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Al-Furqan Primary School
The Key to Success
Modern Foreign Language
All children at Al Furqan Primary School receive a rich and deep learning experience that includes the learning of the basics of an additional language. We believe strongly that the study of Languages prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly carried out across the world. Language learning provides an opening to other cultures.
We want our children to be able to use an additional language to communicate information responsibly and creatively; giving them access to ideas and experiences from a wide range of people, communities, and cultures across our school and wider demographic.
Research shows that understanding a modern foreign language increases a child’s understanding of their own language, and the building blocks which form this. The process of learning a foreign language reinforces fluency and understanding of grammar, syntax, sentence structure and verbal precision. Increased capability in the use of languages can also promote initiative and independent learning and encourages diversity within society.
The National Curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:
- 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
At Al-Furqan, our IQA teachers deliver MFL throughout the school. The teaching begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage and continues until Year 6. Each year group is taught MFL for 30 minutes a week, supplemented by the daily IQA lessons wherein children are greeted in Arabic and learn how to read Arabic.
All aspects of the MFL curriculum are covered, with a specific focus on increasing fluency and confidence through speaking and listening skills. Children develop and extend their linguist skills and knowledge of how language works, as well as build an extensive vocabulary bank. We strongly believe that Cultural Understanding is a crucial strand when learning any language and this is woven into each lesson which is taught by the expertise of a native speaker.
Children at Al Furqan explore language and learn through a range of teaching methods. For example, grammar and vocabulary work; sentence structure; using actions, rhyme, stories, song and drama; listening to native speakers; watching video clips; air writing; dictionary tasks and book making. Teachers and pupils use Arabic in daily routines, for example, through answering the register and displaying the Arabic date within the classroom.