Modern Foreign Languages – Mrs L. Walke

The National Curriculum states that: “Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.” 

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.  

 At Cotteridge School, children build increasing fluency and confidence in expressing themselves in French through speaking, listening, reading and writing. Throughout KS2, children develop and extend their linguistic skills and knowledge of how language works, gaining a foundation for further language learning. Children gain the confidence to explore and to attempt manipulation of the structure of language. Teachers impart a broader perspective on the world through language and encourage the children to better understand their own cultures and those of others.