Being a Linguist

Curriculum Intent

What is the point of being a Linguist?

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

The aims of being a Linguist are:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

We intend to give each child purposeful opportunities to learn Spanish and French in school, with lessons becoming more formalized in Key Stage 2.

Implementation

Being a linguist is integrated into our curriculum through Language Angels.  Language Angels ensures our curriculum is progressive and that our teaching materials are interactive and engaging.

Within our Ludwell curriculum, there is no ‘skills or knowledge’ debate. It is a seamless blend of both, and through every lesson, learners are challenged to work independently to prove their understanding of the ‘know of’ and ‘know how’ of being a Linguist.

In Key Stage Two, we provide weekly lessons and frequently recap previous vocabulary to ensure it is retained which each pupil as they progress through the school.

Although we will focus on both French and Spanish over a two-year cycle, we are offering taster days to Reception, Year One and Two each term. These taster days will vary from French, Spanish and other exciting cultures to develop a curiosity of culture and understanding of the world. We aim to open the doors to other cultures, encourage pupils to express their ideas and foster a keen interest for further language knowledge.

Impact

Being a Linguist is assessed through monitoring how a learner responds to enquiries and whether they show a particular enthusiasm and disposition towards it.