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Introduction

The Guide for Teachers and Managers should be regarded as a working document. It offers practical advice on how to address various aspects of the national guidelines.

In other words, the guidelines provide the 'what' of the curriculum; the guide offers advice on the 'how'. It sets out examples of practice that have been found to be effective
in different classroom or school contexts. These are intended to help other schools to use the ideas or strategies that are illustrated, or to develop approaches to suit their own particular circumstances. They are not to be regarded as prescriptive or definitive answers to all the issues involved in implementing Modern Languages 5-14.  

... the guidelines provide the 'what' of the curriculum; the guide offers advice on the 'how'.


The revised guidelines emphasise the importance of certain key principles that should underpin all planning, teaching and assessing of modern languages. The principles can be summarised as follows.

  • The approach to planning and assessing should be as simple and streamlined as possible.
  • Strands should be the main organisational features for planning.
  • A holistic approach to the assessment of skills and knowledge and understanding should be adopted.
  • The components of the attainment targets are intended to indicate a 'learning path' through the levels and to illustrate pupil attainment.
  • Teaching should take into account pupils' motivation, information about prior learning and the appropriateness of learning and teaching activities.

Implementation of the guidelines for modern languages 5-14 has implications for planning, teaching and assessing. These may include the need to:
  • seek ways in which learning can be progressed in learning and teaching programmes P6-S2
  • incorporate new strand titles in learning and teaching programmes, plans and reporting formats
  • incorporate activities across all four attainment outcomes in long- and short-term plans
  • seek ways in which foreign language learning can be linked to other areas of the pupils' learning
  • develop particular activities that have been found to be effective vehicles for foreign language learning and which have been enjoyed, for example storytelling, role-plays
  • gather resources over time that will best promote certain strands, for example reading and listening for enjoyment
  • work collaboratively across sectors on key strands, for example writing imaginatively/to entertain
  • become familiar with ways of assessing progress in the early stages of foreign language learning and with appropriate assessment instruments.

Schools will require time to reflect on many aspects of the advice offered in this guide.

This guide is not exhaustive in its coverage of every issue but the sections of the guide are intended to:
  • offer examples of real practice in planning (Section 1)
  • identify implications for managers (Section 2)
  • offer examples of interactive teaching, learning and assessing (Section 3)
  • provide further detailed exemplification of attainment targets and teaching strategies (Section 4)
  • provide information on the potential role of information and communications technology (ICT) in the learning and teaching of modern languages (Section 5)
  • suggest websites of potential interest to teachers and managers of modern languages (Section 5).

Further support for the implementation of the guidelines on modern languages 5-14 will be published in due course.


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