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Guidance on implementation of the KS2 Framework for languages
A language and its culture are inextricably linked. Primary aged children are open to new experiences and fascinated to encounter the world in different ways. Language learning presents a unique opportunity for such appreciation of difference - through traditional songs, stories and rhymes, through contact with native speakers and through the language itself.
Even the simplest elements of language have a cultural dimension. In many languages (except for English) there are 'polite' and 'familiar' expressions for 'you' and this gives messages about how people behave in different cultures. Basic rules of social interaction - shaking hands, bowing, forms of address all represent a particular way of interrelating with people. Even the order of words in a sentence may have a cultural significance. Children who speak more than one language may be able to share their experiences with their peers.
By learning a new language children should be encouraged to take an interest in the lives of others and to look at things from the perspective of others, including in many cases children from other cultures in their own school. They should develop a sensitivity to the similarities and differences between peoples, their daily lives, their beliefs and values. Teachers should endeavour to present a different culture, with its norms and expectations, as they introduce the new language. This can be reinforced by direct contact with the culture through access to native speakers, 'special' language days, educational visits abroad, links with schools in other countries, or using the internet, email or videoconferencing.
At the beginning of key stage 2 pupils encounter the fact of linguistic diversity and reflect on the range of different languages and cultures. They focus on cultural specifics such as different festivals, celebrations and special days, Spanish fiestas, Bastille day, Diwali (IU4.1 learn about festivals and celebrations in different cultures), or typical names in different cultures (IU3 identify social conventions at home and in other cultures). In Years 5 and 6 they approach more demanding issues like attitudes and prejudice (IU6.1 compare attitudes towards aspects of everyday life).
Much of the intercultural understanding strand can provide content for language learning, in particular all of those elements involving celebration and performance or contact with the culture and people of the new language.
Spotlight: Predicting the plot of a traditional story
The traditional Spanish story, El ratoncito Pérez, provides an opportunity for children to compare characteristics of simple stories between cultures. They use the picture cues and their experience of hearing traditional stories in their first language to predict what the plot of the story is about. They find the s ymbols that are used for punctuation, exploring whether they help to understand the meaning of the text.
IU4.3 Compare traditional stories;
KAL Identify narrative forms in a different language and compare to those in English;
LLS Make sensible predictions based on previous knowledge and language cues. |
Other aspects of intercultural understanding can also be taught within the broader curriculum, for example discussing what it feels like to be a child arriving in an English school who does not speak any English (IU5.1 look at further aspects of their everyday lives from the perspective of someone from another country) or exploring the concept of stereotype (IU6.2 recognise and understand some of the differences between people).
Such topics can be linked with work in other subject areas such as PSHE, geography, English or history. In part 3 of the Framework documentation, Planning for entitlement and in the on-line version, a list of cross curricular links shows some of these correspondences in detail. Cultural institutes for the main Foreign Embassies are also a good source of information, advice and materials to supplement language and learning in primary.
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