Many primary schools are recognising the benefits of employing the services of a native speaker to assist in the delivery of primary languages.

Native speakers might be parents, support staff, governors, other members of the local community, or foreign language assistants. They work closely in partnership with the class teacher, team-teaching, leading sections of the lesson, modelling dialogues with the teacher, planning collaboratively and supporting small groups.

They provide an excellent model of pronunciation for the children as well as enriching lessons with the wealth of intercultural knowledge they bring with them. They often have knowledge of up-to-the-minute authentic resources for the classroom and may play a key role in establishing links with schools abroad.

Questions

- How might you consider maximising the language and culture aspects of having a native speaker in your school? 

- Which specific points of language and culture teaching would you consider best delivered by a native speaker?

- How would you seek to ensure that, as one FLA leaves, the knowledge and experience of that person is to some degree shared with their successor for the following year?