“There Is No Reason Why Our Young People Cannot Become Competent Linguists”
Headteacher Simon Mason makes the case for adding foreign language learning to the core curriculum – and it has nothing to do with league tables…
- by Simon Mason
When I began my headship at Honywood Community Science School in 2002, one of the first significant decisions I took was to make studying a foreign language to GCSE part of the core curriculum for all learners.
Whilst we have increasingly personalised our curriculum during the last 14 years, we have never seen less than 80% of our cohort sit their final language GCSE exam; this summer we saw 93% sit GCSE in either French or German. Why make such an apparently foolish curriculum choice, especially as it has become much harder to gain a higher GCSE pass since ‘comparative outcomes’ replaced criterion referencing as the model for awarding grades at this level?
The curriculum at our school is explicitly dual-focused. We focus on youngsters having the best chance of leaving us with qualifications that have real currency in further and higher education and in the job market, as well as focusing explicitly on the development of character, which we define as eight attributes.
By telling every youngster that they are capable of sitting a demanding GCSE course, in which we know many will struggle throughout their five years at the school, we send a key message to them about the importance of developing their learning attributes – that life poses tough challenges, and all of us can build our capacity to take those challenges on.
Strength and depth
Undoubtedly, there are cognitive advantages to learning a foreign language. We often liken the brain to a muscle, because it functions better with exercise. Learning a language involves memorising rules and vocabulary, which helps strengthen that mental ‘muscle.’
Speaking a foreign language improves the functionality of your brain by challenging it to recognise, negotiate meaning and communicate in different language systems. This skill boosts your ability to negotiate meaning in other problem-solving tasks as well, positively affecting performance in other curriculum areas. Since we made MFL core, we have achieved 13 of the best 14 sets of outcomes seen at the school since it opened in the 1960s.
Developing learner resourcefulness is one of the most important attributes of a language learner. Exposing our learners to the rigour of language learning helps them to develop metacognitive, cognitive and affective strategies which can be applied to the wider aspects of learning in life.
For this to work, MFL learning must be an enjoyable and stimulating experience. If we want to forge perseverant and resilient learners, we must be mindful of the effect of overly spoon-feeding them. In order to become resilient, our learners are made aware of, and experience the challenges and inevitable setbacks that language learning entails, whilst feeling part of a safe, supportive and empathetic learning environment where errors are viewed as part of the learning process to be encouraged and learned from – not avoided.
Making connections
Our learning designs are not based on textbooks and content, as is traditionally the case in most schools. We focus on the skill set and grammar/linguistic acquisition learners need in order to make good progress.
The most effective way we have found of doing this is to make authentic links to the target language countries. For example, our Y8 learners are currently completing a project whereby they investigate the area surrounding our partner school in Heidelberg, listen to recordings of learners and their exchange partners’ families and then write their own application letters in German to apply for a place on our German Exchange Trip next year. All of this brings together a genuine, authentic reason for learners to want to study a language and become competent in it.
Our team of language teachers are delighted that MFL is part of the school’s core curriculum; this helps us to recruit and retain the best staff. Across the school we have a wide group of staff who also fully support our ethos of every learner studying a foreign language and strong cross-curricular links reinforce the importance of studying MFL.
One particular area to mention is a link between German and history; some history content is covered in German sessions, which complements the syllabus being covered in history at the time. In addition, the history team make links to German, not only when covering periods of German history, but also by requesting that learners use as much German as possible when taking part in our annual school trip to Berlin.
If our nation is serious about improving the quality of education, we need to stop deciding that youngsters are not capable of learning a language other than their own. There is no reason why our young people cannot become competent linguists.
Starting aged five would certainly help, but a determined drive in all secondary schools could begin the process of building language competence in our country, so that 30 years from now would see us producing linguists as successfully as we currently produce geographers, historians and scientists.
Simon Mason is headteacher at Honywood Community Science School in Coggeshall, Essex
