Supporting the new secondary curriculum for languages

Welcome to the intercultural understanding toolkit. The purpose of these pages is to examine in more depth how language departments can develop a stronger emphasis on culture in their key stage 3 curriculum.

The importance of modern foreign languages

Languages are part of the cultural richness of our society and the world in which we live and work. Learning languages contributes to mutual understanding, a sense of global citizenship and personal fulfilment. Pupils learn to appreciate different countries, cultures, communities and people. By making comparisons, they gain insight into their own culture and society. The ability to understand and communicate in another language is a lifelong skill for education, employment and leisure in this country and throughout the world.

The paragraph above is drawn from the ‘importance statement’ in the revised languages programme of study. It occupies half of the statement, but how much of our time in languages lessons is allocated to developing intercultural understanding?

Intercultural understanding is one of the four key concepts of the new languages curriculum. It has two aspects:
a Appreciating the richness and diversity of other cultures
b Recognising that there are different ways of seeing the world, and developing an international outlook

The new languages curriculum is an opportunity to rebalance the learning experience for learners so that pupils find lessons more meaningful, and are more aware that one of the core purposes of language learning is to find out about the wider world. The pages below explore a number of ways of approaching intercultural understanding:

1. New contexts for familiar content
2. Culture from other countries
3. Direct contact with other cultures
4. Exploiting the calendar
5. From cooking to culture – comparing, analysing and evaluating

Relevant case studies can be accessed here.

Kathy's presentation about intercultural understanding at the SSAT Languages Conference can be downloaded here...

Do you have a good idea about how to teach about culture? If you email your idea to info@all-nsc.org.uk, we will post the best we receive on the website.