Modern Languages
Excellence Groups
As you may know, Education Secretary Michael Russell announced a 10 point plan for Curriculum for Excellence on 30th March.
The package of support measures includes setting up Excellence Groups – bringing together subject teachers and experts in individual fields together to support excellence in education in their subject area and across the curriculum. A group for Modern Languages has been set up to look at where any gaps may exist in current Curriculum for Excellence exemplification for modern languages and other support for staff materials, and provide advice on addressing any barriers to learning in modern languages which may be limiting the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence. The first meeting has been arranged for early next term.
Tell us your ideas about what you’d like to see in future modern languages workshops by visiting Glow!
It would indeed be a benefit to have Mandarin taught as an actual subject in schools, especially with the fact of the ever increasing population. With the growing of the population, the learning of Mandarin would be of such a great benefit, especially concerning business opportunities. The mastering of many languages is indeed an asset, and would not hinder you in any way. Languages including Mandarin, French and Spanish and any others would be of advantage if they are learned, and are just as important as maths and english in considering the possibilities that arise from learning them.
Yes, I think a communicative learning approach is impossible if learners are not given the opportunity to visit the country in exchanges and so forth. For how much longer to we continue with a grammatical approach to learning with little emphasis placed on real life situations. Why do schools not adopt the CLIL approach as in some schools in Europe where some of the subjects, or part of them are taught in the foreign language?