Tag Archives: Modern Foreign Languages

Teacher Competence and Autonomous Language-Lovin’ Learners

This year, as my elective module, I have chosen to study Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) pedagogy. As I have already mentioned in a previous blog post, I am passionate about learning languages and therefore the push of MFL in Scottish Primary Education fills me with joy and excitement. But I know this is not the case for everyone. The 1 + 2 policy, which I believe, is fantastic in theory; does have many practical flaws. These are highlighted in the Reports and Recommendations (Scottish Government Languages Working Group, 2012) and include:

  • Engaging citizens to participate in MFL teaching and learning, including pupils, parents and other members of the community, due to an over-reliance of English speakers;
  • Finances causing a barrier to resourcing – while funds have been poured into the implementation of the policy over recent years; will this financial support remain consistent?
  • Not all Scottish children speak English as their mother tongue, so how does this affect their learning – are they 1+2+3?
  • The 1+2 does not offer a set framework, nor have the Experiences and Outcomes been altered to accommodate the policy, consequently local authorities are developing their own frameworks – how are we monitoring effective and consistent practice across Scotland?

While these are all significant issues that should be addressed, I believe the most concerning of them all is finding experienced teachers who are competent to teach more than one MFL to a higher level than previously expected. Teacher Education expects students to enter University with a minimum of a B at Higher English and a qualification in Standard Grade Mathematics (or equivalent). There, at present, is no expectation for students to have acquired a qualification in a MFL, or any of the other curricular areas for that matter. Why? Possibly because it would put MFL in a hierarchical status above the other curricular areas – that could cause considerable tension. Why should MFL be a requirement when Science or Social Sciences are not?

Never the less, I think it is an area of Teacher Education that needs to be addressed. Perhaps by making it compulsory for students to study a module in beginners French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, etc.… etc. However that then raises another issue with the policy – say for example, a linguistically competent trainee teacher, who studied French as their compulsory module, is placed in a school whose L1 is German, their learning experiences in that module then become pointless, in terms of teaching at that school. So how do we choose which language to study in order to be well prepared for teaching placement?

The truth is that teachers will have to study the language of the school – the knowledge about language, intercultural understanding, literacy, oracy and vocabulary. However, as presented to us in a recent lecture, teaching learners how to learn a language, known as strategy instruction, will make pupils more autonomous in their MFL and as a result, alleviate some of the pressure of teachers having to know everything about the language.

Strategy instruction is the teaching of language learning strategies with the belief that strategies should be taught as “declarative knowledge in order to become proceduralised” (Kirsch, 2012). Language learning strategies include, and are not limited to:

  • Using reference books
  • Studying artefacts
  • Using computers and digital technology
  • Formalised studying
  • Memorising
  • Practising
  • Inferring meaning (eg. Using knowledge of cognates)
  • Playing
  • Singing
  • Watching television (Kirsch, 2012)

Much research has been done on language learning strategies and the autonomous language learner and how this approach enhances positive attitudes towards language learning. Until the middle of the 1980s, MFL was mainly concerned with grammar and translation. The O Level examination consisted of translation, to and from the target language, dictation and a writing piece. By the end of the 80s, communicative language teaching was becoming a more prominent feature in classrooms across Europe and focused more on the social aspects of language learning – speaking and listening. By 1985, when the GCSE was introduced, MFL in Britain was mainly centred around the four literacy skills. However the Nuffield Inquiry (2000) highlighted that 9/10 children stop learning languages at 16 due to a lack of motivation and other faculty issues. Consequently researchers began to look into methods to combat the concerns surrounding communicative language teaching and language learner strategy research was at the forefront of this movement (Grenfell, 2007).

So what does this mean for us?

While yes, our role as teachers is to teach all aspects of MFL to our pupils, it should also be our goal to instil a love of language learning in our pupils and develop their autonomy through language learner strategies. In order to do this effectively, we should embed strategies into our lessons, develop metacognitive strategies and promote independent thinking (Kirsch, 2012). The classroom culture should foster autonomy and tasks should have language learning strategies at the centre with the goal that these strategies will eventually become more concrete techniques.

For example, we could challenge pupils to find new words in the dictionary, so long as they have been taught how to use bilingual reference texts. Songs and rhymes are effective strategies so pupils could produce their own song to learn vocabulary or grammatical concepts so it is relevant to them. Pupils could challenge each other through mini quizzes and games to practice and study their vocabulary.

How would you embed language learner strategies into your practice? What other learner strategies exist outwith MFL or are transferable across curricular areas?

1+ 2 = ?

Compulsory education in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) has been high on my list of desired movements within Scottish Education for several years now. So it comes with no surprise that I was overwhelmed with joy when Scottish Government announced the upcoming 1+2 language policy in 2011. The 1+2 policy, proposed to come into place in 2020, aims to broaden children’s horizons and future prospects through the introduction of an additional two MFL, on top of their mother tongue (L1). This will be achieved through the introduction of the first MFL (L2) beginning in primary one and will merge the second language (L3) during the middle and upper stages of primary school.

My exposure to MFL in the primary school was very limited; in fact I left primary school knowing a few basic French greetings and a handful of French songs – which were certainly unrelated to my education! To me, learning a new language, at this stage, was not on my agenda at all. It wasn’t until I went to secondary school where I was exposed to MFL in great depth and it completely changed my views on learning a new language. I was immersed in a new culture, new sounds, new punctuation – new everything! Due to my enthusiasm, learning language became my strength so I sat examinations in Intermediate 2 French and Spanish followed by Higher French. I would have chosen more languages had there not been restrictions on the balance of curricular areas when choosing subjects. This year, as my elective module, I have chosen to learn Italian in order to broaden my language knowledge further and I intend to take part in the MFL elective in third year with the intention of specialising in this field.

But enough about me!

 In this post I hope to analyse, to an extent, the 1+2 approach and how it will be advantageous, and potentially disadvantageous, when it comes into place in 2020.

I believe there will be several positive outcomes from the introduction of the 1+2 policy. Firstly children will develop a love of language learning, so long as it is taught in an engaging and inventive way, and will be able to use this transferable skill later in life. Indeed Education Scotland outlines the aims of the policy and how it applies to the four capacities when they state, “Through learning new languages young people can become successful learners with opportunities relating to working and travelling abroad; confident individuals able to communicate in more than one language; effective contributors to a changing world with an understanding of Scotland’s relationship to other countries; and responsible citizens with an awareness of cultures and languages in addition to their own” (p6).

Although I believe that this new policy has economic reasoning at the centre, to develop a work force that can push Scotland’s global success through use of language, there are cognitive advantages that can arise from language learning in the early years. Children who speak English as an Additional Language (EAL) for example, have developed several skills in advance of monolingual children. A common perception is that the brain has a limited capacity to learn language, hence if a child has, for example, Polish as their first language, their English and Polish language skills will be hindered because of this “limited capacity”. However research has shown that the brain has an unlimited capacity for learning language and that it is easier to pick up a new language earlier in life due to a child’s mental flexibility. The skills that bilingual children have already acquired include “greater awareness of how language operates [which] can help with the development of literacy skills, especially decoding, and with the learning of other languages; enhanced problem solving abilities, which are useful for maths and ICT; heightened creative potential, which may display itself in writing and critical understanding and an awareness of the importance of context and audience in language use” (p4). If these skills are evident within bilingual children I believe it is clear to see the cognitive advantage of introducing our children to language within the Early Years too.

However as I am keen to pursue a career in the Early Years at present, I have reflected upon some of the disadvantages this early language development could incur. In a recent input within the 2CM6 module, where we are discovering some of the pedagogical strategies of teaching Spanish within the primary classroom, our lecturer pointed out a very important point – the phonemes in any MFL will differ from English phonemes hence we should be careful when demonstrating written forms. In English, we have 44 phonemes which children are expected to learn within the first few years of education, in Spanish, for example, only 24 exist but the pronunciation of these phonemes differ greatly. How are we expected to teach the phonemes of English without merging those existing in the chosen MFL too? It may be possible to teach children to speak and listen in a MFL during the first few years of school before introducing reading and writing skills to prevent confusion. However Scottish Government have provided a number of resources for the Early Years which include animated stories with written dialogue hence shows that Government expect us to introduce reading and writing. I believe this needs to be carefully considered before the guidelines for teaching MFL are updated to accommodate the 1+2 scheme.

Another factor that has been heavily criticised, yet it still a valid argument, is the impact this will have on school staff as not all teachers have experience in MFL beyond first and second year of secondary school. This of course is not enough to be confident in presenting a MFL lesson to children in P6 or P7. For this reason I believe compulsory modules in MFL should be introduced in teacher education so our future teachers are equipped with the same amount of knowledge in language development as they have in mathematics or literacy. Luckily on our course we are given the option to develop our language skills through our elective and compulsory languages module.

Although the implementation of the 1+2 policy is still a few years away, I am keen to see how schools move towards integrating this into their curriculum and how Government are able to provide resources and appropriate training to make the most out of the program.

References

Belgutay, J (2011) Young Scots must rise to languages challenge. Available at: https://www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=6088675 [Accessed: 15th October 2015]

Education Scotland (no date) Resources – Support materials – Learning and Teaching. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/curriculumareas/languages/modernlanguages/supportmaterials/resources/index.asp [Accessed: 15th October 2015]

Kanaki, A (2015) Speaking and Listening. [Lecture to MA Education Year 2] ED21005 Languages. University of Dundee. 8th October.

Keatch, B (2015) Reading in the Early Years. [Lecture to MA Education Year 2] ED21005 Languages. University of Dundee. 6th October.

Scottish Executive (2005) Learning in 2+ Languages. Available at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/images/LearningInTwoPlusLanguages_tcm4-306089.pdf [Accessed: 15th October]

Scottish Government (2012) Language Learning in Scotland A 1+2 Approach: Reports and Recommendations. Edinburgh: Scottish Government

University of Surrey (no date) Spanish phonemes and phonetic transcription. Available at: http://www.fahs.surrey.ac.uk/languages/spanish-phonetics/advanced-phonetics-7-2/spanish-phonemes.htm [Accessed: 15th October 2015]