Modern Foreign Languages (French)

Intent: Why do we teach what we teach?

Our goal is to foster a love for languages and cultural awareness through the teaching of French. Using the Kapow Primary scheme, we aim to develop pupils' linguistic skills, confidence, and understanding of French-speaking cultures.

French is a widely spoken first language across the world. Learning it at Key Stage 2, will open a wide range of opportunities for our pupils as they enter KS3 and beyond. We believe that learning French will give our pupils a significant advantage when competing for jobs in the future. We also believe that learning French will connect our pupils with wider cultures, thus approaching global citizenship with an open mind. 

Substantive Knowledge

• Vocabulary and Grammar: Pupils learn essential vocabulary and fundamental grammatical structures to communicate effectively in French.
• Cultural Awareness: Pupils explore French-speaking cultures, traditions, and customs, broadening their global perspective.
• Language Structures: Pupils understand the basic structures of the French language, including sentence construction and verb conjugation.

Practical Skills

• Speaking and Listening: Pupils practice speaking and listening to French through interactive activities, songs, and conversations.
• Reading and Writing: Pupils develop their reading and writing skills by engaging with French texts and writing exercises.
• Pronunciation and Intonation: Pupils focus on correct pronunciation and intonation, enhancing their speaking skills.

Curiosity and Excitement

• Engaging Content: Lessons are designed to be fun and engaging, sparking interest and curiosity in learning French.
• Cultural Exploration: Pupils learn about French-speaking countries and cultures, making connections between their own experiences and those of others.
• Confidence Building: Pupils build confidence in their ability to learn and use a new language through supportive and interactive activities.

Implementation: What do we teach and when?

From Year 3, we deliver the aims of the national curriculum through regular French lessons delivered by our class teaching teams. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French, although in Year 3 the focus is on developing oral skills, before incorporating written French in Year 4 and beyond. The scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key skills and vocabulary revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our French units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning.

The French scheme of work is designed with three knowledge strands that run throughout our units with knowledge building cumulatively. These are:

• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Grammar

This knowledge can then be applied within our skills strands, which also run throughout each unit in the scheme:

• Language comprehension (Listening and reading)
• Language production (Speaking and writing)

 Overview of MfL curriculum

Language detective skills

We believe that this element of our scheme is crucial to developing engaged and independent language learners who are able to grow their skills in the other five strands and transfer these skills to learn further languages.

 It involves:

• Recognising learnt vocabulary when listening or reading
• Spotting cognates (words which have the same origin or are in some way similar) and near-cognates
• Using context and their own knowledge of the world to predict the meaning of unknown words
• Considering word order to anticipate the meaning of words Our scheme develops these skills in a progressive way so that by Year 6 pupils can use these strategies to confidently grapple with unknown spoken and written language and search for meaning. The development of these skills also helps pupils develop their understanding of the English language and its grammar conventions.

Oracy in French-Learning through talk

We believe it's crucial to provide pupils with opportunities for exploratory talk during their learning. This involves thinking aloud, questioning, discussing, and collaboratively building ideas. Learning to talk Similarly, developing oracy skills is essential for pupils to express and articulate themselves effectively across various contexts and settings, including formal ones like public speaking, debates, and interviews.

Through our French curriculum, pupils have opportunities to develop their oracy skills by:

• Developing the physical skills required for speech by utilising their voice, body language, and facial expressions to better communicate in French.
• Explicitly considering the role of syntax in communication in French and reflecting on the differences with English to deepen understanding.
• Role-playing as French speakers to practice conversational skills.
• Questioning and responding to each other in French to build communication skills.
• Interpreting the speech of native French speakers, learning to gist and summarise meaning.
• Listening to native French speakers and peers to enhance listening skills.
• Collaborating in groups and turn-taking during conversations.

Impact: How children show that they know and remember more

The impact of the scheme can be monitored continuously through both formative and summative assessment. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. An assessment spreadsheet is also available to record children’s progress in each lesson to enable teachers to build a picture of their learning through each unit.

After the implementation of French, pupils should leave school equipped with a range of language-learning skills to enable them to study French, or any other language, with confidence at Key Stage 3. The expected impact of following the French scheme of work is that children will:

➔ Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g., ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion.

 ➔ Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases, and short texts.

 ➔ Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.

 ➔ Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.

➔ Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.

 ➔ Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.

 ➔ Have developed an awareness of cognates and near-cognates and be able to use them to tackle unfamiliar words in French, English, and other languages. Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.

 ➔ Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Languages

• Assessment: Pupils are assessed through their participation in activities, their ability to use vocabulary and grammar correctly, and their understanding of cultural topics.
• Progress Tracking: Teachers track pupils’ progress in language skills, cultural understanding, and confidence in using French.
• Practical Application: Pupils demonstrate their learning by participating in conversations, writing in French, and engaging with French texts.

 Our MFL curriculum, through the Kapow Primary scheme, aims to ensure that every pupil enjoys learning French and develops the skills, knowledge, and confidence to communicate effectively. By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils are well-prepared to continue their language learning journey in secondary school and beyond, with a strong foundation in both linguistic and cultural understanding.

How you can help your child at home:

 Key Stage 2- Sharing positive experiences, you have had around other cultures and language learning will have a wonderful impact on the children in your care.

 Asking them what they are learning in school in their language lessons and getting them to teach you is a huge encouragement.  Get them to use the new language around the house "merci" (thank you) for anything you give them!

 Sharing any other languages which are spoken within the family is also a great way to help the brain work new languages out.

Finally, the well-known app 'Duolingo' is fun to encourage children to learn language.