It’s been almost a decade since teaching foreign languages became a statutory requirement in key stage 2. However, in the years since 2014, it hasn’t translated to key stage 1.
The benefits of learning a second language are well known, though. A report published by University College London in 2019 found evidence that language learning can positively enhance creativity, and in 2004 American researchers Helena Curtain and Carol Ann Dahlberg found that learning another language can enhance knowledge of English structure and vocabulary.
So, there’s nothing stopping key stage 1 teachers from introducing some elements of languages in their classrooms. It may seem a bit daunting at first - especially if you don’t speak a second language yourself - but there are some quick things every teacher can implement.
Make use of the languages in your classroom
In many classrooms, there will be children with English as an additional language. If they feel comfortable, you should encourage them to share their native language with their classmates. They could answer the register in their own language, count out loud during maths tasks, or even share their own songs or action rhymes in front of the class.
If children aren’t willing to share their home languages, however, their non-participation should be respected.
In monolingual classrooms, there are many resources that can be used to share languages in an enjoyable way with the class, such as listening to traditional tales or songs in foreign languages.
Include the whole class - and you
Multilingualism should not be limited to those children who have an additional language but should be an aspiration for all children - and all adults.
If you can’t speak a language yourself, take the opportunity to learn alongside your pupils.
Modelling your thinking and internal dialogue during this learning process can be really powerful. You should also allow the children who excel at languages to model their thinking and support their peers and yourself.
Talking pegs
Making the languages visible in each classroom is a great way to also support learning - and talking pegs are a great way to do this.
Recordable talking pegs are pegs with a 10-second recording function. Children can easily be supported to record and then lock messages onto the pegs, or parents could be invited into school to share their languages. Alternatively, in monolingual classrooms, the pegs can feature recordings from the internet. Each peg has a touch button to play back the recording.
Initially, language should be kept simple and children should be encouraged to play back the recordings as much as they would like to, to immerse themselves in the sounds. Production or mimicking of the language is great, but teachers should be aware that children, just like when they learn their own languages, have a period of listening and playing with sounds.
Focus on exploration
Whether you are focusing on a single language or asking children to compare and contrast the sounds of different languages, make sure you have enjoyment and exploration as your aim.
In the first instance, concrete nouns work well, like “pencil” or “book”. However, moving forwards, with careful planning and explanations, children may like to explore the sounds of more abstract ideas.
Conversations around what the word sounds like and if it has any cognates in English are great ways to engage children - for example, night: nuit (French), noche (Spanish), Nacht (German), nacht (Dutch), natt (Swedish, Norwegian).
You could also explore if there are any “memory hooks” to help to remember the words.
For example, the number seven in Mandarin Chinese, 七 / qī, (pronounced chee) sounds like a mix of cheese and tea; so encourage the children to imagine the seven dwarves, eating cheese and drinking tea. Rapid Mandarin Chinese by Earworms has some other great examples.
For older children, looking at Root words can be engaging as these come from Latin and Greek, and such appear in many European languages. For example, the prefix mal-, meaning something to do with “badness”, appears in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
Encourage talk about culture, as well as language
Children may also wish to talk about their cultures as well as their language, and here, culture bags are a great tool.
Each week a child could be nominated to take home the special culture bag and fill it with items that represent their cultural background. Pupils may include recipes, pictures, clothes and stories.
Care should be taken that culture is not seen as something that “others” poses, and only for speakers of languages other than English. For some pupils, their culture bag may be filled with football tickets, a picture of a pie and a football scarf, as this is what their family does together at the weekend.
For further ideas, the non-statutory document Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages contains two sections, Language Learning Strategies and Knowledge about Language, which are a great starting point to devise activities for younger learners.
Dr Elizabeth Malone is the head of primary education at Liverpool John Moores University
