In England there is a new GCSE in French, Spanish and German, which will first be examined in 2026, meaning that current Year 10 students will recently have started on the new course for the first time. Part of the rationale behind the new GCSE was to make the exam accessible to more students, and hence increase uptake at GCSE. It is likely that in many schools the uptake of mid and low prior attainers will be the major focus. Currently the curriculum is well suited to high prior attaining students, who can manage a higher cognitive load. As such, the KS3 (for ages 11-14) curriculum needs be redesigned in a way that makes it accessible and enjoyable, in particular for these students, so that they are not learning a ‘one size fits all’ curriculum. Even if you don’t teach languages in an English schools, it’s worth considering how you can ensure that your curriculum, particularly in the first three years of study, is accessible and motivating, as it’s so important to ‘hook’ students, especially in those first few years.
Often learners struggle with sheer volume of new vocabulary and grammar to learn, digest, and then use across the four skills. The Ofsted Research Review (2021) states that it is important that there is a logic behind grammatical progression in curriculum plans, from simpler to more complex concepts and structures. We need to decide when to introduce different tenses, agreements on verbs for person and number, agreement on nouns and adjectives, negation, interrogatives and different parts of a verb paradigm. At an early point in language learning, the whole verb paradigm is likely to overwhelm the working memory as learners can only process a limited number of new features at any one time. When visiting MFL departments and looking at their curricula and viewing their knowledge organisers on school websites I often see full verb paradigms taught from Year 7 onwards, and this is likely to lead to cognitive overload for all but the very top learners.
There should be a plan of which words are taught at each stage of the course (including verbs), with selection based largely on frequency of use in the language. Common words and phrases should be covered in the early stages and very frequently repeated so that they are securely remembered. Departmental procedures for monitoring the acquisition and long-term retention of vocabulary over time should be clear and embedded consistently across the whole department, rather than being left to the discretion of the individual teacher.
I believe that the appropriate selection of fewer key structures and vocabulary, with greater opportunities to use these repeatedly and creatively in different contexts, is a better recipe for success for all language learners.
Wendy Adeniji, August 2024