Year 10 Curriculum Essentials

Welcome to the MFL department!

A language enables students to develop an appreciation of other people’s culture and linguistic systems. Learning a language towards communicative proficiency obviously develops cognitive abilities that can be applied to other subjects using different parts of the brain. Students are given opportunities to develop their awareness of the target language culture.

By offering languages at BIS Abu Dhabi, we aim to stimulate students’ interest in and enjoyment of discovering a foreign language, to develop a critical understanding of the language (structure, grammar and culture) and to enable them to acquire a sound ability to understand oral and written text as well as participate in simple communicative situation in familiar topics.’

IGCSE in Languages : 

It is not compulsory, at BIS Abu Dhabi to study a language for IGCSE, however students have the opportunity to continue their language learning experience in German, French and/or Spanish and certify a A2/B1 level in the chosen language. Studying a language for IGCSE will allow students to carry it on at IB Diploma Programme level as their Language B option. 

Students who have not chosen a language for IGCSE will be able to take a language at beginner's level as part of their IB options.

NOTE : From September 2024, we will move to the Pearson Edexcel IGCSE course and syllabus for languages (except Arabic), for the following reasons:

• it offers an exam format  which is similar to the IB Diploma Programme,
• it prepares our students adequately and gives a sound base for the requirements of the IB DP Language B programme,
• it covers the same topics and content as the CIE course we have done till now,
• it is compliant with the cultural and identity  aspects we adhere to , 
• it is the continuity of the course we follow in Key stage 3 (Pearson)

Native and advanced speakers: Our native and advanced level speakers will also be given the opportunity to sit the exam in their own language as a foreign language  as "external" or "extra" candidates at the end of Year 10. 

This exam is at A2 level, which is significantly below their native speaker level, however it will give them a chance to sit an IGCSE subject and get the experience in advance.  Students will receive communication on this exam during the course of the year and have a session where they will learn about the format of the exam. These students will have to follow the communication on IGCSEs and make the required arrangements to attend the exams, which might take place during a lesson, after school or on a Friday. Candidates must attend all components of the paper to make sure their qualification is valid. 

Native speakers, who have received or are receiving private education in their  own language and have a more advanced command of the laguage who wish to sit a first language IGCSE exam, this might be possible as well. If this is your case, please reach out to the Language Department so we can look into the various language options. 

We wish an enjoyable language journey. 

Eric Déposé, Head of Languages.

Our current learning

In the first term of Year 10, students spend some time revising the basic grammar skills studied throughout Key Stage 3, such as key grammatical terms (subject, verbs, conjugating, personal pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, main/subordinate clauses, connectives, adjectives, comparatives, etc) as well as reusing foundation vocabulary relating to them and their basic interest (family, subjects, activities, etc). They soon dive into the IGCSE topics. Topics studied during the first term vary slightly between the languages as topics are a vehicle to present grammar into context and each language has its own specific grammar foci and difficulties. However, all languages share a common syllabus and cover the same topics and grammar skills eventually.

French

In French in term 1, Students first spend a couple of weeks revising the basic grammar aspects and terminology, which we will then be able to build upon throughout KS4 (Pronouns, verbs, conjugation, adjectives, nouns and agreements in gender and number, etc). Our first topic is School and everything around it from facilities to subjects to teachers to life at school and issues. In this unit students really get a chance to give opinions and manipulate basic language and build upon their previous KS3 knowledge.

We then move on to exploring the theme of Home, local area and free time (at home and outside), in which we revise regular and main irregular verbs in the present tense, including modal verbs (pouvoir, devoir, vouloir), revisit and extend on the perfect tense (passé compose). Students are expected to talk and give their opinions on various activities in their free time (TV, Music, reading, Internet…), contrasting present and past, describe their home, region, neighbourhood and compare town and countryside.

Spanish

In Term 1, students are working on the Module In the home covering rooms, living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, furniture and furnishings, garden, household appliances. We are revising the regular and irregular present tense and the descriptions using hay, tiene, está, es, existe …

Next, we are working on Module Holidays where we talk about past holidays covering countries, places, weather, accommodation, and activities related to Leisure time. We also will learn about booking a holiday and to make complaints. Grammatically, we revise the preterit tense and we learn the imperfect tense. We reinforced the use of different connectors and sequencers in our writing to extend our responses.

German 

In Term 1, students are working on the module ‘Relationships with Family and Friends’ and ‘In the home’. This will cover characteristics, appearance, our interactions with others, role models, our childhood, rooms in the house, furniture, household appliances. We are revising adjective endings and declination; revisit regular and irregular present tense and we will go through past tenses to describe what we were like.

The next module will look at and ‘Food and Drink’ and ‘Free-Time Activities’ where we talk about our favourite foods and drinks, what we eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, how to keep a balanced diet. We will also cover sports and exercise, illnesses, ailments as well as music, television, and cinema. Grammatically, we will revise adverbs, time phrases, connectors and qualifiers, comparatives and superlatives as well as discussing future and conditional voice.

Curriculum Overview

The syllabus for Pearson Edexcel  International GCSE [IGCSE] for languages are similar and follow the same format:

• French - syllabus code [4FR1],
• German - syllabus code [4GN1], 
• Spanish - syllabus code [4SP1], 

Check specification and resources from the Pearson Edexcel website here: 

French: qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-international-gcses/international-gcse-french-2017.html

German: qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-international-gcses/international-gcse-german-2017.html

Spanish : qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-international-gcses/international-gcse-spanish-2017.html

New Starters

This text is a description of what a new starter should do when they start your subject. It should include a list of everything they need along with a basic task they can get started with.

1. Make sure you can access your One Note if your teacher uses one for your class.
2. Make sure you can access your class MS Teams channel for the languages you are learning.
3. Make sure you can access your Education Perfect account (see link to the log in page in the website list below.
4. On Education Perfect, complete the Starter Tasks your teacher has set for you. 

Resources List

Recommended reading and core textbooks required for this subject.

These are the most common websites used within Languages at KS4.

Meet the team