High-frequency Spanish vocabulary for KS2

In my last post I examined the Teaching Schools Council's MFL Pedagogy Review, and looked at its implications for Key Stage 2 Languages.

The review recommends that: "Vocabulary to be taught should be informed by frequency of occurrence in the language, and special attention should be paid to common verbs in the early stages.  Many language courses are organised around thematic topics, such as ‘free time activities’, ‘the environment’, ‘home and family’ etc. which act as ‘vehicles’ for vocabulary. In such cases the choice of vocabulary can be too specialised, teaching relatively rarely used words at the expense of common words which it is harder to plan for re-encountering later."

This has led me to reflect on the curricula that I have devised and which I teach for Spanish and French in Key Stage 2, and to find out the extent to which they include this high-frequency vocabulary.  I want to know if I am including sufficient common words and indeed if the vocabulary that I teach is unnecessarily specialised.  If KS2 is truly to be a doorway to KS3 then its teaching should include the first rungs of the ladder and not be something completely separate.

I have consulted this list of the "Top 100 Spanish words", which is also subdivided into lists of 25 verbs, 25 nouns, 25 adjectives and so on.  The list throws up some surprises, like mi only being no.49 on the list, and lower than su (no.14).

Verbs

I have started with the list of 25 verbs, of which the first 24 are in the top 100 words.  I have considered which of them could reasonably be included in a KS2 Spanish scheme of work, and which topic areas they would be best suited to.  I have added as a 26th verb gustar, which doesn't appear on the list but which is used very often in Spanish teaching at all levels.

		KS2	possible curriculum area
1.	ser to be	yes	description, identification (¿Eso qué es?)
2.	haber to have
3.	estar to be	yes	places in town
4.	tener to have	yes	age, possession, family, pets, money, physical description
5.	hacer to do, make	yes	household chores, sports
6.	poder to be able to, can	yes	classroom instructions and language
7.	decir to tell, say
8.	ir to go	yes	places in town, transports, holidays
9.	ver to see	yes	veo veo, nouns (¿qué ves?)
10.	dar to give
11.	saber to know (a fact), find out
12.	querer to want, love	yes	food, shopping, classroom equipment
13.	llegar to arrive	yes	telling the time
14.	pasar to pass, spend time
15.	deber should, ought to; to owe
16.	poner to put on, get (+ adj.)	yes	clothes
17.	parecer to seem, look like
18.	quedar to stay, remain
19.	creer to believe, think	yes	opinions
20.	hablar to speak, talk	yes	countries and their languages and nationalities
21.	llevar to take, carry
22.	dejar to let, leave
23.	seguir to follow
24.	encontrar to find
25.	llamar to call, name	yes	personal identification
	gustar to please	yes	opinions of anything

Nouns

This is the list of the top 25 nouns, of which the first 8 are in the top 100 words.  I have marked the ones which I feel KS2 children are likely to come across.  There are a lot of time, place and general people words, but of course no animals, no food, no clothing....

		KS2 ?
1.	vez time (as in number of times)
2.	año year	yes
3.	tiempo time, weather	yes
4.	día day	yes
5.	cosa thing
6.	hombre man, mankind; husband
7.	parte part, portion
8.	vida life
9.	momento moment, time
10.	forma form, shape, way
11.	casa house	yes
12.	mundo world	yes
13.	mujer woman, wife
14.	caso case, occasion
15.	país country	yes
16.	lugar place, position
17.	persona person
18.	hora hour, time	yes
19	trabajo work, job, effort
20.	punto point, dot, period
21.	mano hand	yes
22.	manera manner, way
23.	fin end
24.	tipo type, kind
25.	gente people

Adjectives

Here is the list of the top 25 adjectives.  Grande is there, but, interestingly, not pequeño.  And of course no colours.  Again, I have indicated the ones that I feel KS2 Spanish is likely to cover.

		KS2?
1.	su his, her, their, your (fam.)
2.	lo the (+ neuter)
3.	todo all, every
4.	más more	yes
5.	este, -a this
6.	otro other, another
7.	ese, -a that
8.	mucho much, many, a lot	yes
9.	mi my	yes
10.	alguno some, someone (pron.)
11.	mismo same
12.	primero first	yes
13.	grande large, great, big	yes
14.	poco little, few; a little bit (adv.)	yes
15.	tanto so much, so many
16.	nuestro our
17.	cada each, every
18.	menos less, fewer	yes
19.	nuevo new	yes
20.	aquel that (over there)
21.	bueno good	yes
22.	tal such (a)
23.	mejor best, better (adv.)
24.	cierto certain, sure, true
25.	mayor larger, older, main

Conjunctions

The first ten of these conjunctions are in the list of the top 100 words.  There are only 15 conjunctions in the top 5000 words.  I am surprised to see que at the top rather than y, and surprised to see mas at all, as I consider its use to be somewhat antiquated.  I have added on the end of the list sin embargo, which we use frequently in KS2 as an alternative to pero.

		KS2?
1.	que that, which	yes
2.	y and	yes
3.	como like, as	yes
4.	pero but, yet, except	yes
5.	o or	yes
6.	si if, whether
7.	porque because	yes
8.	cuando when	yes
9.	ni not even, neither, nor
10.	donde where
11.	pues then, well then
12.	sino but, except, rather
13.	aunque although, even though
14.	mientras whereas; as long as
15.	mas but, however
	sin embargo however	yes

Adverbs

		KS2?
1.	no no	yes
2.	ya already, still
3.	muy very, really	yes
4.	también also	yes
5.	así like that
6.	sí yes	yes
7.	bien well	yes
8.	entonces so, then
9.	tan such, as, too
10.	ahora now
11.	después after
12.	siempre always, forever
13.	sólo only, just
14.	antes before
15.	cómo how?	yes
16.	aquí here	yes
17.	luego later, afterward
18.	casi almost, nearly
19.	durante during, for (time)
20.	nunca never, ever
21.	además as well, besides
22.	hoy today, nowadays	yes
23.	allí there, over there
24.	dentro inside
25.	ahí there

Prepositions

There are only 19 prepositions in the top 5000 words.

		KS2?
1.	de of, from	yes
2.	a to, at	yes
3.	en in	yes
4.	por for, by, through
5.	con with	yes
6.	para for, to, in order to
7.	sin without
8.	sobre on top of, over, about
9.	hasta until, up to, even (adv.)
10.	entre between, among
11.	desde from, since
12.	hacia toward
13.	contra against, opposite
14.	bajo under, underneath
15.	ante before, in the presence of
16.	según according to
17.	tras after, behind
18.	mediante by means of
19.	excepto except (for)

On reflection, I am happy that I include sufficient high-frequency conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs, but I don't think that I am including enough verb forms or that I am including them often enough.  The KS2 curriculum does, after all, specify high-frequency verbs, and I think I should make them more explicit.  Fewer nouns could be in order.  After all, that is why we teach them phonics and dictionary skills.  All in all, plenty to think about. 

I'd be interested in hearing your views on the high-frequency vocabulary, especially verbs, that we should be tackling at KS2.  Please feel free to leave a comment!

Similar information for French coming soon.

TSC's MFL Pedagogy Review: Implications for Key Stage 2

The Teaching School Council's Modern Foreign Languages Review, a review of modern foreign languages teaching practice in Key Stages 3 and 4, was published in November last year.  As previously mentioned, I attended Ian Bauckham's session at Language World, which gave an excellent overview of the report.  It is a report into the situation in secondary schools, but I wanted to see how relevant it is to current practice in Key Stage 2, which, after all, lays the foundations for the study of languages in Key Stage 3 and beyond.

The review says:
"2.14  The focus of this review is secondary school modern foreign languages pedagogy, from Year 7 to GCSE. However, much of what we say is also relevant to pedagogy in the upper end of primary and at post-16. Our findings and recommendations are consistent with the current changes to the national curriculum and examination specifications." 
If we are to rethink upper Key Stage 2, then this will necessarily also have implications on content and methodology in lower Key Stage 2.

The review does not ignore the value of language learning in Key Stage 2.  References to primary education are made clear in the report's key recommendations:

Key recommendation 6:

"Languages teachers should know and build on the grammar taught in the key stage 2 national curriculum for English."

Key recommendation 7:

"Secondary schools should know about the modern languages taught at their feeder primary schools. Wherever possible, they should support language learning in primary schools and plan to build on pupils’ primary school language knowledge." 

It is just as important for KS3 teachers to be aware of the terminology taught in English in KS2 as it is for primary language practitioners.  Those of us on the chalkface are impressed daily by children's knowledge of complex grammar and grammatical terminology, and it is important that we are aware of this and that we make a conscious effort to use the same terminology as the children are taught in GPS/SPaG.

I have written at length previously about the importance of primary and secondary schools talking to each other so that new Year 7 students can make the best possible start to their KS3 language learning careers.  I always send information to the feeder secondary schools that my Year 6s will go to, but for the most part I'm not sure that it is read or taken notice of.  I certainly get very little feedback.
"7.1 …However, failing to take account of the language knowledge that new Year 7 pupils bring with them is to waste an opportunity, and may be demotivating for them."

The review says that, when planning curricula, teachers should focus on vocabulary, grammar and phonics.

Vocabulary

"4.1 Vocabulary to be taught should be informed by frequency of occurrence in the language, and special attention should be paid to common verbs in the early stages.  Many language courses are organised around thematic topics, such as ‘free time activities’, ‘the environment’, ‘home and family’ etc. which act as ‘vehicles’ for vocabulary. In such cases the choice of vocabulary can be too specialised, teaching relatively rarely used words at the expense of common words which it is harder to plan for re-encountering later.

4.2 In the early stages of a language course, particular attention should be paid to the planned building of pupils’ verb lexicon, focussing on the meaning of the stem or infinitive form of common verbs. A strong basic verb lexicon has been found to relate positively to pupils’ ability to effectively manipulate those verbs at later stages.

For example, 25 commonly occurring verbs in French are: avoir, être, aller, faire, dire, pouvoir, vouloir, savoir, voir, devoir, venir, suivre, parler, prendre, regarder, croire, aimer, falloir, passer, penser, attendre, trouver, laisser, donner, aimer."  

When planning my schemes for Spanish and French at KS2, I have to admit that I considered the usual topics such as colours, animals, weather, sports and so on, because that is what is traditionally taught (and often what children like to learn about) and not because it gives children the best access to this key language.  There is definitely a case for revisiting such planning once armed with a list of key language and structures and examining how it might best fit in.

The next point about teaching vocabulary is something that I think KS2 is getting better at, partly because of the requirements of the KS2 Languages curriculum and partly because of the requirements of the KS2 English curriculum:

"4.3  Teachers should develop a strong repertoire of techniques for teaching vocabulary and having pupils practise, reinforce and use it. This repertoire should be a subject of constant professional development and discussion. It should include explanation of the origins of words, and patterns within them, including shared roots, and patterns that are particular to individual languages, such as the use of prefixes in German. Words with shared roots can be recognised more quickly than words with no connection to the first language. This can be helpful in the early stages of a course, though pupils need to understand that it does not always work, and to beware of ‘false friends.’"

Grammar

"5.3 We recommend that standard grammatical terminology is taught to pupils. This has sometimes been eschewed by teachers in recent decades, but we see no reason to do so. Giving pupils clear knowledge of accepted terminology is empowering and facilitates application of concepts associated with that terminology in different contexts, including in future language learning.

Practice of the grammar point in ‘input language’ (listening and reading), doing structured tasks which require identification of a grammatical feature and linking it to a meaning or function, normally with other contextual clues stripped away. For example, distinguishing between different tense forms with no adverbs of time to offer clues; or distinguishing between different persons of verbs without the pronoun to assist. This aspect of grammar practice is very underdeveloped in many contexts, and not well supported by many course books. Too often, teaching jumps from a formal explanation straight to a demand to use the grammar productively. This can lead to poor mastery." 

Phonics

"6.2 There is significant evidence, including from the most effective practitioners, that direct and systematic teaching of phonics in the new language is a more reliable method for assuring accurate pronunciation and spelling. However, this is still relatively rare practice in classrooms.

6.4 The aim should be that a pupil can pronounce most words accurately from the written form, including those not yet explicitly taught; and that they can produce a potentially accurate spelling of new words. Various exercises can feature as part of a planned approach to teaching and practising phonics, such as note-taking, dictation or dictogloss.

6.5 There is now significant expertise in teaching English phonics in primary schools. We recommend that teachers familiarise themselves with this range of techniques and develop their capacity to apply the relevant principles to the teaching of phonics of the new foreign language."

Phonics is, of course, an integral part of the KS2 Languages curriculum, and something else that primary and secondary colleagues should be talking to each other about.

The review also points out the importance of meaningful contexts in which to place the learning:

"8.2  Such material should be stimulating and chosen to extend pupils’ knowledge and widen their perspectives. Using the new language to teach pupils about the history, culture, and literature of the new country or countries is a very effective way to do this. A similar approach is used in Latin courses, where the language which is being systematically taught is at the same time used to teach pupils about Roman life, culture and history to convey interesting material and broaden horizons beyond what pupils bring themselves."

Key recommendation 3:

"The content taught through the new language should be stimulating and widen pupils’ knowledge of the culture, history and literature of speakers of the new language, without compromising the necessary sequencing of vocabulary and grammar."

Teaching history and culture alongside the apparently ordinary topics, this giving an extra layer of depth to the learning, has huge value.  I am sure that something can be found to enrich each topic area that we traditionally teach in KS2, particularly if we continue to find links across the curriculum to other subjects.

I shall now be looking into high-frequency language in French and Spanish, considering the vocabulary which is appropriate to KS2 and examining how it can be incorporated into my schemes of work.  I shall also be researching cultural and historical aspects that can enhance or replace the learning contexts.

Roll the dice

Dice can be used for lots of different activities in the languages classroom.  The photo above shows the dice that I use most often.  They are foam "silent" dice.  I had started off with traditional dice like these ones

but the noise of them on the tables was getting too much!  The foam ones are much better, but you need to watch out for children sticking their pencils in them...

Here are some ideas for using dice in the languages classroom.

• Roll the dice several times to create a picture.  Each number corresponds to a different part of the picture.  Here are just some of the grids that are available online.  My students enjoy creating Miró and Matisse pictures in this way.

• Students can make their own dice by making a simple cube out of card and paper and writing or drawing information on each side.

• A dice has six sides and therefore is ideal for subject pronouns and verb forms.  Roll one dice with the six subject pronouns and another with six infinitives, and the students have to give the correct verb form.

• There are many storytelling dice available.  These can be adapted for use in the languages classroom.

• Children can create their own board games and of course use the dice when playing the game.

• The throw of a dice can help children to build up sentences.  They have a grid like this one, and the dice choose for them lots of different sentences. When the children are confident with the structure of the sentence they can start to adapt the grid themselves.

• A similar idea is to build lots of different phrases which share the same structure by using a set of dice which you roll for each component.  These are dice that I used to practise describing monsters and their body parts.  We had to remember to roll the dice in the right order so as to get the descriptions right.  I used blank foam dice for these.
  
• With games like 5 in a row, the rows and columns can be numbered.  The student then throws the dice twice to get the co-ordinates.  They have to answer the question in the square indicated by those co-ordinates.

• Students have a numbered list of words.  They roll the dice and say a sentence containing the word which has that number on the list.  

• Taking the previous idea a step further, students throw three or four dice and make a sentence with the words that correspond to those numbers on the grid.

• There are lots of maths games that can be played with dice, and different shapes of dice that can be used.  I use them to get random numbers for Countdown-style number games and to make three- or four-figure numbers to work out in writing.

• Children roll the dice and then have to say that number of words about a topic.
  

 Do you have any good ways of using dice in the classroom?