Modern Foreign Languages

Intent

There are clear educational, personal, cultural, social, career and business benefits in being able to communicate in a foreign language.

The Modern Languages Department at MEPA Academy aims to provide all pupils with an energetic and dynamic experience of language learning. We adopt a communicative approach to language teaching. Lessons are conducted in the target language and we strive for achievement and enjoyment for all our pupils. We believe that learning a modern foreign language should be fun, stimulating and confidence building, by giving them the tools to be able to communicate with other people and engage with other cultures. Foreign languages is increasingly important in a global economy and have great value in our society.

We aim to develop the ability to use language effectively for practical communication and provide pupils with the linguistic skills, to enable them to learn the vocabulary and structures required in the various in the SOWs in the first instance and for GCSE.

We want to promote learning skills of a more general application and encourage the pupils’ overall disposition towards the acquisition of knowledge and skills. We want to develop an awareness of the culture and civilisation of those countries where the target language is learned, which eventually develops into cultural empathy and positive attitudes towards speakers of foreign languages.

We aim to develop:

• An interest in the subject
• An awareness of cultural and historical context
• Creativity and excellence
• A safe platform for all students to explore and develop their skills
• Understanding and responding to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• Confidence in speaking with 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
• Writing at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
• Discovering and developing an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied

KS3

Modern foreign languages will build on the foundations of language learning laid at Key Stage 2, whether pupils continue with the same language or take up a new one. Teaching will focus on developing the breadth and depth of pupils’ competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing, based on a sound foundation of core grammar and vocabulary.

It will enable pupils to understand and communicate personal and factual information that goes beyond their immediate needs and interests, developing and justifying points of view in speech and writing, with increased spontaneity, independence and accuracy. It will provide suitable preparation for further study.

KS4

At KS4 Students will study the AQA GCSE Spanish specification as outlined below.