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TRG 2 GCSE Consultation�

March 2021

Rachel Hawkes / Emma Marsden�

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Rachel Hawkes

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Session overview

Modern Foreign Languages GCSE Subject Content

what it is and who it is for
the process from subject content to classroom teaching

What we know (or don’t know) about the current subject content
Structured reading task: comparing 2015 and 2021
The main similarities and differences
The grammar appendices (Foundation and Higher)
The implications for teaching and assessment(s)
NCELP and the draft GCSE Subject Content

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Rachel Hawkes

This is a session to support teachers in understanding the draft DfE Languages GCSE Subject Content. This is what it covers. �We start by looking at the role of the GCSE Subject Content and how it connects the work of all stakeholders.�We then review key information about the current languages subject content, published in 2015, that underpins the current GCSE examination.�There will then be time for teachers to pause this presentation, in order to spend some time comparing the two documents, using the handout that accompanies these resources.�When you rejoin the presentation we will analyse the main similarities and differences overall, compare the grammar appendices, and draw out the headline implications for teaching and assessment. The final part of the presentation will explore the areas of alignment between NCELP SOW and resources and the draft GCSE Subject Content. It seems like quite a lot! Let’s make a start.

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Modern Foreign Languages �GCSE Subject Content

The GCSE subject content sets out the knowledge, understanding and skills common to all GCSE specifications in a given subject.

DfE �(subject content)

Ofqual (regulations)

Awarding body (specification/�exam materials)

Publisher (text book)

Teacher (classroom learning)

Ofqual accredits British examination boards offering GCSEs and GCE A levels and regulates their work (e.g., checks the sampling that awarding bodies do of the subject content)

Publishers create teaching materials for the classroom, based on the specifications.

Formerly called examination boards, awarding bodies set examinations and award qualifications. They explain their exams in a specification (FKA a syllabus).

Teachers make sense of it all in the classroom!

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Rachel Hawkes

Let’s look briefly at what the GCSE subject content document is and how it fits into the process of GCSE review from DfE to classroom and the typical timeline of this process.

Process: DfE 🡪 Ofqual 🡪 Public Consultation (launched jointly between DfE/Ofqual) 🡪 Awarding bodies develop specifications and SAMS (Sample Assessed Materials) 🡪 Oqual accredits the specification 🡪 Awarding bodies publish the specifications 🡪 Publishers create teaching materials 🡪 Teachers teach.

�Teachers can engage with the process and the different groups at any point from the consultation onwards. There is a ‘quiet period’ when the awarding bodies develop their specifications, but once approved teachers can scrutinise these and begin to develop SOW.��Timeline: we can extrapolate from the current GCSE – final subject content published (2015), specification for first teaching (2016), first exam (2018)�This time: subject content consultation (2021), (assume publication late 2021, early 2022?), specification for first teaching (2023), first exam (2025). Who will be the first to sit the new exam ? Current Y7 will do the new GCSE.

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MFL GCSE Subject Content [2015]

The grammar content in the appendices is tested
The awarding bodies must provide a vocabulary list
30% reading questions must be in the target language
There is a guide to indicate the speed of listening extracts
The length of writing tasks is prescribed
Students deduce meaning in both listening and reading tasks
Simultaneous expectations of accuracy and fluency, and also accuracy and complexity
Sets out the expectation that tasks will include some unfamiliar language
Production tasks must be at sentence level
Complexity is defined
Questions must be set in the language in which students have to respond
Translation is a requirement

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Rachel Hawkes

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Structured reading task: comparing 2015 and 2021

Read the two documents in full and make notes in the handout provided: GCSE Subject Content comparison - table�

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Rachel Hawkes

Explain the task. Give 45 – 60 minutes to complete it. Ask teachers to pause the video.�

We’re now going to take a bit of time to compare the current and proposed Subject Content documents. I recommend that for this first task, we read the two documents in full and make notes in the handout called: GCSE Subject Content comparison - table. �

At another time, to facilitate further work, you might be interested to make use of a second option, a targeted keyword search, using the document called: GCSE Subject Content comparison – keywords

Or you may have another preferred method.��I have completed both methods of comparison in preparation for this session, and will make both documents available after the TRG.

��For this task now, as part of the TRG time, I’m suggesting you spend 45 – 60 minutes and then come back to this presentation.�Clearly, the time spent is a matter for you, though! After you complete the comparison re-join this screencast. Pause the screencast now.

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Areas of continuity

Broad subject aims

develop ability and ambition to communicate in speech and writing
expand students’ horizons
encourage them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries
develop new ways of seeing the world
provide a strong foundation for further study�

Equal emphasis on listening, speaking, reading, writing
Language teaching rooted in the contexts where the language is spoken
Learning will build on knowledge outlined in KS2 and KS3 PoS
Grammar and vocabulary are significant areas of knowledge
Speaking will include role play and Q&A about a visual stimulus

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Rachel Hawkes

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Main differences in draft 2021 Subject Content

Sound-spelling correspondences are included, and need to demonstrate their ability in transcription and decoding (reading aloud)
Vocabulary is specified (1200 [F],1700 [H] words, 90% from most frequent 2000, and no assumptions made about KS2/3 vocabulary
Tasks to understand and produce language contain only language from the defined vocabulary and grammar lists
Unknown language in Higher tier reading texts (up to 2% of a text) will be glossed; no requirement to deduce or infer from unfamiliar language
Listening extracts will be at no faster than moderate pace
Comprehension and production tasks may be at word and sentence level, as appropriate
Speaking – RP rubrics in English, question prompts could also be in English
Questions – comprehension questions in English
No requirement to include, specifically, literary, authentic texts�

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Rachel Hawkes

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Session overview

Modern Foreign Languages GCSE Subject Content

what it is and who it is for
the process from subject content to classroom teaching

What we know (or don’t know) about the current subject content
Structured reading task: comparing 2015 and 2021
The main similarities and differences
The grammar appendices (Foundation and Higher)
The implications for teaching and assessment(s)
NCELP and the draft GCSE Subject Content

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

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Grammar quiz!�MFL GCSE Subject Content [2015]

Foundation

Higher

pluperfect

ne…personne

depuis

modals (present)

superlative

conjunctions (e.g., car…)

Note: Pluperfect (R) is Foundation.

Note: The descriptor is negation forms

depuis + imperfect is Higher Tier.

Modals are not listed at all on the French grammar list.

Not everything on the grammar list is actually grammar.

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Rachel Hawkes

“Now, as before this is also just a low stakes quiz to get us thinking about some of the detail in the current grammar list.�So, let’s start with the superlative.. yes, that is on the foundation tier grammar list, for both comprehension and production. However, it is also listed again on the Higher Tier list, with the addition of just one word. So, the foundation tier list has, under Adjectives, comparative and superlative: regular and meilleur and then the Higher Tier list has: comparative and superlative, including meilleur, pire.

This does seem a little odd – we might question why it’s so much more higher than foundation just with the addition of pire?�Slightly odd when you consider the use that awarding bodies, textbook writers and teachers might be expected to make of this list to plan teaching…�

Now, pluperfect. Yes, I’m sure you’ve correctly ‘told your screen’ that it’s Higher. Note also though that understanding the pluperfect is also on the foundation list – meaning that it can be tested in listening and reading tasks (presumably with any verb, either on the awarding body vocabulary list or outside of it, given the requirement to test unfamiliar material as well). Next we have ‘ne…personne’ – you’ll be excused completely for not being sure on this one. It isn’t explicitly listed, though we have to assume that it’s foundation because the (rather general) descriptor ‘negation forms’ is in the foundation list.�Depuis – depuis is foundation tier, both for comprehension and production. That is for the present tense. Depuis + imperfect is on the higher tier list.�Modals (present tense) – yes, well modal verbs don’t exist in French, clearly, as they are not listed at all. So we’ll have to just put them here in the middle for now. I’m sure we all teach them, and I’m perfectly sure that they also appear in exams. Perhaps we are meant to understand them as part of the general category “verbs followed by an infinitive, with or without a preposition”? It is perhaps an indication that the level of precision and detail in the current grammar appendices is perhaps not optimal.�Here’s one last one for you… conjunctions (e.g., car etc..) – yes, this one is on the foundation list. Is it grammar though? Isn’t this vocabulary? I’m sure you have noticed this before, if you’re someone who’s looked at these grammar lists. They are the same lists that are reproduced in the awarding body specifications. Not everything on the current grammar list is actually grammar.��So what can we summarise from this?�1. There may be some important things missing from (or at least not stated clearly on) the grammar lists, as they currently are, including things that we know are routinely tested.�2. There may be some errors – or questionable decisions – about the description and placement of certain features – the superlative listing being one example of that. �3. There may be some features on the list that seem to present a little too much challenge for foundation tier – even though they may be given the (R) rating – how do you just teach for receptive use? realistically, you don’t, you still spend some time practising these features, but less than you would, if you know students had to produce it, which will naturally leave foundation students with the feeling that they half know many things. If there is a substantial amount of the content that is only for receptive testing at Foundation tier (which there is, currently), then we are throwing a lot at students that we don’t expect them to fully get hold of and be able to use independently. Given that we know that motivation for anything stems largely from a sense of success and self-efficacy, this seems like a situation that required some improvement.�4. Finally, there may be some things on the current list that are vocabulary rather than grammar.��So, whatever it is that we want the 2021 grammar appendices to do, top on our list might be:�1. A bold, thorough review of the content of these lists, rather than a tweak around the edges. �2. Greater detail so that we can really know exactly what is meant within each listed feature.�3. An ‘outside the box’ approach to the problematic issue of the (R) only category to ensure that foundation tier students in particular, but also those in higher tier, don’t spend too much learning time on grammar features that they cannot meaningfully get to grips with, in the 450 hours of secondary school language learning. Perhaps more time spent on gaining a deeper knowledge of and proficiency in fewer features might be the outcome of such a revision.�4. The removal of vocabulary items from the grammar list, for clarity.��Now, it’s not going to be possible in the time that we have here in this session to do a thorough comparison of the differences in the grammar lists, though this is probably something teachers will want to do at some point individually. However, it does feel important to pick out a few of the main differences. I’m going to stick with the French for my examples, but the same approach has been taken in all three languages.

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Greater detail [1/2]

Significance and implications for teaching and assessment
2015	2021
gender; singular and plural forms	Formation of feminine nouns (highly frequent irregulars will be listed in the Vocabulary List as separate items, e.g., chef, cheffe; héros, héroïne; Juif, Juive; travailleur, travailleuse) •Add -e •No change (article changes only) •-eur 🡪 -rice •-er 🡪 -ère •-el 🡪-lle •-en 🡪 -nne

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Rachel Hawkes

At first glance, we might be forgiven for thinking that the proposed Subject Content just got bigger!�That’s misleading, though.�Hidden beneath the 2015 descriptor here are all of the forms listed in the 2021 document. The difference is that the new document sets out exactly what is contained with the single word ‘gender’ with relation to nouns. It does make you wonder how many point-bearing questions have been set over the years with forms that may not have been taught, as there wasn’t this level of clarity over the number and variety of high frequency patterns that exist, nor the clarity about irregular forms. What we have here is clear guidance as to patterns to teach and practise so that students might reasonably be expected to use the correct feminine forms of any of the nouns on the vocabulary list, and additionally the stipulation that any feminine nouns that are formed differently from these stated patterns will be either listed separately on the vocabulary list, or not included in any assessment.

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Greater detail [2/2]

Significance and implications for teaching and assessment
2015	2021
Interrogative forms;	Interrogatives Interrogatives expressed through: intonation with SV word order, including when followed by a wh-word (i.e., question words including ‘how’); est-ce que followed by SV word order; VS word order; wh-word followed by VS word order

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Rachel Hawkes

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Foundation 🡪 Higher

Significance and implications for teaching and assessment
2015 (Foundation)	2021 (Higher)

superlatives

depuis + present tense

future (R)

inflectional future �(-ER, 4 irregular only)

present passive (R)

present passive

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Rachel Hawkes

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Higher 🡪 …

Significance and implications for teaching and assessment
2015 (Foundation (R)/Higher)	2021 (omitted)

pluperfect

future, imperfect, perfect passive

subjunctive

position and order of object pronouns

juxtaposed object pronouns

depuis + imperfect tense

dont (R)

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Rachel Hawkes

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No (R) only category & different ways to simplify content

Some features removed entirely from foundation and/or higher tier
Some features have been divided into sub-components, part taught at foundation and part at higher

partitive
reflexive use of verbs
present tense irregular verbs
imperative

Some features are given tolerance in production at foundation (e.g., minor spelling changes in present tense stems), and are then credit bearing at Higher

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Rachel Hawkes

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Moved to vocabulary

Significance and implications for teaching and assessment
2015 (grammar)	2021 (vocabulary)

number

quantity

dates

times

list of conjunctions

list of prepositions

adverbs of time and place

pronouns

number

quantity

dates

times

list of conjunctions

list of prepositions

adverbs of time and place

pronouns

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Rachel Hawkes

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Session overview

Modern Foreign Languages GCSE Subject Content

what it is and who it is for
the process from subject content to classroom teaching

What we know (or don’t know) about the current subject content
Structured reading task: comparing 2015 and 2021
The main similarities and differences
The grammar appendices (Foundation and Higher)
The implications for teaching and assessment(s)
NCELP and the draft GCSE Subject Content

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

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The specificity about the nature and amount of vocabulary (1/2)

Assessment implications

removes the guesswork for all stakeholders

rigorous and consistent approach
no unlisted language will be tested
reduces the native speaker advantage / is a social leveller

ensures that the most useful words (i.e., ‘most used’ words) are to the fore

facilitates a broad range of contexts and types of text (without prescribing or ruling any out)

gives individual words back their value

allows assessments to reward secure word knowledge

Teaching & learning implications

removes the guesswork for all stakeholders

powerful leveller for teaching
joins up KS2, KS3 and KS4
is an incentive to learn, knowing efforts will be rewarded (and on to KS5)

ensures that the most useful words (i.e., ‘most used’ words) are to the fore

‘most used’ words enhance relevance for communication, which is motivational

gives individual words back their value

promotes independent manipulation of language and disprefers a reliance on unanalysed chunks

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

The Subject Content documentation clearly has a direct influence on assessment. �In 2015 for the current GCSE amongst the consequences were the inclusion of translation from and into the target language, the use of literary texts in the reading exam, the requirement to use unfamiliar language in the assessments (i.e., ensure that listening and reading exams contained words (and grammar?) that were not on the awarding body vocabulary lists, the stipulation for the listening material to be at near normal speed, the expectation that the RP questions/prompts would be in the target language, the expectation of spontaneity and fluency in the speaking, and so on.

So what are the implications for assessment of the proposed Subject Content?

First, we can see that there will still be listening, speaking reading and writing assessments (statement suggests with an approximately equal emphasis) - Courses designed to support preparation for GCSE specifications will ensure systematic, well-sequenced coverage of the specification’s linguistic content, avoiding overloading pupils at any given point, and with ample opportunities for practising the content taught at each stage receptively and productively, in the oral and written modalities, with an approximately equal emphasis on each.

Would expect this to be reflected in the assessments 🡪 25% each.��But let’s look at the most salient differences in a bit more details and how they will impact assessment and teaching and learning:

First, the nature and amount of vocabulary and how much can be tested…�The specificity of the vocabulary to be included in assessments has the following implications:

First, it removes the mystery and guesswork about which words will be in the assessment tasks and therefore which words to teach. For assessment setters and textbook writers this means that a much more rigorous and consistent approach to creating assessments and materials will be taken, year on year, but also between languages. ��And no unlisted language will be tested. Research suggests that vocabulary knowledge is the biggest single factor in achievement in exams (not quite the same as language proficiency?!). But for the current GCSE a factor in that success is students’ ability to guess meanings of words that they haven’t been taught. And which students are most likely to succeed in that? Number 1 – native speakers, number 2 – very literate students with a broad, sophisticated vocabulary in English, together with a wide general knowledge of the world, both of which as we know are facilitated by more affluent homes with books, newspapers, discussion at mealtimes etc… The privileging of these two cohorts of students has been an (almost certainly) unintentional consequence of the requirement to include unknown language in the current GCSE examinations. An intentional consequence of the proposed content is a levelling of the social playing field with regard to content. Knowing a specific bunch of words extremely well seems to me something that all teachers, students and awarding bodies will be able to get on board with.

And turning to the teaching and learning implications, the absence of mystery is a powerful leveller for teachers. Currently departments with skilled teachers with the most years of experience with a given exam are more likely to achieve the grades with their students because they have learnt to interpret the hidden messages. They have built their practice on years of assimilating the ‘surprises’ from successive years of exams and adapting their practice accordingly. As I say, it is a leveller.

�It also joins up KS2, 3 and 4 because the list is comprehensive and makes no assumptions about prior knowledge. The implications for planning learning from KS2 onwards are significant, the prospects for achieving a more coherent sequence of learning from Y3 – Y11 are startling, I think.

�And let’s not overlook the motivational factor or knowing that your learning efforts will be rewarded. I include teachers as well as students in this. Greater clarity and precision over content obviously makes planning easier – it’s easy to overlook the real implications of this for us as teachers, though! It means you will know when you have finished teaching the course! When has this ever been possible before? To this point, we have only been able to say that we have taught all the topics from the specification, but we have never ever been able to say to students that we have taught them the whole course, as we have never known which unknown language was going to surprise them and us in the exams. Imagine opening an exam paper in 2025 and seeing that every word in the transcript, every word in the reading texts had been taught and learnt by students, thanks to a combination of the Vocabulary List and the specified grammar. �The level of unknown language in the current exams has seen me say to Higher tier students in revision sessions – Look, you might only understand around 40% of the vocabulary in this text. Honestly, that is what is expected. It doesn’t mean I’ve prepared you badly or you haven’t learnt well. It just means that they’re not testing for known material, here. ��Current examinations at higher tier test students’ ability to piece together meaning almost from the ether, using their (dare I say it) middle class cultural capital-imbibed ability to infer, as in the Spanish Higher Tier reading example of ‘vejez’ (old age), Grade 9 question, nearest relative on the vocabulary list ‘viejo’, context - a young woman in her 20s considering marriage! – So, this clarity over the content is an incentive to learn, as it offers the sureness that hard work will be rewarded – it’s difficult to overstate the (monumental!) step change that this represents for our subject, but I hope I’m giving a flavour at least!

Second: it ensures that the most useful words (i.e., the words that are most in use in countries and contexts where the language is spoken) are to the fore. On the assessment side this prescribes nothing, yet rules nothing out in terms of either theme or genre. What are the implications of i) not specifying topics whilst ii) specifying the vocabulary? This is about a freeing as you can get, surely. It doesn’t say there will be literary texts, it doesn’t say there won’t be, because there could be, and there is nothing to fear about this, because the words in them will either be taught and known or glossed (up to 2%). It doesn’t mean there won’t be a text about a period in history or the geography of a region where the language is spoken because there may be, and this will be great too, because the words in the text will have been taught and will by known by students or will be glossed. I was not surprised when the recent NALA survey of teachers about the current GCSE said that “73.1% said that they did not think that GCSE topics were necessary for effective language learning” (Nala, 2020) Nala survey: The Languages Curriculum and disadvantaged students.��On the teaching side, it also gives this freedom, but more than that, it gives us the certainty that we are teaching words that are those that are most often used by speakers of the language. Transparency about this is fairly powerful for motivation, too. ☺

Third, it gives individual words back their value. In assessment, this means that awarding bodies are once again allowed (and indeed, required) to reward secure, individual word knowledge. All those who advocate for the importance of vocabulary should be leaping in the air for joy! For teachers, we can be glad, too, as this allows us to focus on teaching independent manipulation of words to build sentences, and it disprefers too-heavy a reliance on chunks.

�

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The specificity about the nature and amount of vocabulary (2/2)

Assessment implications

promotes individually generated and more varied written and spoken outcomes

less incongruity (i.e., fewer highly sophisticated turns of phrase with basic errors that render them meaningless)�

draws a clearer distinction between the level of challenge for F/H students

makes the writing of tasks at the appropriate level much more straightforward to do, and transparent to see

Teaching & learning implications

promotes individually generated and more varied written and spoken outcomes

removes pressure to teach ahead of competence
leaves room for individualisation in word choice (for production)

draws a clearer distinction between the level of challenge for F/H students

makes the teaching of all students (but particularly mixed ability classes) easier to plan for

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Rachel Hawkes

Fourth, it means that there will be more individually generated and therefore more varied output in terms of writing and speaking – for assessors this should also be good news as it has proved awkward over the years to know how to reward highly sophisticated strings of speech or paragraphs of text, where a missing verb early on renders the whole utterance or phrase meaningless. Teachers will recall this from the days when we marked controlled assessments. But any teachers who have also marked the current writing exams will know that memorising chunks that are beyond the individual’s generative capability is prone to slips in the exam that can cost students whole grades in a writing or speaking paper. Building knowledge on sand like this makes it very hard to predict student outcomes, as they stand and fall on how accurately under pressure students can regurgitate the chunks they have memorised. For teachers it means that we are now no longer under pressure to teach students ahead of their competence level. Having such detail and clarity in the vocabulary content also leaves ample room for individualisation and choice (for production tasks). Students will have more time to build in their own personalised vocabulary choices to their repertoire because teachers are no longer having to second guess and overload students with the vocabulary that might be in the exam.

Finally, F/H tiers are more clearly differentiated in terms of the level of challenge and the ‘size’ of the body of knowledge that will be tested at each level, with 1200 words at F and 1700 words at H. This makes assessment creation more straightforward but also more intelligible to teachers and students. This also clearly reflects something that is self-evident to teachers. Some students need many many more encounters with a word to retain it securely and to be able to retrieve it confidently. This time will now be able to be built in such that students have more of a chance to feel the confidence from knowing something well, rather than being aware of a lot that they don’t really know or remember. So teachers will really be able to systematically plan the learning time over the whole of KS3 and KS4 (and some will be able to engage their primaries and also build curricula at KS2) that enable students to learn vocabulary for the long-term, words that will stay with them for ever.

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The inclusion of sound-spelling correspondence (phonics)

Assessment implications

knowledge of the sound-writing relationship will be tested

ability to decode (sound out/read aloud)
ability to transcribe words

Teaching & learning implications

knowledge of the sound-writing relationship will be taught

decoding (going from print to sound) is positively associated with motivation
improves confidence in speaking and writing
supports vocabulary learning
promotes autonomous learning
teaches the significance to meaning of small differences in sound
facilitates variety in vocabulary teaching
unlocks learning and joins up knowledge from different modalities (recognise the written version of word known orally or transcribe an unknown word and then look it up or recognise it as a cognate)
does not delay progress in other areas

See here: Rationale for teaching phonics

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Rachel Hawkes

Additional notes for information (not to be spoken)

Taken from the rationale for teaching phonics: https://resources.ncelp.org/concern/resources/kd17cs85f?locale=en �Rationale for teaching phonics �1. Teaching phonics develops phonological decoding (the ability to sound out accurately), and without explicit phonics teaching, decoding is limited. �2. Decoding is positively associated with motivation and improves confidence in production (speaking and writing). �3. Phonics teaching supports vocabulary learning, which is key to making progress in language learning. �4. Decoding enables learners to access new language autonomously; learners can engage with vocabulary learning more successfully in and beyond the classroom, even ahead of the lesson (flipped learning), allowing more lesson time to focus on language practice and use. �5. Teaching phonics teaches phonemes and each phoneme carries meaning; the function of the different sounds really matters. This links not only to vocabulary but also to grammar (je vs j’ai, aller vs allait, hablo vs habló). �6. Without teaching the sound-writing relationship, teachers logically confine themselves to presenting vocabulary first orally to their beginner learners, and only subsequently provide the written forms, which limits variety in teaching methodology. �7. Teaching phonics teaches the sound system; learners do not have enough exposure to become familiar with the sound system incidentally (i.e., without intentionally trying to learn it). Even an ‘all oral’ approach at primary would only give them a maximum of 120 hours (the equivalent of a few weeks in the womb in L1 acquisition!). So, explicit decoding teaching allows teachers to ‘short-cut’ to teaching the sound and writing at the same time. �8. The ability to sound out words accurately on first exposure supports errorless learning, avoiding an inaccurate initial representation which, if persistent, can lead to problems later. �9. Accurate decoding may allow learners to see that a written word is in fact a word that they already know orally. �10. Alternatively, learners’ ability to spell an unknown word they hear means that they can then find out its meaning (via a dictionary, peer, teacher, books); having the correct or nearly (possibly) correct spelling unlocks the meaning! �11. In addition, learners can ask orally about the meaning of a word that they have read; you need to be able to pronounce a word to ask about it confidently in class (What does ‘XXX’ mean?). �12. The time spent on teaching phonics does not seem to delay progress in other areas (e.g., reading comprehension). �13. Decoding facilitates the recognition of cognates in the sound stream; learners are able to picture the spelling, and the spelling of cognates is easier to recognise than the sound. At GCSE, there is an expectation that learners will understand unfamiliar cognates in context, in both reading and listening. (AQA specification p.21).

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Grammar

Assessment implications

removes the guesswork for all stakeholders

rigorous and consistent approach
no unlisted language will be tested
reduces the native speaker advantage / is a social leveller

year on year sampling of the content

makes awarding bodies more accountable
no redundancy on the list

receptive and productive knowledge of grammar content will be tested

much more precision required in the creation of assessments

Teaching & learning implications

removes the guesswork for all stakeholders

powerful leveller for teaching
joins up KS2, KS3 and KS4
is an incentive to learn, knowing efforts will be rewarded (and on to KS5)

year on year sampling of the content

all content will be taught and no surprises�

receptive and productive knowledge of grammar will be tested

explicit teaching of fewer structures to be practised in more depth

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Rachel Hawkes

You’ll notice here that I’ve retained the same opening implication that was on the slide relating to vocabulary. I think that it applies here, equally.�

Just as with vocabulary, the clarity and precision in the content means that it will be much clearer to teachers what the tests will contain.��Awarding bodies are expected to sample the content fully over the life of a qualification, and Ofqual is responsible for overseeing that they do. This may not have previously been entirely straightforward, leading to both some redundancy on the list – i.e. features there that may have never been or only rarely been tested or alternatively the inclusion of features that were not listed.

Grammar comprehension will be tested, not just production��Explicit statement about sampling the grammar indicates that there is no redundancy on the grammar list – what is there is to be tested (albeit not everything every year) – much more specificity here��

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Session overview

Modern Foreign Languages GCSE Subject Content

what it is and who it is for
the process from subject content to classroom teaching

What we know (or don’t know) about the current subject content
Structured reading task: comparing 2015 and 2021
The main similarities and differences
The grammar appendices (Foundation and Higher)
The implications for teaching and assessment(s)
NCELP and the draft GCSE Subject Content

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

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NCELP and the proposed new GCSE

Sound-symbol correspondences are systematically taught and revisited from Y7, with frequent read aloud and transcription opportunities
Vocabulary selection for the fully resourced SOW is frequency-informed, comprises at least 90% words from a list of the most frequent 2000, and is systematically revisited
Grammar is explicitly taught, thoroughly practised in listening, reading, speaking and writing activities, and regularly revisited
Texts and listening extracts are carefully designed for 100% readability, with unknown words glossed
Themes are broad and contexts are rich

Link to all resource collections

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes

Worth mentioning here that the following resource collections are available:��1. As well as the schemes of work and resources for Y7, almost all of Y8, and the start to Y9 (which will be finished by end November 2021), there will also be SOW and full resources for foundation and higher GCSE in French, German and Spanish by December 2022.��2. For departments that don’t currently teach phonics, or who want to enrich their resources for so doing, there is a new phonics collection on the portal, which comes with an excel list of each of the SSCs, the sound-spelling correspondences that are listed in the draft GCSE grammar appendices, with links to all of the resources that exist so far for teaching and practising that SSC. The full collection can be downloaded with one click OR just the excel document which itself contains the URLs to each resource.

3. Teachers who want to find and use or adapt for their own teaching any of the phonics, vocabulary or grammar activities they may have seen in particular NCELP lessons can download the exemplar activities collection, which holds Fr, Gm and Sp worked PPT examples of many of the activity types we use. Teachers are welcome to download and edit these for their own purposes.��4. To get a sense of the cultural scope of the resources, teachers might want to download the cultural collection, which comes with an excel overview for Y7 and 8 resources of the different cultural aspects that are contained in the resources, links to the specific resources where they can be found and a description of the aspect of culture addressed, whether sociolinguistic, or sociocultural, such as historic, geographical, popular culture, etc.. For ease of reference, these cultural slides have also been extracted from lessons and compiled into termly sets of slides for each language. All of this is available to download with one click.��

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Session overview

Modern Foreign Languages GCSE Subject Content

what it is and who it is for
the process from subject content to classroom teaching

What we know (or don’t know) about the current subject content
Structured reading task: comparing 2015 and 2021
The main similarities and differences
The grammar appendices (Foundation and Higher)
The implications for teaching and assessment(s)
NCELP and the draft GCSE Subject Content

Material licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0�

Rachel Hawkes