The deadline for the consultation is 28th September 2012 and all related documents can be downloaded
here.
My own response is as follows…
...We are seeking to make provision under
the 2002 Education Act to ensure that all maintained schools must teach a
foreign language at Key Stage 2, from Year 3 to Year 6. This could be either a
modern foreign language or an ancient language such as Latin or ancient Greek.
Q1 a) Do you agree with the Government's
proposal that foreign languages should become compulsory at Key Stage 2 in
maintained schools in England from September 2014?
Yes
Q1 b) Please explain the reasons for
your answer:
Our world is multilingual and young children
need exposure to other languages to be able to reflect more deeply about how
their own language functions and strengthen their literacy skills. Research
also shows that younger children are more willing to try languages than
teenagers who are often even more self-conscious than adults. Last but not
least, starting early is a way to promote languages as an important part of the
curriculum and should encourage more pupils to carry on studying languages
later in life. This, in turn, will have a positive impact on our country’s
linguistic capacity and improve our ability to do business abroad. .
The Government is not minded to specify the language to be taught, but
rather give full flexibility to schools in their choice of languages. We are
therefore interested in finding out more about the language(s) that primary
schools would be likely to provide.
Q2 a) If you are responding on
behalf of a primary school, what language(s) would your school be likely to
teach and why?
As a secondary
teacher who goes to some of our feeder primary schools to teach languages, I
often see a choice based on the strengths displayed by more than one member of
staff. I agree that the actual language
does not matter as much as the ability to deliver quality provision with
enthusiasm. French and Spanish are often taught by our feeder primary schools
for that particular reason.
Q2 b) If you replied to the question
above, would the language(s) your school teaches be likely to change over time and
if so, why?
The only reason to change the language would be
linked to change in staffing, hence the real need for all members of staff to
get appropriate training rather than relying on one person to deliver the
language in rotation to different classes. There is a real need for planning
medium and long term for schools to develop their capacity to deliver modern
languages effectively and fairly independently.
The proposal to make languages compulsory at Key Stage 2 should impact
positively on all groups of pupils.
Q3) How might the proposals affect
different groups of pupils?
Pupils
from underprivileged background who may not have had any opportunities to go
abroad will have a better exposure to foreign languages and cultures.
Pupils
with low literacy levels will benefit from learning foreign languages as it
provide them with an opportunity to revisit key literacy skills through the
foreign language.
Bilingual
pupils will see their linguistic skills valued and special needs pupils will be
given a chance to start something new and feel on an equal footing with the
other pupils.
High
ability pupils will be stretched by the challenge posed by the study of a
foreign language and will benefit from the opportunity to deepen their thoughts
about language in general and broaden their horizons.
We will consider the challenges that requiring primary schools to teach a
foreign language will pose and how schools might best meet them.
Q4) How might the proposal affect
different types of schools? Please consider in particular small and large
schools, rural and urban schools, those that already teach languages at Key
Stage 2 and those that do not.
The proposal will
affect schools differently depending on the way languages have been prioritised
in their curriculum. If the schools have continued to embed the foreign
language over the past few years through developing the skills of their own
teachers rather than relying on visiting teachers only, the provision is likely
to be good. However, schools that have been unable to do this until now will
require substantial support in order to develop their teachers’ expertise and
ability to develop quality in-house language provision. If schools rely on
external providers only, the language provision will be more likely to be unsuccessful,
with pupils making limited progress.
Q5 a) If the proposals go ahead, what do
you think the priorities will be for training and professional development of
teachers?
Links with secondary
schools must be strengthened by allowing secondary teachers to support primary
colleagues’ training at their request and share their good practice through
face-to-face meetings, online platforms and video-conferencing.
Primary colleagues
must be made aware of where to find good quality resources, particularly to
enhance their pupils’ pronunciation of the foreign language, an area which is
often a challenge for non-specialists.
Adequate funding and time must be allocated for
primary teachers to go to the target-language country to gain a better
understanding of the foreign language and/or learn it for a formal
qualification.
Q5 b) Do you have any suggestions for
how schools and other stakeholders could work together to meet these needs?
The creation of MFL
Primary/Secondary clusters would be useful to develop secondary teachers’
understanding of how to build on successful primary literacy practice and
primary teachers’ knowledge of foreign language pedagogy.
Primary schools should
also join forces to share the cost and expertise needed to develop appropriate
schemes of work for KS2.
Q6) Please let us know if you have any
further comments you would like to make about the proposals in this
consultation document.
The allocation of
time and resources is key to making Primary Languages a success especially for
the schools that are lagging behind in terms of developing their own capacity
to deliver languages.
The issue of
assessment also needs to be tackled as well as some guidelines provided
regarding expected content to ensure a smoother transition to secondary school.
Please share you views by uploading the questionnaire
here.
If you are a member of ALL, the Association for
Language Learning, you can
email them your views so that they can be shared through your subject association.
