CURRICULUM
FRENCH
FRENCH Curriculum Intent
Modern Foreign Languages empowers students to communicate successfully in the target language. They learn to appreciate the importance of languages in a rapidly changing global society and the diverse culture and customs of others. Our curriculum embeds and builds upon prior knowledge, raising students’ confidence to become successful linguists and develop a life-long love of languages.
Key STRANDS
Listening
At Horizon we develop listening skills in the classroom by use of the target language in the classroom and by modelling the pronunciation of all new vocabulary and structures. Similar phrases and sentences are repeated throughout the lesson to build confidence and fluency. Students read along as teachers are speaking and complete a variety of activities in order to create sound-spelling links and thus improve listening skills. The listening strand develops from understanding familiar vocabulary in short listening exercises in Y7 to being able to understand more complex vocabulary and using inference in longer listening exercises at GCSE.
After students have heard the vocabulary and structures and practised saying them aloud, we then develop the reading strand through a variety of reading activities including comprehension tasks and translations. Students are taught to make links with English and rhymes are used to help students remember meanings of vocabulary. The reading strand develops from understanding familiar vocabulary and being able to identify cognates and near cognates in short texts in Y7, to being able to apply exam techniques and avoiding ‘traps’ in longer passages sometimes requiring longer written answers.
Reading
Speaking
Giving students the opportunity to speak in the target language as much as possible is a priority. After students have heard the vocabulary and structures spoken by the teacher through a variety of listening tasks several times, they then have time to practise reading aloud. The speaking strand develops from being able to give short answers using familiar vocabulary in Y7, to having extended conversations in Y10 and 11.
The writing strand comes after students have had sufficient exposure to the new language through a range of receptive skills. Students are encouraged to copy and translate before producing their own written work in order to build confidence and accuracy. The writing strand develops from producing simple sentences using the present tense in Y7 to using Point, Opinion, Reason as a structure to give developed answers. This builds confidence to create extended pieces of work using a range of tenses and more complex grammar from the grammar strand in KS4.
Writing
Translation
At Horizon we complete translations tasks throughout all topics both from the target language to English and vice versa. The length of translations and complexity builds from simple sentences on a single topic in Y7 to extended paragraphs on a range of topics in Y10 and 11.
The grammar strand is interleaved throughout all of the other 5 strands and the grammar builds in complexity throughout the years. Some higher level grammatical structures are taught implicitly as vocabulary in Y7, 8 and 9 which are then taught explicitly in Y10 and 11 to allow students to become independent linguists and have the ability to manipulate the grammar and use it in new contexts.
Grammar
Year 7
Cultural introduction
Students are introduced to the importance of studying a language and the transferable skills they will learn as well as to communicate in French. We study the geographical locations of the Francophone world and learn how to describe photos of the key cities of these countries. Students being by expressing their opinion and giving basic reasons.
Skills
Students are working on: Giving 1st person opinions + noun and basic reasons. Map skills.
Self
Students study how to give their age and birthday and understand others. They learn how to describe their physical and character description as well as what they like to do in different weathers/ seasons.
Skills
Students are working on:
The conjugation of the verb ‘avoir’.
The conjugation of the verb ‘être’.
Adjectival agreement
Giving 1st person opinions + infinitive verbs
Sports
Year 7 now build on their study of the topic of ‘self’ to learn about sports; what sports they like or dislike as well as sports popular and traditional in France and the Francophone world.
Skills
Giving 1st & 3rd person opinions + infinitive verbs. Students are introduced to… The conjugation of the verb ‘jouer’. The conjugation of the verb ‘faire’.
School
Students continue to be able to talk about their lives by learning the key vocabulary to describe their life at school; what they study, their favourite subjects, their uniform, and the school building. Students are introduced to cultural differences between the school day, rules and traditions in France and England.
Skills
Students are working on:
Giving 1st & 3rd person opinions + infinitive verbs.
The conjugation of the verb ‘jouer’, ‘faire’, ‘avoir’ and ‘être’.
The conjugation of the other ‘er’ verbs in the 1st person.
Adjectival agreement with masculine and feminine nouns.
The phrase ‘il y a’ = there is
Introduction to modal verbs ‘pouvoir’ = to be able to
Family
In this topic, students will learn extended family members, animals and be able to consolidate physical and character description studied earlier in Year 7. Furthermore, culturally, students will be introduced to famous French families.
Skills
Students continue to work on:
Physical and character description
Adjectival agreement
Conjugation of the verb ‘avoir’
Students are introduced to:
Opinions + nouns
3rd person opinions
Year 8
Town
Students begin year 8 by exploring further into towns in France, learning about their geographical characteristics and how to describe them and transfer this knowledge to be able to describe places they know themselves in England. Over the course of Year 8, students are equipped with transactional language to use in practical situations starting with directions in this topic.
Skills -
Students are working on
The preposition ‘in’
1st and 3rd person opinions + infinitive verbs
The phrase ‘il y a’ = there is
Continuation with modal verbs ‘pouvoir’ = to be able to
House
Students study how to describe their home, and what they like to do in there. Students are also introduced to describing their TV and film preferences. The topic is revisited at the end of Year 8 when the conditional tense is introduced enabling students to describe their dream home.
Skills
Students are working on:
1st and 3rd person opinions + reasons
The phrase ‘il y a’ = there is
Continuation with modal verbs ‘pouvoir’ = to be able to
Conditional tense – ‘Je voudrais’ + infintiive verbs
Y7 Retrieval fortnight
In order to build confidence and to ensure the most progress is made by our students, we believe it’s important to allow time in the curriculum to recap and consolidate vocabulary and grammar that is required. Therefore, this is a fortnight that responds directly to the needs of the students at this time.
Holidays
This topic is a great opportunity for students to further learn about the Francophone word; covering locations such as Montreal, Québec, La Réunion and Vanuatu. This study focuses on more transactional language such as money exchange, clothes shopping and buying tickets. Students learn how to describe their holiday covering subtopics such as transport, accommodation, and activities
Skills
Students are working on:
Conditional tense – ‘Je voudrais’ + infintiive verbs
The preposition ‘to’
There is + where you can + infinitive verbs Gerund (whilst)
Year 9
Healthy Living
Year 9 begins with students learning more about traditional French foods and develops to enable them to explore health advice, debate pros and cons of certain diet preferences, and explain exercise benefits whilst looking at current news articles from around the world on these topics and French speaking influential sportspeople.
Skills -
Students are working on:
The verbs ‘to eat’, ‘to drink’ + partitive article
Modal verbs + infinitive
Future tense introduction
Making Plans
Students now build upon their knowledge of vocabulary covering food, films, and music in a transactional setting appropriate to their age. This topic enables students to make plans and ask questions. This is a topic that allows students to consolidate the previous topics of directions, town, food and drink, films, TV, physical and character description.
Skills
Students are working on:
The near future tense
Conditional tense
Opinions and reasons
Modal verbs + infinitive verbs
Past tense
Comparisons and superlatives
Family
Students deepen their knowledge of this topic using the variety of grammar they have covered over the three years. Students learn how to discuss their joint hobbies, what they believe are the key qualities of a good friend and develop further complex reasons to articulate their opinions in more detail giving them more autonomy.
Skills
Students are working on:
Reflexive verb conjugations
Complex reasons – reflexive
Comparisons and superlatives
Modal verbs
Imperfect tense
Year 10
Home & Town
Students begin Year 10 by exploring cultural traditions of French regions such as Brittany and Provence. Students build upon prior knowledge of the town topic, learning about the environmental issues in their local area and comparing these with other towns. Students learn about French cinema and discuss famous actors and films.
Skills -
Students are working on:
Conjugation of ‘er’ regular verbs
Negative structures
‘depuis’ + present tense
Imperfect tense
Conditional tense
Revision of adjectival agreement
Noun possession
Global Issues
Students debate which environmental issues are the most serious and how they can contribute to a world which must try to alleviate them.
Students will learn about topics such as Moroccan flash floods, oil spills off the North coast of France and deforestation
Skills
Students are working on:
Debate openers
Festivals
Students learn more about French traditions and students further deepen their skills to debate by discussing the arguments for & against marriage. Students also learn about the similarities and differences of how countries celebrate Christmas. Students are introduced to countries own particular traditions, from Carnaval, Mardi Gras and Jazz Festivals in Canada.
Skills
Students are working on:
Revision of key tenses
Boire/ manger + partitive article
Reflexive verbs
Je viens = I have just
Higher tier – ‘after having done sth…’
Hobbies
Students learn about the traditional sports in France, Switzerland, Corisca and Monaco and can express which they would like to try if they were able to. The pros and cons of team sports are highlighted and characteristics of being a good sportsperson are explored.
Skills
Students are working on:
Subjunctive set phrases
Revision of ‘jouer’ & ‘faire’
Holidays
This period of study allows students to further develop their transactional language by being able to make reservations and make a complaint. Students learn more about dream holiday locations in the Francophone world and where they would like to go as well as reflecting on past holidays.
Skills
Students are working on:
Past & imperfect tenses
‘if’ clauses & conditional tense
Alternative sentence starters of conditional tense
Higher tier – pluperfect / conditional perfect
Subjunctive verbs
School
Students build upon content covered in KS3, giving complex opinions and reasons as well as considering whether school rules are just and are able to debate the pros and cons of uniform. Students learn about the stresses of school life and how to manage these. They are able to reflect on their school experiences from primary to secondary and how it has shaped them. Students will understand how geographical location, economic factors and climate affect education around the world.
Skills
Students are working on:
Modal verbs + infinitives
Opinions + reasons
Debate phrases
Year 11
Canada - Québec
The following subtopics will be taught through the cultural focus of Canda-Québec.
Sports
Hobbies and Healthy Living
Technology
Holidays
School
Jobs
Students will learn about outdoor pursuits and adventure sports that Canadians love whilst being able to recap weather and season vocabulary. They will give their opinions on the activities and the health benefits of a healthy lifestyle using modal verbs.
Debating skills will be deepened through looking at the advantages and disadvantages of social media and the internet.
Linguists will practise their transactional language through role-play of visiting famous Canadian landmarks before recapping school by comparing schools in Great Britain with those in the Francophone world.
Students will conclude the topic of Canada by re-visiting the future tenses when discussing their plans in further education and in the world of work, and then transferring the same grammar to looking at healthy resolutions.
Skills -
3rd person verbs
Weather structures
Modal verbs
Future tense
Forming questions
Imperfect Tense
Future tenses (Simple and Near future)
Present Future structures (I want/ I intend ...)
Subjunctive (Higher only)
South Pacific Ocean Islands (Vanuatu and French Polynesia)
The following subtopics will be taught through the cultural focus of French speaking countries in the South Pacific Ocean.
Environment
Festivals
Hobbies
Holidays
Drawing on students' knowledge of natural disasters in Geography and from MFL in KS3, the impact of the geographical location of the islands on the way of life and climate graphs will be looked at.
With a focus on indigenous dances and music, Y11 will learn to give their opinions about the music of the islands and compare to the music they would normally listen to.
Students will then look at the differences between a holiday across the Francophone world, comparing to other locations; with a specific focus on accommodation.
Skills
Giving and explaining opinions
The pronoun - y
Pluperfect tense (higher tier only)
Conditional tense
Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal
The following subtopics will be taught through the cultural focus of French speaking countries in Africa.
Environment
House
Water problems and solutions
School
Social issues
Students will understand how the socio-economic status of the country and the environmental factors impact on the water quality, quality of living and deforestation.
This leads onto comparing homes and schools from around the francophone world taking into account cultural awareness learnt from all of the countries covered in the KS4 Curriculum. This part of the topic will focus heavily on Listening and Reading strands.
Skills
Adjectival agreement
Modal verbs
Comparatives and superlatives
Future tense
Schools & Jobs
Students build further on what they have learnt about school over the past five years, and now look forward to what they would like to do after school. Future plans such as college, apprentices, university, work experience, gap year and jobs are discussed and students are helped to articulate their hopes.
Skills
Students are working on:
Imperfect tense
Future tense (near vs simple)
Alternative ways to introduce the future tense
Higher tier: Before doing…
Subjunctive
Global Issues
Students learn about the problem of a lack of drinking water in the Francophone world, learning about the reasons behind the problem. They look at how their actions can impact this and quick ways in order to save water in day to day life.
Skills
Students are working on:
Modal verbs.
Holidays
Students learn how to book excursions abroad. Further building on from previous learning episodes on the topic of holidays, students learn how to explain disaster holidays and make complaints.
Skills
Students are working on:
The pronoun ‘y’
Conditional tense
Imperfect tense vs past tense
Higher Tier: pluperfect tense and conditional tense
