Modern Languages

Modern Foreign Languages

The French Department

The main aims of the department are:

1) To make the subject an enjoyable experience, to give a sense of achievement to each boy at a level appropriate to his ability and to provide intellectual stimulation.

2) For each boy to develop the ability to use French effectively in order to learn how to communicate using each of the four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing.

3) To develop a wider awareness of all matters French, be they cultural, literary, historical, architectural or culinary! To learn about French life, customs and traditions.

Structure:

French has an important place in the curriculum, increasingly so when one considers that in the maintained sector a modern foreign language is not compulsory after the age of 14. At Ludgrove boys have four lessons a week in their first two years and six lessons thereafter. The teaching of French is undertaken by four specialist members of staff, two of whom live in France during the holidays.

The course we use is Tricolore Total but this is heavily supplemented with other material from a variety of sources to back up individual aspects of the course, particularly in the teaching of grammar which we consider to be of paramount importance.

A highlight of our language course at Ludgrove is the annual French trip to the Loire Valley for boys in their penultimate year. We used to stay in the youth hostel in Loches, but since June 2009 we have been based in a gîte on a goat farm near the village of Dolus-le-sec, some 6 miles from Loches. We believe it to be important for the boys to be immediately involved in the area where they are staying. They undertake a number of structured language activities in the town as well as visiting a number of châteaux, a zoo, a winery, an aquarium – indeed anywhere that will lead to opportunities to use the four language learning skills listed above. The diary that they write becomes the basis of much of the oral and written French that leads to Common Entrance the following summer. Boys have commented that it is much easier in the classroom when they have seen the things that they are writing and speaking about.

Those boys attempting Scholarships are accelerated through the Tricolore Total course and move on to the more academic Encore Tricolore 3 in their penultimate year. In their final year they have a wide variety of worksheets, based particularly on articles from contemporary French newspapers and magazines, and are encouraged to think more deeply about the structure of the language.

Whatever the route to their next schools, we want the boys to take a memory with them of happy, positive French lessons at Ludgrove. In turn we aim to give them a solid foundation of grammar and vocabulary on which they will be able to build in the future, and which will lead to an even greater enjoyment of language.

Some years ago I was with a group of boys at the Château de Chambord and was tapped on the shoulder. I turned round to meet an Old Ludgrovian and his girlfriend. On passing through the Loire he had wanted to revisit a place to which I had taken him more than ten years before, about which he had spoken to his girlfriend - and there I was! A lovely coincidence. Thank you, Simon Morrison. Job done!

Spanish and German.

ISEB set papers at Common Entrance in both Spanish and German. After consultation with a number of leading public schools, we are currently of the opinion that it is better to cover one language thoroughly rather than attempt two, or even three, to a lower level. Once one has a good grounding in French, it is relatively easy to ‘bolt on’ another modern foreign language very quickly. We do, however, offer an introduction to Spanish to some of the boys after their Scholarship examinations and this is generally well received.