The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/182280
INTO LANGUAGES FEATURES PHOTOS: © ROUTES ENGAGING LEARNERS School pupils in Wales are motivated by an event organised by Routes into Languages Over the last 20 years, teachers have become increasingly accustomed to high levels of prescription in the national curriculum and have been trained in 'delivery', with little freedom to move outside what has become very formulaic teaching, aimed primarily at producing good examination results. Consequently, at the present time, many teachers may not have the experience, skills or confidence to take full advantage of what the new curriculum could offer. A 'dependency culture' is evident. Different problems may emerge at each key stage, particularly in respect of developing pedagogical approaches that build on communicative methodology to embrace the challenges of the new curriculum. However, there is great potential for teachers to reclaim their professional autonomy and responsibility, and the confidence to make their own decisions about what (and how) they should teach, to ensure that all pupils fulfil their linguistic potential and, hopefully, discover the joy of learning another language. On the whole, the document makes some much-needed changes and, at the same time, represents a significant challenge to schools to ensure progression and continuity between KS2 and KS3, as well as to raise attainment across the age range. It will be important for teachers to re-evaluate their priorities in relation to the changing aims and purposes of the languages curriculum and the place of languages within education. Learning a language is a 'long game' and an outcomesdriven curriculum does not recognise this – indeed, it has forced teachers into looking for superficial evidence of learning. Changing needs and attitudes So what is to be done if languages are really to be taken seriously? The main challenge, it would seem, at KS2 is still teacher subject knowledge and the supply of foreign language specialists within the primary phase. Vol/52 No/5 2013 The way individual teachers understand each statement may yield unintended interpretations Despite huge investment in the area, this remains a problem. A high level of subject knowledge and MFL-specific pedagogic expertise is essential for the new curriculum to be properly understood and put into practice. The introduction of what we might see as serious content to the KS2 curriculum should, however, be welcomed, as long as sufficient curriculum time is allocated to MFL learning for the goals to be achieved and a firm foundation established for further learning. At KS3, the greatest challenge will be to achieve a shift in teachers' attitudes and expectations of the majority of their pupils. For example, the admirable emphasis on cultural content, such as literary texts, poems and stories at KS3, will nevertheless require a fundamental redesign of schemes of work and a different 'mind-set' for many teachers. Where teachers have been accustomed to 'teach to the test', where they have been highly text-book focused, and where they have rigidly followed the sorts of templates for teaching laid down over the recent period, they may struggle. Equally, where teachers have not developed new and different pedagogical skills to engage learners with a more intellectually challenging content, and are therefore bereft of the knowledge and expertise required to take forward communicative methodology into a new phase, it is unlikely that they will be any more successful now in motivating and engaging learners. For example, the emphasis in the new curriculum on the translation of short written texts runs the risk of encouraging a return to the grammar-translation method of the past as an easy way out. This in no way fulfils the requirement of communicative competency in learners. The impact of a minimalist curriculum document therefore must not be underestimated. The intentions require further explication, as well as training and support for teachers to re-orientate their practice and make long-overdue changes to curriculum content. Teachers will need to regain their confidence in their professional knowledge, expertise and beliefs and begin to experiment at taking risks. 'Playing it safe' to achieve good exam results has ended up squeezing the passion out of language teaching and learning, and has reduced it to just another 'skill'. It is the imagination and creativity of knowledgeable teachers that are the key to children and young people's successful language learning. Support and training? Having severely reduced the support networks that language teachers have traditionally drawn on, such as local authority advisory teams, and having closed down CILT, the National Centre for Languages, the government must urgently create new mechanisms to provide training and support. The problem with redesigning the 7-14 languages curricula is that, whatever the rhetoric in some political circles, what really underpins the aims and purposes of education are the needs of the economy, and this necessarily informs – and even distorts – what is taught and why. That said, if the aim of foreign language teaching and learning is to encourage significantly more young people to embark on higher education degrees in languages and to ensure that the majority of young people achieve a basic OCTOBER/NOVEMBER The Linguist 9