Using the KS2 Framework

Context

In this lesson children experience an aspect of the culture of another country; its cooking. By listening to the teacher describing the recipe and watching her make Spanish cakes, they are developing their listening and speaking skills naturally and in a real and practical context.

Exploration

Learning a new language automatically brings children into contact with aspects of the culture of other countries. The practical nature of language learning makes this contact even more real, whether inside school, on special days or beyond the classroom, using the internet, email, school trips abroad and links with other schools.

Learning objectives in the Framework’s strand of Intercultural Understanding can be integrated into language lessons as well as taught separately in non-language teaching time, through other subjects.

Examples of activities to promote and develop Intercultural Understanding might include:

• displays on a seasonal, festive theme;
• celebration of birthdays in other countries;
• joining in songs from a different country;
• informal presentations from children from other countries who speak in class or assembly about their experiences;
• family members invited into school to present, watch or contribute to events;
• visiting teachers from abroad speaking about their schools/communities abroad; visiting theatre or music groups;
• language based class activities, eg assembly or concert with a particular theme, a celebration of a national festival, an in-house Eurovision song contest, the European Day of Languages;
• report on a school visit abroad with children talking about their experiences, showing photos, video, diaries;
• presentation of a partnership with a school abroad.

For more Teaching Activities which promote Intercultural Understanding, see the KS2 Framework:

Teaching activities for Intercultural Understanding:

Intercultural Understanding Teaching Activities Year 3
Pages 29-30
Intercultural Understanding Teaching Activities Year 4
Pages 41-42
Intercultural Understanding Teaching Activities Year 5
Pages 53-54
Intercultural Understanding Teaching Activities Year 6
Page 64

To form partnerships with schools in other countries, for the purpose of furthering language learning and Intercultural Understanding, see The Global Gateway

The QCA schemes of work for MFL at KS2 also contain many activities for integrating Intercultural Understanding into specific language content.

Funding from organisations such as The British Council offers teachers opportunities to travel to other countries to establish links with primary schools.

Links to the KS2 Framework

The children:

• listen attentively and understand instructions, everyday classroom language and praise words
• listen for specific words and phrases

O3.4 O4.2
Oracy 3.4
Page 25
Oracy 4.2 
Page 37

• identify social conventions at home and in other cultures
• make indirect or direct contact with the country/countries where the language is spoken
• know about some aspects of everyday life and compare to their own

IU3.3 IU3.4 IU4.2
Intercultural Understanding 3.3
Page 30
Intercultural Understanding 3.4
Page 30
Intercultural Understanding 4.2
Page 42

Next Steps

While eating the cakes, children recall in Spanish some of ingredients which went into them.

• listen for specific words and phrases

O4.2
Oracy 4.2 
Page 37

They might then learn to say whether they like or dislike them.

Me gusta …. No me gusta …

• understand and express simple opinions

O5.2
Oracy 5.2
Page 50

They might go on to:

• learn about ways of travelling to the country
• look at further aspects of their everyday lives from the perspective of someone from another country
• recognise similarities and differences between places
• compare symbols, objects or products which represent their own culture with those of another country

IU4.4 IU5.1 IU5.2 IU5.3

Intercultural Understanding 4.4
Page 42
Intercultural Understanding 5.1 
Page 53
Intercultural Understanding 5.2 
Page 54
Intercultural Understanding 5.3 
Page 54

Development

• Look at the objectives for Intercultural Understanding in the KS2 Framework.
• Explore with colleagues ways of integrating these objectives into work throughout the curriculum. Make use of the internet to develop some of the learning objectives for Intercultural Understanding.
• While some of this work will be carried out in English, devise activities which will practise these objectives using the foreign language.
• Get children to record their intercultural experiences and contacts. You could use the simple form below, taken from the European Language Portfolio.

Recording intercultural experiences and contacts

MY CONTACTS AND INTERCULTURAL EXPERIENCES

List the main experiences and contacts you’ve had with people or places abroad, eg e-mails, postcards, letters, meeting with people, excursions, video exchanges, and holidays.

Contacts or experience                  Details                                When?

From the European Language Portfolio