Modern Languages (ML)

MODERN LANGUAGES (ML)

Empowering linguists of the future!

Mr R Bellworthy (Head of Department/F/G/[S])

Miss V Winter (German/French/[Spanish])

Miss S Held (German/French/[Creole])

Mrs C Sykes (French)

Curriculum statement: Whether students choose to learn French and German for 2, 3, 5 or 7 years, we deliver effective dynamic language lessons, which teach our young linguists of the future how to put knowledge of lexis, grammar and phonology into the long-term memory, thus connecting their identity to a rapidly challenging and changing global world.

At SJP over 70 heritages, cultures and languages are represented amongst the student and staff body. We celebrate this diversity!

Key Stage 3
Compulsory Key Stage 3 (in-house Knowledge Organisers)

	French	German
Year 7	2 periods a week	X
Year 8	1 period a week	1 period a week
Year 9	2 periods a week	2 periods a week
Optional	Weekly Homework Club	Weekly Homework Club
Homework	1x 30-45 minutes / week	1x 30-45 minutes / week

 

Theme 1 – My personal world	Mon univers	Meine Welt
Theme 2 – Lifestyle and wellbeing	Style de vie et bien-être	Lebenstil und Wellness
Theme 3 – My neighbourhood	Mon quartier	Meine Gegend
Theme 4 – Media and technology	Les médias et la technologie	Medien und Technologie
Theme 5 – Studying and my future	Mes études et l’avenir	Schule und die Zukunft
Theme 6 – Travel and tourism	Le voyage et le tourisme	Reise und Tourismus

French

Year	Term 1				Term 2			Term 3
7	Name / birthday age / hobbies	Where I live		School subjects	Family relationships	Descriptions of people	Opinion on teachers	Freetime Holidays	Daily routine	Food&drink
8	Free-time	Before/after school activities		Next weekend	Where I live	What you can do there	What I did in my town	Last/next weekend	What I would like to do	Clothes
9	Why languages are important	Parents’ jobs		Holidays	M1: Online life	M1: Sports / TV	M1:Weekend activities	M2: Friends & friendship	M2: Role models	M2: Celebrations
10	M3: School life		M4: On top form		M5: Holidays			M6: Our planet
11	M7: My little world				M8: My future plans			STUDY LEAVE

German

Year	Term 1				Term 2				Term 3
8	Name / birthday age	Where I live		School subjects	Freetime & hobbies	Family relationships		Descriptions of people	Opinion on teachers	Freetime	Holiday activities
9	Family and personality	School subjects		Ideal Xmas travel	Last weekend	Next weekend		Present/Past chores	M3:Friends & friendship	M3:Role models	M3: Celebrations
10	M1: Back to school		M2: Finally freetime		M4: Stay healthy		M5: My area		M6: Nice holiday
11	M7: Our world				M8: What does the future look like?				STUDY LEAVE

Assessment:
The overarching skills in ML are listening, speaking, reading, translation and writing. Progress is assessed on a regular basis, both informally, through regular vocabulary retrieval quizzes, classwork and homework, and also formally in two termly assessments. The ability to express one’s opinion, understand grammar, use native-like pronunciation, manipulate vocabulary, and to learn how to use an online dictionary are crucial if one is going to become a successful linguist!

Classwork:
Students are taught using the EPI methodology (Extensive Processing Instruction) from paper-based and online Sentence Builders, vocabulary lists and textbooks as models for target language structures, sentence prominence and intonation, syntax, and key vocabulary. Occasionally students learn verb conjugations and lists of words, but a greater emphasis is placed on chunking key phrases, high-level gambits, lexical items in context and tenses as part of a narrative. Sentence Builders summarise the highest-level syntax and language at each stage as a model for acquisition and a starting point for each unit. The Sentence Builders include: PROFS; that’s examples of Past tense verbs, Reasons, Opinions, Future tense verbs and the Subjunctive mood, and PIEs (Phrases, Idioms and Expressions). The curriculum is topic and grammar-led; that is within each motivational and age-appropriate topic, grammar is gradient and sequential. Universal pre-requisites for the next stage are embedded and assessed. The research-led assumption is that students learn new things in the context of what they already know; hence pre-requisites for the following year group are crucial in giving students a strong founding via the Universals.

Homework:
Students are expected to spend a minimum of 30 minutes per week on each language on either a reading comprehension and writing task or on learning task. When learning, a student should spend at least 1 session of 10 minutes every other day (at least 3x10 minutes a week) self-quizzing words and verbs from their Knowledge Organiser or online account. This ensures beating the forgetting curve because in order to transfer knowledge from the short-term memory to the long-term memory, the ‘little but often’ approach strengthens the brain’s capacity to recall and retrieve. We encourage the use of the ‘Look, Cover, Say, Write, Check, Correct’ method on either paper or using online applications, such as Sentence Builders, Quizlet and Memrise.

Year 7 French
Students, who are taught in form groups, build on any linguistic knowledge they already have from home or primary school in order to develop their linguistic skills in listening, speaking, reading, translation and writing. Students are given every opportunity to expand their vocabulary and enhance their grammatical and cultural awareness through role-play, ICT and interactive activities. Over the course of year 7, we cover a range of topics, including: Qui suis-je? / Ma famille / Mes passe-temps!

Taught in form groups, students build on their linguistic knowledge from home or primary school. By July, students are expected to understand 90-95% comprehensible input of the key details in simple texts (around 30-90 words). Students study 3 themes: Qui suis-je? / Ma famille / Mes passe-temps! (Who am I? / My family! / My hobbies!), focussing on understanding and expressing descriptions and opinions using universal key structures, such as masculine/feminine and singular/plural adjectives, and transferable knowledge, such as present tense conjugations of être / avoir / aller / faire. Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) using Sentence Builders helps to develop skills in listening (meaning building), speaking (phonological encoding), reading (syntactic parsing), writing (positional processing) and translation.

Year 8 French
Students are setted into sets 1 / 2 based on End of Year 7 attainment grades, but there is movement every term. Students further develop their linguistic skills to express and justify their opinions on 3 themes: Mon temps libre! / Ma ville! / Mon week-end! (My free-time! / My town! / My weekend!), developing understanding and production of longer connected sentences. Grammatical knowledge is built on key structures, such as the regular and irregular perfect tense, alongside transferable knowledge, such as past time markers and subordinate connectives. Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) using Sentence Builders helps to develop skills in listening (meaning building), speaking (phonological encoding), reading (syntactic parsing), writing (positional processing) and translation. A range of functions is developed throughout each unit with spaced practice and end of term assessments.

Year 9 French
Students are setted into sets 1 / 2 based on End of Year attainment grades, but there is movement every term. Students study 3 themes: Les langues et les vacances! / Du temps à perdre! / Mon clan, ma tribu! (Languages! / Time to lose? / My clan!), focussing on understanding and expressing past / present and future. Grammatical knowledge is built on key structures, such as 3-4 tenses and key GCSE vocabulary. Development in skills occurs: listening (meaning building), speaking (phonological encoding), reading (syntactic parsing) and writing (positional processing). A range of functions are developed throughout each unit with spaced practice. Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) using Sentence Builders helps to develop skills in listening (meaning building), speaking (phonological encoding), reading (syntactic parsing), writing (positional processing) and translation, especially as the GCSE course begins in term 2 of year 9.

Year 8 German
A second modern language is introduced in year 8. Germanic languages often appeal to some students where romance languages do not. Having studied French for one year, students already have a strong idea of effective language learning and how languages work. Therefore, picking up a new language is considered easier and more effective than starting modern languages from scratch. Students study 3 themes: Das bin ich! / Meine Familie! / Meine Freizeit! (That’s me! / My family! / My opinion!), focussing on understanding and expressing descriptions and opinions. Grammatical knowledge is built on key structures, such as word order and M / F / N nouns, alongside transferable knowledge, such as present tense verb conjugations of sein/haben/wohnen. Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) using Sentence Builders helps to develop skills in listening (meaning building), speaking (phonological encoding), reading (syntactic parsing), writing (positional processing) and translation.

Year 9 German
Students study 3 themes (About me! / At the weekend! / My world!), focussing on understanding and expressing contrasted opinions with complex connectives. Grammatical knowledge is built on key structures, such as 3-4 tenses and key GCSE vocabulary. Development in skills occurs: listening (meaning building), speaking (phonological encoding), reading (parsing) and writing (positional processing). Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) using Sentence Builders helps to develop skills in listening (meaning building), speaking (phonological encoding), reading (syntactic parsing), writing (positional processing) and translation. Topics include: ich über mich! / Mein Wochenende! (all about me! / my weekend!) and finally the first taste at a GCSE Foundation level topic; Edexcel Chapter 3: Meine Welt, deine Welt! (My world, your world!).

Optional Key Stage 4 (Exam board: Edexcel)

	French	German
Year 10	3 periods a week	3 periods a week
Year 11	3 periods a week	3 periods a week
Optional	weekly skill-up session	weekly skill-up session
Homework	2x 30-45 minutes / week	2x 30-45 minutes / week

Year 10
At KS4 students consolidate vocabulary and topics studied at Key Stage 3. KS4 offers a lively, communicative approach, underpinned by a clear grammatical progression, regular vocabulary learning and GCSE-style assessments. In year 10 students study 5 of the 8 GCSE modules, focussing on understanding and expressing contrasted opinions with tenses. Exam skills are developed: speaking (role play/photo description/general conversation), listening (dictation), reading (key words), writing (20/50/90/150-word tasks) and translation. Functions are space-practised using Edexcel worksheets, the ActiveHub and GCSE Sentence Builders.

Year 11
Students study the final 3 of the 8 GCSE modules, focussing on understanding and expressing contrasted opinions with complex connectives and extended written and spoken answers. Year 10 grammatical knowledge of tenses and complex sentence structure is leveraged alongside transferable knowledge from the GCSE vocabulary bank. Key exam skills are developed: speaking (role play/photo description/general conversation), listening (dictation), reading (key words), writing (20/50/90/150 word tasks) and translation. A range of functions is developed throughout each module with spaced practice using Edexcel worksheets, the ActiveHub and Sentence Builders.

Assessment:
Progress is assessed on a regular basis, both informally, through regular vocabulary quizzes, classwork and homework, and also formally in half-termly assessments of the 4 strands including translation to and from the target language. 100% of the grade is determined by 4 examinations.

1.      Speaking:	25%	7–12 minutes + 15 minutes’ preparation time	50 marks
2.      Listening:	25%	45/60’ with 5’ reading time = Understanding/Dictation	50 marks
3.      Reading:	25%	45/60 minutes = Understanding/Translation into English	50 marks
4.      Writing:	25%	1 hour 15/20 minutes with Translation from English	50 marks
Total marks (100%) =			200 marks

 

Classwork:
Students work from texts, vocabulary lists and textbooks as models for target language structures, sentence prominence and intonation, syntax, and key vocabulary. Occasionally students learn verb conjugations and lists of words, but a greater emphasis is placed on chunking key phrases, high level gambits, lexical items in context and tenses as part of a narrative. Universal pre-requisites are embedded and assessed. The research-led assumption is that students learn new things in the context of what they already know; hence pre-requisites for the following year group are crucial in giving students a strong founding via the Universals.

Homework:
Students are expected to complete two pieces per week and to spend a minimum of 30 minutes on each piece per week. These could take the form of reading and listening comprehension, writing or translation tasks or vocabulary and grammar learning tasks. Like in Key Stage 3 when learning, a student should spend at least 1 session of 10 minutes every other day (at least 4x10 minutes a week) self-quizzing words and verbs from their vocabulary booklet. This ensures beating the forgetting curve because in order to transfer knowledge from the short-term memory to the long-term memory, the ‘little but often’ approach strengthens the brain’s capacity to recall and retrieve. We encourage the use of the ‘Look, Cover, Say, Write, Check, Correct’ method on either paper or using online applications, such as Quizlet, Memrise and ActiveHub.

Year 10 and 11 French and German
Over the two-year course, students consolidate vocabulary and topics studied in Key Stage 3, as required by Edexcel. The course offers a lively, communicative approach, underpinned by a clear grammatical progression and regular vocabulary learning. Throughout the course, students practise GCSE-style assessments in the 4 strands, in which translation to and from the target language plays an important part.

Theme 1 – My personal world	Mon univers	Meine Welt
Theme 2 – Lifestyle and wellbeing	Style de vie et bien-être	Lebenstil und Wellness
Theme 3 – My neighbourhood	Mon quartier	Meine Gegend
Theme 4 – Media and technology	Les médias et la technologie	Medien und Technologie
Theme 5 – Studying and my future	Mes études et l’avenir	Schule und die Zukunft
Theme 6 – Travel and tourism	Le voyage et le tourisme	Reise und Tourismus

Optional Key Stage 5 (Exam board: AQA)

	French	German
Year 12	4 periods a week	4 periods a week
Year 13	5 periods a week	5 periods a week
Optional:	weekly skill-up session	weekly skill-up session
Homework:	4x 30-45 minutes / week	4x 30-45 minutes / week

Year 12
Students learn to express themselves proficiently in conversation and in writing on a variety of topical issues, as well as developing research skills. They will extract information from a range of spoken and written texts, to recognise points of view and opinions and develop their awareness of other cultures, including their literary heritage. Students study 2 themes to offer understanding of the target language culture. Whilst acquiring a much broader range of vocabulary, students will also consolidate their grammatical knowledge of the subject developing their communication skills. Students will be engaged in a variety of activities, including presentations and group projects, as well as independent research. They will analyse aspects of the theme by developing arguments and form conclusions.

Year 13
Students will build on communicative fluency in speaking/writing, as well as further developing research skills. Students study a further 2 themes to offer understanding of the target language culture. Whilst acquiring a much broader range of vocabulary, students will also consolidate their grammatical knowledge of the subject developing their communication skills. The course will also develop students’ ability to research a theme of their choice independently which they will then present orally demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of the cultural and social context of their research. In addition, a literary text and a film form 20% of the course.

Assessment:
Progress is assessed on a regular basis, both informally, through regular vocabulary quizzes, classwork and homework, and also formally in half-termly assessments of the 5 strands including translation to and from the target language. 100% of the grade is determined by 4 examinations.

Assessments:

Paper 1 • Listening • Reading • Translation (from French)	There are several homework tasks per week. Typical tasks could be: • Weekly memorisation of vocabulary • Grammar consolidation via paper/online exercises • Translation from/to English • Listening/reading comprehension tasks • Essay writing/redrafting • Speaking tasks to be recorded or presentations in class
Paper 2 • Writing Topical essay / Literature: based on the film/book of study • Translation (from English)
Paper 3 • Speaking Stimulus Cards & IRP
Exams also cover:  Vocabulary Grammar Pronunciation Target-country culture

 

Classwork:
Languages are an invaluable asset in today’s multicultural world and the course aims to enable students to express themselves proficiently in conversation and in writing on a variety of topical issues, as well as developing research skills. It will develop their ability to extract information from a range of spoken and written texts, to recognise points of view and opinions and develop their awareness of other cultures, including their literary heritage.

This is a two-year linear course, during which time students will study topics under the following four themes:

French Themes

• Aspects of French -speaking society: current trends
• Artistic culture in the French-speaking world
• Aspects of French-speaking society: current issues
• Aspects of political life in the French-speaking world

German Themes

• Aspects of German-speaking society
• Multiculturalism in German-speaking society
• Artistic culture in the German-speaking world
• Aspects of political life in the German-speaking world

Whilst acquiring a much broader range of vocabulary, students will also consolidate their grammatical knowledge of the subject developing their communication skills.

The skills of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing remain at the core of Language Teaching and students will be engaged in a variety of activities, including presentations and group projects, as well as independent research and teacher led tasks.

The course will continually develop accuracy in language and students must be able to discuss one of the above themes orally, explaining their views. They will analyse aspects of the theme by developing arguments and form conclusions. The course will also develop students’ ability to research a theme of their choice independently which they will then present orally demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of the cultural and social context of their research.

In addition, either two literary texts or a literary text and a film will be studied over the course of the two years.