Modern languages: Songs and stories make French lessons fun
Primary pupils are to learn languages. But will they find the lessons interesting?
By Nick Jackson
Published: 29 March 2007
The announcement this month that the Government was backing the Dearing report recommendations to make a modern foreign language compulsory for all seven- to 14-year-olds will have brought a shiver to the spine and sweat to the brow of many a linguaphobic primary-school teacher.
Since the Eighties, languages have been off most primary school curricula, and language teaching across the board has been in decline. Since 2004, when the Government made learning a modern foreign language after 14 optional, GCSE numbers have dropped by a third. With British business looking for more internationally-aware employees, the Government has woken up to the need for better language training earlier and is investing £50m in making Lord Dearing's proposals a reality.
The framework is already partly in place. Primary schools were primed for the move in 2002 when the Government set a target for all schools to offer modern foreign languages to pupils by 2010. But some teachers are concerned. "A lot of primary teachers feel that they lack languages," says Therese Comfort, a former primary-school teacher and now a senior languages teaching adviser at CILT, the National Centre for Languages. "But they're fantastic experts at teaching children." Comfort reckons that even the most basic language skills - counting to 10 and introducing yourself - can be brought into everyday activities like taking the register, as a first step. Courses are available through local authorities for those who want to take it further. And, a fortnight ago, CILT launched a new, free, website for primary-school teachers looking for advice on languages: www. primarylanguages.org.uk.
The site has clips of language-teaching to give newcomers a feel for what to do and, if you find an exercise you like, you can download a transcript and audio file. Comfort also advises taking a look at the the Key Stage Two Framework for Languages, which outlines the skills teachers need to develop and recommends activities they can use. "You want to make it as enjoyable as possible," says Comfort, "although it can't be superficial. You have to make progression and have a challenge. The children will want that."
One way to do this is to take advantage of the considerable and growing range of resources available for primary schools. Alongside the more conventional books and CDs, there are interactive ICT projects from educational publishers. "Language learning has got itself a bad name," says Emma Rogers, director of Eclipse Books. "People associate it with learning long lists of verbs, but it doesn't have to be boring."
And there are other ways to jazz up language learning beyond the whiteboard. Last year Oughtrington Community Primary School in Warrington won the European Award for Languages. The school teaches Key Stage One French, Italian and Spanish to seven- to nine-year-olds, and French and German to nine- to 11-year-olds. Languages learnt in lessons, taught through songs, games, and exercises, are then built in to the rest of the day, with registers taken in French and familiar stories, like "The Hungry Caterpillar", retold in new languages.
While a passion for languages is being rediscovered in the state sector it never went away in much of the private sector.
In 2004 researchers at UCL showed that learning a second language young boosted brain power and language learning advocates argue that there is more to be gained than just the language itself. The Mount School, an independent girl's school in North London, starts teaching French with its six-year-olds. "Children are already playing with sounds in English, playing with rhymes and alliteration," says Kirsten Jackson, the school's head. "And learning a foreign language makes them more aware of the sounds and structure of their own language.It gives them a feeling of confidence," says Jackson. "And they thoroughly enjoy it."
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