MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE (MFL)

French is the modern foreign language taught at St Raphael’s for Year 3-6. The teaching provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language. We aim to enable pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in conversation and writing. We use a variety of techniques to encourage creativity in children’s learning and engagement including: games, role plays and songs to memorise vocabulary. We emphasise listening and speaking skills over reading and writing skills within this area of the curriculum. Children will refer to French dictionaries, use laptops and iPads to look at appropriate websites for information and the visual stimuli including key classroom language and labelled classroom objects will be displayed around the school.

The national curriculum for language requires that 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.
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
• 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.