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Modern Foreign Languages and Literacy
at key stages 2 and 3

In 1999 CILT and QCA launched a project to explore links between children's work in developing literacy skills and in learning a foreign language.

The project sought to identify ways in which the development of mother-tongue literacy and foreign language skills might be mutually supportive and the method adopted was to give small amounts of funding and support to projects in schools in order for them to develop action research programmes and report on key issues. A central theme was one of finding a common discourse and some ways of working together "across the space between". In that respect the objectives were deliberately modest but practical.

The ensuing case studies are contained in the report Modern Foreign Languages and Literacy at key stages 2 and 3 which is available here in pdf format.

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Modern Foreign Languages and Literacy at key stages 2 and 3 (393 KB)

The main themes addressed by the projects are as follows

  • contrast between the sentence level focus of modern foreign languages teaching and the text level focus of English teaching;
  • morphology and syntax: pupils' perceptions and understanding of grammatical terminology in modern foreign languages and English;
  • common methodology between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3; appropriate transferable methodologies to improve the literacy skills of students in English and MFL;
  • resources to enhance the literacy skills of learners of English as an additional language;
  • analysis of the relationship between word, sentence and text level work in modern foreign languages and English.

In late 2000 a seminar at CILT heard and discussed the provisional conclusions of the 4 funded projects - as well as views from other projects which had grown up in Bedfordshire and South Gloucestershire. Those provisional - but nonetheless fascinating - insights are presented in the report.

What they show is that it is not only possible to bridge the space in between, but that this is positively beneficial both to learners and teachers.