This website is changing

Guidance on implementation of the KS2 Framework for languages

Making language learning part of school life

Embedding language learning into school life achieves many benefits on a number of levels, for example:

Personal development

• It helps children to understand that there are many languages spoken in the world (and in their school) and that this is normal, natural and valuable;
• It encourages children to develop a deeper understanding of their own culture and that of others;
• It promotes enjoyment in language learning and gives it status.

Linguistic development

• It provides opportunities to use the new language for real purposes, taking full advantage of the primary curriculum and teaching context;
• It makes the repetition necessary to learn a new language natural and easy
• It deepens knowledge about language;
• It helps to develop language learning strategies;
• It develops habitual and automatic responses, encouraging fluency and confidence;
• It provides a platform for planning for linguistic progression, building on familiar routines.

Curriculum time

• It makes best use of available time and does not place undue pressure on other foundation subjects.

Daily routines provide a good starting point for primary teachers who have never taught languages before. In the normal course of everyday life in the classroom primary teachers use certain words and phrases over and over again. They greet children, they talk about regular events and routines, they give instructions and praise. Routine language such as 'come here', 'sit down', 'stand up', 'well done', 'put your books away', 'who can tell me', 'hands up', 'let's count' can be as easily conveyed in the new language as they can in English.

Spotlight: Using every day routines Throughout the day children in Year 3 follow most classroom instructions in French. They learn these through a variety of games such as 'Read my lips', echo and repeat, 'Jacques a dit…'. The instructions become part of normal routine. Children take turns to give instructions and praise to the class and often manage the games taking the role of the teacher. O3.4 Listen attentively and understand instructions, everyday classroom language and praise words

Regular events such as taking the register and counting the numbers of children staying for school lunch can be efficiently carried out in another language. Signs indicating entrances and exits, instructions to pull or push doors, directions and labels can also be displayed in other languages. Through sheer force of exposure to the new language and repetition these daily encountered words, phrases and sentences will be rapidly learned and assimilated naturally by teacher and pupils alike. These can form a firm foundation on which to build confidence and progression.

Spotlight: Using the register Every day in a Year 3 class the teacher takes the register in German. The children answer using as many different words or expressions as possible, trying not to repeat something that the previous child has said. If they can't think of something new, they use the same word or expression but say it in a different mood, happy, sad, tired, angry and the class calls out the mood in German. O3.3 Perform simple communicative tasks using single words, phrases or short sentences

Embedding language learning into whole school policy is particularly effective. Children, their parents and the wider community can see that language competence, however small, is valued and that speaking another language or languages is part of the ordinary daily experience of everybody around them.

Teachers keen to adopt this approach can begin by taking a look at the lists of the main words, phrases and sentences that are used in the classroom translated into a range of languages. These are available on the National Advisory Centre for Early Language Learning's website.