Modern Foreign Languages at Huish

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

– Ludwig Wittgenstein

A different language is a different vision of life.

– Federico Fellini

A high quality modern foreign languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. At Huish, we believe that competence in another language enables children to explore a variety of cultures and experiences, including their own, and opens opportunities later in life. We aim to give every child an enjoyable experience which provides them with the skills and understanding needed for further study, regardless of the language.

Spanish is taught from Reception to Year 6. As children progress through the school, they will have more time learning Spanish each week, and will be given opportunities to deepen their topic knowledge, adding to what they have learnt in previous years. We believe that children should be exposed to a range of mediums of the Spanish language, with a careful balance between the spoken and written word. Teaching gives children access to a variety of authentic resources, such as songs and stories, helping them to build confidence, over time, in their understanding. We use a wide range of activities and games to give pupils the opportunity to practise their Spanish. Children are encouraged to spot patterns in pronunciation, grammar, spelling and links to their own languages.

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

Spanish teaching at Huish focusses on key skills to help children explore and develop their language learning. Children are taught to pick out key vocabulary from spoken and written extracts in order to understand the gist without the need to translate every word. They are encouraged to use their knowledge of Spanish phonics and spelling patterns in order to accurately pronounce new words, and to have confidence when doing so. They are given opportunities to ask and respond to set questions, and to then expand upon this by manipulating language to express their own ideas. Dictionaries are used carefully to add to the children’s work. Children are encouraged to discuss and appreciate the differences between Spanish and English grammar, and to recognise the similarities and differences between Spanish and their own language. As class groups, we explore and discuss differences between cultures, in both Spain and Hispanic America.