen’ directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Enrichment
Enrichment
Incorporated into the curriculum are opportunities for students to investigate Spanish, German or French speaking countries and their culture. To celebrate the European Day of Languages, for example, students are encouraged to take part in a variety of activities and competitions, designed to broaden their understanding of foreign languages and countries.
In addition, a trip abroad is offered in year 7, alternating between the region of Cantabria in northern Spain and Cologne in Germany.
To promote and celebrate a good learning ethos, students of the week are nominated by all Languages teachers.