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

This term, in Year 8 MFL, students are starting by revising main Year 7 content and basics grammar aspects such as the present tense, key concepts (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjugating, subject, verb, infinitive, etc.) They are also covering the topics of media, free time, and past holidays, introducing the past tense. The topics and linguistic contents and order vary slightly from one language to the next. Students are assessed formally at the end of each module (after the midterm break for Module 1, after the winter break for Module 2.

French :

In French this term, Students are first learning about the topic of media, TV programs, Films and books genres, activities on the Internet and social media platforms, which helps us revise the present tense of regular verbs in -er, -ir and -re, as well as most common irregular verbs (avoir, etre, faire, aller). We move on to introduce the perfect tense to talk about what one did yesterday / over the weekend. This helps introduce and practise a more extended use of the perfect tense, with both auxiliaries ‘avoir’ and ‘etre’ with a range of verbs, within the context of a visit to Paris. Talking about a visit to holiday place, we also introduce the imperfect tense through ‘C’etait’ (it was) and give opinions in the past.

Spanish

In Spanish, this term, students start with some revision, then introduce the topic of holidays in the past to learn and practise the past tense using ‘ir’ and ‘ser’ in the past as well as a range of more regular verbs in -ar, -er and -ir. We then move on to the topic of media, TV, films, music, and social media platforms using comparatives and contrasting present (what I do usually) and past (what I did yesterday).

German :

In term 1 in German, we are talking about holidays in the past comparing places now and then, using the perfect tense with haben und sein (with means of transport), describing the weather. We are also focusing on asking and answering questions and understanding question word. Then we move onto our Media and Free time topic where we discuss and give opinions on TV program, films, reading, phone, and social media (including screen time). In grammar, we will understand and use modal verbs (sollen, dürfen, können, wollen, müssen) as well as practising including a variety of tenses in our work.

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 Class One Note for your subject, ask your teacher to support.
2. Make sure you can access your class MS Teams channel for the languages you are learning.
3. Ask your teacher to set up 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 in class, for homework and as revision in MFL:

Home Learning

Although MFL is not a core subject and homework is not included in the encouraged home learning page, we know that, to learn a language efficiently, and more specifically, to extend our vocabulary, it is essential that learners do a 10-15 minute vocabulary task (drilling) every week. 

For this reason, we do encourage our students to complete their vocabulary task on one of our platforms (Education, Language gym, Quizlet...). 

Assessments and Revision

Every module is followed by a formal assessment where we will assess 2 out of the 4 skills (Listening, reading, writing, speaking). 

Short tests and quizzes will also be used during the term to monitor students' progress. 

Meet the team