Languages

From their earliest days, children are motivated to communicate their needs and feelings to other people. They enjoy playing with language and experiencing the pleasure of using language creatively. Learning and teaching in languages builds upon children’s motivation to communicate. It provides the environment and structure to enable them to use progressively more complex language with increasing competence and independence, in their own and in other languages.

Children and young people should experience an environment which is rich in language. From the early years, they can extend their skills in listening and talking and develop early reading and writing skills through appropriate play-based contexts. They need to spend time with stories, literature and texts which will enrich their learning, develop their language skills and enable them to find enjoyment.

Scotland has a rich diversity of languages and dialects and teachers should value and build upon the languages that children bring to school. The languages and literature of Scotland provide a valuable source for learning about culture, identity and language.

Competence and confidence in literacy, including competence in grammar, spelling and the spoken word, are essential for progress in all areas of the curriculum. Because of this, all teachers have responsibility for promoting language and literacy development. Every teacher in each area of the curriculum needs to find opportunities to encourage young people to explain their thinking, debate their ideas and read and write at a level which will help them to develop their language skills further.

For the same reason, it is important that there is early identification of, and support for, all children’s learning needs.

With an increased emphasis upon literacy for all children and young people, teachers will need to plan to revisit and consolidate literacy skills throughout schooling and across the curriculum.

When they begin to learn another language, children and young people need to make connections with the skills and knowledge they have already developed in their own language. To help this, teachers can make use of the diversity of languages which children may bring to school, making connections and comparisons between different aspects of language.

As children and young people develop their competence across language skills, they need to become more aware of how they are learning and how a language works. This awareness will help them to develop skills in their own language and provide an appropriate grounding for learning different languages later.