Knowing Me, Knowing You PROMOTING PUPILS’ LANGUAGE SKILLS IN

AND OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

JILL PAGE

AST PRIMARY LANGUAGES

Aims:

•To provide opportunities to communicate with people of other languages and cultures

•To develop Language Learning through the participation in and the sharing of activities

•To develop community cohesion and to promote Intercultural Understanding

•To maximise cross-curricular opportunities in the development of Intercultural Understanding

The curriculum as a whole learning experience:

• Identity and cultural diversity

• Healthy lifestyles• Community

participation• Enterprise

• Global development and sustainable development

• Technology and the media

• Creativity and critical thinking

Which of these can be embraced by Which of these can be embraced by participation in this project?participation in this project?

http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_5856.aspxhttp://www.qca.org.uk/qca_5856.aspx

The Strands of the Primary Languages Framework

Literacy Oracy Intercultural understanding

Knowledge about language

Language learning strategies

Intercultural Understanding

IU3.4• Make indirect or

direct contact with the country/countries where the language is spoken

• Have contact with a native speaker, including peers where appropriate.

• Send an email, letter or postcard to a partner school

Intercultural Understanding

IU4.2• Know about some

aspects of everyday life and compare them to their own

• Compare pastimes of children of different cultures and countries

• Exchange information with a partner school, eg sports, hobbies

Knowledge About Language

Children should have opportunities to: Identify phonemes, letters and words which are similar to and different from English

• Recognise that languages use different writing systems

• Recognise commonly used rhyming sounds and learn how they are written

Language Learning Strategies

• Children should have opportunities to:

• Use gesture and mime to show they understand and to help make themselves understood

• Improve their ability to memorise, using a range of strategies such as association with a physical response, rhyme and rhythm and visualisation

Sharing cultural opportunities across schools

• Engaging the interest and curiosity of all pupils, including those with a different cultural background

• Learning language through shared activities• What can they share and how can it be shared?• Comparing: finding differences and similarities

A Partner School

• It does not always have to be abroad

• Children and adults from other cultures can be found in local schools

• An accessible resource and a wonderful tool for integration

• Share discoveries and research

• Possibilities for meeting up

• A link for the future

An example to generate ideasAn example to generate ideas

• Playground games

• Action songs and dances

• www.singup.org

Magazine issue summer 2008

Singing Playgrounds

Who are the experts?

• Children

• Adults in school

• Other adults: parents, grandparents

• Opportunities for sharing:

Email song words

Audio / video file for actions and pronunciation

Curriculum linksCurriculum links

• English

• PE

• Music

• Geography

• Citizenship

• PSHCE

Incorporating Literacy

• An oral stimulus, so when is the written word introduced?

• Display and use social phrases in and out of the classroom. Examples?

• Label classroom items and provide simple phrases for sentence-building

• Should written phonetic versions be provided?

The Training Zone for teaching and learning languages at KS2

• www.primarylanguages.org.uk

Home > Teachers > Using the KS2 Framework >

Intercultural Understanding > Traditional Flower Song

This school has a link school in China and has received British Council grants which enable teachers and assistants to go to their partner school in China. The Chinese language assistant and the Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) have worked together to develop a programme of study linking Chinese culture and language.

Children perform a traditional Chinese song and talk about the significance of the words.

English

What a beautiful jasmine,What a beautiful jasmine,Fragrant, beautiful, in full blossom,Fragrant, white, everyone admires it.

• A song or story from another country can form the basis of a cross curricular project.

• Even though the language may be difficult, they rise to the challenge if the teacher can explain to them the main messages and they can learn some of the key vocabulary.

• Performing songs for an assembly or parents’ evening enables children to show off their new skills and knowledge and will involve the rest of the school in new language learning.

Links to the KS2 Framework The children: •listen and respond to simple rhymes, stories and songs •recognise and respond to sound patterns and words •listen for specific words and phrases •listen attentively and understand more complex phrases and sentences

O 3.1 O 3.2 O 3.4 O 5.3

•make indirect or direct contact with the country/countries where the language is spoken •identify social conventions at home and in other cultures •present information about an aspect of another culture

IU 3.3 IU 3.4 IU 6.3

•identify specific sounds, phonemes and words (KAL)

•look at the face of the person speaking and listen attentively (LLS)

What comes next

So you’ve shared your event.

How can this experience be carried forward, using the curriculum?

How can the link be sustained and utilised?

Thinking and discussing

• Based on your own experience and knowledge of your school setting, consider and note down some possibilities. Think about the scope for developing language-learning.

Sharing experiences