| When learning a new language, children reinforce and reinterpret knowledge and understanding gained in learning their first language. In the early years children should develop insights into the sounds and some of the structures of the new language and compare them with their own language. As they increase their understanding of the rules of sounds, spellings and grammar, they should begin to apply these rules when creating new language, both spoken and written. As they progress, children should have frequent opportunities to apply previously learnt knowledge and rules in English and the new language.
Children will have experience of learning about and using simple grammatical terms such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns. They will need to apply this knowledge in the context of learning about languages which are new to them. This knowledge can be taught in the new language or in English.
The objectives for developing children's knowledge about language are integrated into the learning objectives and teaching activities for oracy, literacy and intercultural understanding. It is assumed that these integrated versions will be used for day-to-day planning purposes. In order to further develop learning programmes and assist the monitoring of course content and learners' progress, examples of the main KAL elements linked to each learning objective are also summarised below. |
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Children should have opportunities: |
| Identify phonemes, letters and words which are similar to and different from English in spoken and written forms
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| Recognise commonly used rhyming sounds and learn how they are written
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| Understand and use a range of common words from all word classes, especially verbs
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| Recognise that languages use different writing systems, have different ways of expressing social relationships (politeness), borrow words and describe concepts and ideas differently
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| Apply their knowledge of language rules and conventions when building short sentences and texts, spoken and written
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| Understand and use question forms and negatives in spoken and written language
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| Understand that rules and conventions are respected by native speakers and are important for learners
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| Recognise some basic aspects of agreement where relevant, e.g. gender, singular/plural, pronoun/verb, adjectives
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| Recognise the importance and significance of intonation and punctuation
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