Philosophy
We believe that learning a foreign language is a pleasurable, useful and enriching experience. We aim to show our students that the subject is alive, real and relevant by giving them opportunities to travel to a foreign country and by bringing that country into the classroom through video, ICT and authentic materials. We believe that MFL is very much a practical subject and that a key role is to help our students develop a wide range of skills : We aim to improve their communication and interpersonal skills. We aim to give our students skills which will enhance their travel and leisure activities and which will make them more employable in the European market place. We aim to develop oral confidence so that our students can become successful communicators. We aim to develop thinking skills so that our students learn how to generate independent language and become autonomous learners.
Curriculum: Aims
- To enthuse and inspire students through the learning of Modern Foreign Languages
- To develop the ability to use French/German effectively for purposes of practical communication.
- To form a sound base of skills and language required for further study, work and leisure; · To offer insight into the culture and civilisation of French/German speaking countries.
- To develop an awareness of the nature of language and language learning.
- To provide enjoyment and intellectual stimulation.
- To encourage a positive attitude to foreign language learning and to speakers of foreign languages and a sympathetic approach to other cultures.
- To promote the use of ICT where appropriate in language learning and for wider communication.
- To promote learning skills of a more general application (eg analysis, memorising, drawing of inferences).
- To help students to pass appropriate public examinations: COEA (Welsh Board) and GCSE (Edexcel) 'A' Level, AS/A2 (Edexcel).
The MFL Team
The MFL team currently comprises four specialists who work in an area based on the first floor of the Gibbs Block. Each team member has his/her own classroom equipped with a digital projector, sound system and internet access. One classroom has an interactive whiteboard and we have just converted another classroom into a multi-media language laboratory with Sony Virtuoso software. The team is committed to a communicative approach to language teaching and a strong team ethos allows us to provide mutual support, share resources, strategies and best practice.
Key Stage 3
Both French and German are offered in Year 9. Our staffing and setting arrangements allow us to cater for double linguists, fresh start linguists and continuing single linguists. We teach the whole ability range and set students on the basis of information provided by our three feeder schools and the common transfer test.