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.’

Eric Déposé, Head of Languages.

Our current learning

In Year 11, students studying French, Spanish or German for IGCSE are now entering the last stage of their IGCSE Language learning experience reinforcing and extending their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar to a higher level. Students are now working at A2 level on the Common European Framework for Languages with some elements of B1.

They are strengthening their foundation in the languages and are now starting to explore more advanced material with higher expectations, such as a confident use of a variety of tenses, more accuracy of their conjugations, adjectives agreements, a stronger proficiency in their sentence structures and lengths, making connections and using a range of adverbial expressions, connectives, comparatives, superlatives, negatives, pronouns and so on to make their work more interesting.

They are also exposed to more difficult/ less familiar language and are given more opportunities to develop and organise their ideas, to produce coherent texts.

The focus this term is more on consolidating the 4 skills with a particular focus on productive skills (Writing and speaking) and exam techniques through past paper practice.

In French, students are dedicating some time to developing their speaking and writing through plenty of practice on a range of topics, revising some familiar topics (relationships, school, free time, fashion) with a particular focus on talking about holidays in past, present and future. Furthermore, we will extending some higher ones (healthy habits, world of work, environment, and global issues).

In Spanish, after spending some time at the start of term on revising Year 10 content, students are also focusing on revising grammar and contrasting tenses. Later on, we will tackle more advanced topics (such as health, future plans, global issues) as well as practising and improving their writing and speaking skills, in preparation of the mock exams as well as the final ones.

In German, Year 11 are covering several topics: holidays, weather, and environmental issues. The first two themes will be covered before November Mock examinations, and we will focus our attention to the environment topic after examination feedback and progress checks. The term will end with a few lessons on the topic of Christmas traditions in German-speaking countries and include revision techniques to take away for the winter break.

Curriculum Overview

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.

French : 

Cambridge IGCSE French first edition (newer edition available are relevant but different format) - 978-1444180954

Studio! GCSE French Higher Pupil Book - 978-1292117836

Spanish: 

Cambridge IGCSE® Spanish Student Book 2nd edition (newer edition available are relevant but different format) - 978-1471888830

¡Viva! GCSE Spanish Higher Student Book - 978-1292118987

Mola!: Gcse Spanish (former Edition of the Cambridge IGCSE Spanish book) - 978-1844896233

German : 

Cambridge IGCSE™ German Student Book Second (newer edition available are relevant but different format) - 978-1510447561

Stimmt! GCSE German Higher Student Book - 9781292118192

Websites and e-learning Platforms

These are the most common websites used withing [Subject Name]

Meet the team