Modern Foreign Languages

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Purpose of Study

This curriculum enables learners to manipulate language so that they can build their own meaning, sentences and structures independently. It develops pupils to be effective communicators who can confidently use their knowledge and skills to become global citizens and lifelong linguists, with a clear understanding of language used in daily life and work in a variety of contexts.

What makes MFL at TWA Special?

This MFL curriculum sequencing and pedagogical approach is consistent with recommendations for KS3 recommended by the National Curriculum, by the Education Endowment Foundation, and by the Oak National Academy. At TWA our MFL teaching approach is evidence informed. Our lesson design draws on Rosenshein’s principles of instruction and our approach encourages students to explore their intercultural understanding, linguistic talents, teamwork and communication skills, and to express themselves freely, with confidence in speaking and in writing. By fostering creativity in teaching, innovation, and inter-cultural awareness, we prepare our students for a successful and fulfilling future, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to excel in various academic, work and life pursuits. The encouragement to embrace the TWA virtues of GROW and RISE, particularly in STEM work contexts, is a key point of difference and in our opinion sets us apart from other schools locally.

Aims of the MFL Curriculum

Knowledge and vocabulary rich

This principle recognises the important role that knowledge, and vocabulary as a particularly important type of knowledge, plays in learning. Our curriculum has a focus on the most important knowledge in languages: vocabulary, phonics and grammar. These are learned and applied through practice in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Sequenced and coherent

A careful and purposeful sequencing of our curriculum content underpins the design of our curriculum, ensuring that pupils are able to build on and make links with existing knowledge.

Evidence-informed

This evidence-informed approach enables the rigorous application of research outcomes, science of learning and impactful best practice both in education in general and at a subject specific level.

Our approach to teaching grammar aligns with evidence that:

• Explicit teaching closes the gap for less naturally analytical learners;
• Providing a succinct explanation before practising a grammar feature is more effective than asking pupils to spot patterns;
• Bespoke listening and reading activities contrasting pairs of grammar features and making their processing essential to task completion lead to stronger learning than traditional comprehension tasks.

Flexible

Our TWA curriculum can be used in its entirety or units can be selected to complement our evolving ‘Visions and Virtue’ curricula. Our MFL resources are adaptable in that, for example, teachers can edit or add checks for understanding, adapt practice tasks to better reflect the prior knowledge of their pupils, substitute vocabulary with words more relevant to our own pupils, or add local context such as information about a potential partner school in another country.

Diverse

Our commitment to breadth and diversity in content, language, texts and media can be seen throughout the curriculum, for example in the group of diverse school age characters that feature in our resources. To model the diverse populations that share a common language across the world. For example, in French lessons they meet characters from North Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.

Accessible

Our curriculum is intentionally designed to facilitate high-quality teaching as a powerful lever to support pupils with SEND. Aligned with EEF guidance, our resources have a focus on clear explanations, modelling and frequent checks for understanding, with guided and independent practice. Lessons are chunked into learning cycles and redundant images and information are minimised to manage cognitive load.

Our resources are purposefully created to be accessible, for example by using accessible fonts and colours with good contrast. In our languages lessons we revisit vocabulary that has been previously taught and use it in different contexts to help embed it. Where appropriate, we use meaningful images to accompany vocabulary to support pupils' learning and recall.

Develops pupils who have cultural curiosity and are inspired and equipped to communicate across the wider world

Our curriculum has a rich cultural content across all three languages, inspiring pupils to engage in the world as global citizens. Our French curriculum includes learning about francophone cities across Europe, Canada and Africa; pupils are given the knowledge to engage with historical contexts such as the history of the French Revolution, and the French resistance.

Demonstrate Resilience and Autonomy

We promote independent practice and self-directed learning, helping students become resilient and autonomous linguists.

Year 7 MFL Curriculum:

HT1 - Reading and Translation:

• Personal Identity
• Learning to talk about Ourselves, pets and other people
• Describing Famous French Scientists

HT2 - Speaking and Listening:

• Describing the weather
• Countries + Nationalities
• Production of a Weather Report to be presented to class, as would a TV Weather Presenter

HT3 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• Global Identity and Landscapes
• What does it mean to be French?
• Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe Graphic design sketch

HT4 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• Learning to give directions to local shops, churches and places locally
• ‘3D Building Design Project’ – Making either Bastille Castle, Pompidou Centre, the Louvre or Versailles

HT5 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• Innovation & Change
• Mankind’s Evolution from Mammals to Humans
• Describing different animals and pets

HT6 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• Learning body parts and action verbs
• Roleplay/Use of the French language that is used in the work of: Doctors; Emergency Services e.g. Ambulance Workers; Firemen; Sports men and women;Construction Workers

Year 8 MFL Curriculum

HT1 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• School Subjects, School Teachers – likes/dislike
• Recap & Learning of Numbers 0-30; 31-60
• Learning how to read the 24-hour clock
• Creating timetables for school in French

HT2 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• Describing items of clothing
• Designing a new school uniform design project

HT3 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• Recap of knowledge of names of different countries
• Describing places in our town/village/city
• 3D design illustrations or architectural drawings

HT4 - Reading, Writing, Listenin & Speaking:

• Naming different rooms in house + adjectives
• Describing items in bedroom/furniture + prepositions
• 3D Building Design Project - Use of re-cycled materials

HT5 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking:

• Recap of previous topics
• Describing different technology and gadgets
• Pros and Cons of different social media

HT6 - Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking (including dictation and translation skills):

• Advantages of technology
• Disadvantages and dangers of technology
• Celebrity culture – famous influencers
• Powerpoint Presentation Project - celebrity culture & famous influencers