Are your kids getting any better? Understanding linear progression in Primary Foreign Languages
The core premise of delivering any subject in education is to provide a clear pathway for improvement.
We want to take students from position A, and with time and effort move them up to position B, then C, D, E etc.
In this blog we talk about what exactly linear progression looks like in primary foreign languages, what is realistic, and how we can make sure we evidence this.
What linear progression is in primary languages.
Language learning is a multi-factor learning model.All elements of learning are linked, yet also quite different.
Makes sense? No, I didn’t think so!
Let me make things simpler for you. There are 4 core skills in languages:
Listening, Speaking, Reading & Writing.
And these 4 core skills progress in vocabulary, phonics and grammar. These 3 ‘pillars’ are the measures of progress.
For a child to improve, they need to get better at vocab, phonics and grammar.
All 3 are equally vital, and if neglected will be a limiting factor to progression.
e.g. If a child understands the grammar rule of adjectival agreement, but doesn’t know any adjectives to use the rule, then he is limited by his vocabulary of the language
If a student knows a list of animals in French, but can’t pronounce them correctly, she is limited by her phonetical understanding.
If a child can read and say animals correctly but can’t categorise them in terms of word gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), then he/she is limited by grammatical understanding.
It is inevitable that you will encounter this sort of situations within the classroom, the situations aren’t to be avoided, in fact they are to be expected when learning a language.
What we must ensure is that your scheme of work has carefully interwoven these 3 pillars of progression, so that a child is never limited in an area for too long. They can learn the extra vocab, or grasp the grammatical concept, or pronounce a phoneme accurately, so that they can continue effective progress.
A good example of structuring lessons for clear progress would be like this.
e.g.
Lesson 1: learn vocab for animals, practise correct pronunciation
Lesson 2: learn the grammar rule on how to describe animals with adjectives
Lesson 3: learn more adjectives to use and build & say better sentences
This is a very simple scaffold of how we allow students to learn language in the correct order, which enables them to improve at grammar, phonics & vocab.
It is a recipe that does require careful consideration.
What linear progression looks like through KS2
Now we have established what linear progression is, let’s define what it looks like in KS2
primary foreign language learning.
Ofsted want to see your children improving. They want you, as the subject lead to be able to clearly show them the progress you have made with the children in all 3 pillars of progress.
It’s not so much about assessment, or fancy tracking sheets, they want to know, that you know, your students are improving. And if they aren’t then what action to address and improve this, have you taken?
Yes of course, assessment and tracking sheets are very useful, we use them in our scheme, but these were created to support you as a subject lead to demonstrate the progress being made. The assessments aren’t the answer alone.
We have created a simple and effective progression model throughout our scheme, that all teachers understand, and subject leads can define effectively.
It supports all 3 pillars of learning, through all 4 of the core skills.
The 4 stages represent the 4 years in KS2.
Stage 1- Nouns and useful phrases
Stage 2- Adding adjectives to be able to describe nouns
Stage 3- Understand & apply words such as ‘because’, ‘but’ and ‘and’ to create extended
sentences, and also learn how to change verbs depending on who you are talking about
Stage 4- Increase volume, create several extended sentences on a given topic, such as
sports. Giving opinions, and using verbs, adjectives and nouns
This structure is a clear pathway for students to start off with simple words, and finish with
short paragraphs. An actual example of what the child could do, over a given topic (animals)
is displayed below
Stage 1- A cat
Stage 2- A red cat
Stage 3- I have a red cat ,and he has a big dog
Stage 4- I have a red cat, and he has a big dog. I like horses because they are friendly,but I don’t like snakes because they are scary
The 4 stages are steps of progression,building upon each other, like bricks in a house, or steps up a ladder. The former progression point supports the next one. If we try to jump from stage 1 to stage 4, it is too overwhelming. We want the step up to be just the right amount of challenge.
Don’t forget, we want children to demonstrate this level of understanding through the 4 core skills of language learning. Notice that the progression steps include jumps in vocab, phonics and grammar.
This simple progression structure that we train our coordinators and teachers to deliver, enables them to correctly identify and evidence this in lessons, without depending on assessments.
It enables them to streamline their programme of study but still ensure progress
It enables them to define the purpose of lessons
It enables coordinators to spot missing learning and rectify it by themselves.
Ideally, coordinators should be able to reference learning from their classes and demonstrate the progress that has been made throughout KS2, and simple progression like ours enables this to be done effectively.
When doing this, coordinators should be referring to work in books, video examples of children, and any other mode of evidence
Support with your scheme
We offer consultations and whole school CPDs to every school as part of their membership.
This helps us support you with your understanding and implementation of this progression
model.