United Kingdom Key Stage 2 National Curriculum: Foreign Language

This curriculum applies to students in Years 3 through 6. The emphasis is on practical communication in modern languages and reading comprehension and appreciation of classical civilization in ancient languages. Schools can choose to teach any modern or ancient language, with a focus on substantial progress in one language.

Aims

The curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from various authentic sources.
• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency, and spontaneity, finding ways to communicate their thoughts and ideas, including through discussions and questions, while continuously improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Write for different purposes and audiences, utilizing a variety of grammatical structures.
• Develop an appreciation for a range of writing in the chosen language.

Subject Content

The curriculum should provide a balance of spoken and written language, laying the foundation for further language learning. It should enable pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts, and feelings through speech and writing, focusing on familiar and routine matters. This involves utilizing their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures, and vocabulary.

Modern Languages

The focus is on practical communication.

Pupils should be taught to:

• Listen attentively to spoken language and demonstrate understanding by participating and responding.
• Explore language patterns and sounds through songs and rhymes, linking spelling, sound, and meaning of words.
• Engage in conversations, ask and answer questions, express opinions, respond to others' opinions, and seek clarification and help.
• Speak in sentences using familiar vocabulary, phrases, and basic language structures.
• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation.
• Present ideas and information orally to various audiences.
• Read carefully and demonstrate understanding of words, phrases, and simple writing.
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems, and rhymes in the language.
• Expand their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words introduced in familiar written materials, including using a dictionary.
• Write phrases from memory and adapt them to create new sentences to express ideas clearly.
• Describe people, places, things, and actions orally and in writing.
• Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine, and neuter forms; conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

Ancient Languages

The focus is on providing a linguistic foundation for reading comprehension and an appreciation of classical civilization. Discussions about readings are conducted in English. Simple oral exchanges may be included. A linguistic foundation in ancient languages can support the study of modern languages at Key Stage 3.

Pupils should be taught to:

• Listen attentively to spoken language and demonstrate understanding by participating and responding.
• Explore language patterns and sounds through songs and rhymes, linking spelling, sound, and meaning of words.
• Read carefully and demonstrate understanding of words, phrases, and simple writing.
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems, and rhymes in the language.
• Expand their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words introduced in familiar written materials, including using a dictionary.
• Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine, and neuter forms; conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.