That whole article is stupid. People learning in school don’t have the fluency to talk about topics like gender or anything like that. Should be teaching them how to actually get use out of a language.
That is also dumb. It should be giving them a foundation to more generally talk about simple topics in primary school and then progressively getting harder. I believe people should be in language education through to university though. It would help our economic competitiveness if every British person spoke a language that isn't English.
Lmao why? Apart from booking and conversing on holiday when will q child ever need to speak French, my school French did nothing for me in the real world because we never learned all that
School is not about teaching practical skills, it's about developing your brain and self in order to get by on your own.
With respect to languages, memorising some holiday-use phrases is useless for the majority of people because the majority won't holiday in that country. It's better to teach them how to learn a language, so they can better apply the skills to whichever languages interest them
It's not like students are doing 5 hours a week of rotelearning "where is the pool?". Yes that phrase is taught, as well as how to use "where" in other contexts, and other question words. Places in town are useful to know, but students also learn how to say other nouns and of course verbs in other tenses. I've taught gcse languages for years so I know what I'm talking about.
Alice Harrison, head of modern foreign languages at Oak National Academy, said the intention was purposeful communication, adding: “Pupils learn high-frequency, practical vocabulary that allows them to express what they want to say in real situations. We’ve focused on giving pupils the foundations they really need — the most useful, high-impact vocabulary.
“That’s why in one of our very early lessons ‘je suis’ trumps ‘je m’appelle’. It can still be used to introduce your name but it also unlocks a whole world of things pupils can say about themselves.”
I don't speak French so I don't know if je m'appelle is just very rarely used but this reads as though she thinks her children can't cope with learning two different terms.
She's simply saying that focusing on high frequency vocabulary will have better outcomes. Spanish teachers are all familiar with constantly hammering the super 7 and sweet 16 verbs.
One of the many flaws of the education system in England has always been treating language fluency as knowledge acquisition, rather than skill development - with the notable exception of Latin.
I wouldn't say so. I'm British, and it seems perfectly natural to me when referring to school-aged children. I'd associate a 'student' with university or college 🤷♂️🤷♂️
Your question is a little confusing, as it seems to imply semantic drift. "Not used with that meaning" seems to indicate it is used, just not with that definition. I think the reality, For US English at least, is that the word 'pupil' simply isn't used in the common vernacular. Same meaning, just out of favor.
In the UK a student is specifically attending university or college (age 18+) while a pupil is a child at a school (age 4-18). This article discusses GCSEs which are in the UK, hence “pupils”.
I'm a school governor and I've never heard the word pupils used at my school. Always students or young people. We also have a principal rather than a headteacher or headmistress which surprised me. Also when I went to a comp for two years 25 years ago we were called students, but pupils at my primary school and grammar school. So none of it is universal.
Thank you, that's actually what I recently heard about. I was reading about the eye structure, and I was confused by the pupil and iris words. In school I've learned that pupil means a kid who is going to school, but this time I've found a comment saying that it is rarely used in that meaning. Maybe that was indeed more related to american English
because that’s how languages work? the word has fallen out of use compared to the UK, so it sounds more old fashioned in the US compared to the UK. that’s literally how language works across the world. don’t know why you’re making this into a UK vs. US thing when it was never that to being with
English does not belong exclusively to the English any more than it exclusively belongs to the Americans. Some words that are common in the UK are old fashioned in the US and vice versa.
By the time you sit your GCSE at age 16 there are basic words in the language they expect you will know, but you’re never given that list to study, it’s used by the teachers and textbook writers to come up with study material. If you’re learning French and don’t know that “dog” is “chien” after years of study you’ve obviously failed. All this article is saying is that they’re updating old terms, which is good, because I was taught hobbies like “stamp collecting” instead of “playing video games”.
Fair enough, I’m just surprised there’s an official wordlist at all that needs to be updated. I teach English as a foreign language in Austria and our curriculum is entirely based on what the students can do, rather than what specific words they can or can’t say.
As a gcse lang teacher I can tell you, we very much do give you that list of words, it is in the Specification published by the exam board (eg AQA) and all exams have to be based around that lengthy list. Words like diet and gender have been in the Specification for years and years, it's not an addition. This article was purposely written as clickbait.
Well thats bullshit because I'm ENGLISH from ENGLAND and can speak fluent Russian, French and Spanish, intermediate Italian, Ukrainian, Japanese, and German and basic Latin, Greek, and Arabic. So wind your neck in you yank - someone from a country which is actually widely known for being shit at foreign languages btw. Lol at you
End of an era 😢
Next they’ll stop letting students say “I play football with my friends and go to the cinema on the weekend”
The equivalent in Welsh classes = everyone laughing at the word for 'squash' (the sport) - sboncen
That whole article is stupid. People learning in school don’t have the fluency to talk about topics like gender or anything like that. Should be teaching them how to actually get use out of a language.
Tbf I do like that its more focused around booking a holiday and asking about hotel rooms ect
That is also dumb. It should be giving them a foundation to more generally talk about simple topics in primary school and then progressively getting harder. I believe people should be in language education through to university though. It would help our economic competitiveness if every British person spoke a language that isn't English.
Lmao why? Apart from booking and conversing on holiday when will q child ever need to speak French, my school French did nothing for me in the real world because we never learned all that
School is not about teaching practical skills, it's about developing your brain and self in order to get by on your own.
With respect to languages, memorising some holiday-use phrases is useless for the majority of people because the majority won't holiday in that country. It's better to teach them how to learn a language, so they can better apply the skills to whichever languages interest them
It's not like students are doing 5 hours a week of rotelearning "where is the pool?". Yes that phrase is taught, as well as how to use "where" in other contexts, and other question words. Places in town are useful to know, but students also learn how to say other nouns and of course verbs in other tenses. I've taught gcse languages for years so I know what I'm talking about.
Well surely you would do that regardless of what basic phrases you teach...
How many European hotels are unable to take room bookings in English?
The ones I called to book Bracciano spoke barely any English
I don't speak French so I don't know if je m'appelle is just very rarely used but this reads as though she thinks her children can't cope with learning two different terms.
She's simply saying that focusing on high frequency vocabulary will have better outcomes. Spanish teachers are all familiar with constantly hammering the super 7 and sweet 16 verbs.
The article is not very insightful, to say the least.
Tl;dr: Old stock phrases are being replaced by new stock phrases.
Isn't is amazing?
Spanish vocab leads to happiness
French vocab seems to be leading to a new revolution
German vocab leads to weight gain
Japanese vocab leads to efficient farming of weeb tears, which is the secret ingredient in my Nan's goulash. Don't ask why.
One of the many flaws of the education system in England has always been treating language fluency as knowledge acquisition, rather than skill development - with the notable exception of Latin.
Offtopic, but is it true that the word 'pupil' is not really used with the meaning 'a student' anymore?
I wouldn't say so. I'm British, and it seems perfectly natural to me when referring to school-aged children. I'd associate a 'student' with university or college 🤷♂️🤷♂️
Your question is a little confusing, as it seems to imply semantic drift. "Not used with that meaning" seems to indicate it is used, just not with that definition. I think the reality, For US English at least, is that the word 'pupil' simply isn't used in the common vernacular. Same meaning, just out of favor.
In the UK a student is specifically attending university or college (age 18+) while a pupil is a child at a school (age 4-18). This article discusses GCSEs which are in the UK, hence “pupils”.
I'm a school governor and I've never heard the word pupils used at my school. Always students or young people. We also have a principal rather than a headteacher or headmistress which surprised me. Also when I went to a comp for two years 25 years ago we were called students, but pupils at my primary school and grammar school. So none of it is universal.
as an American, it sounds really old-fashioned to call students “pupils.” it seems more common in the UK still however
Thank you, that's actually what I recently heard about. I was reading about the eye structure, and I was confused by the pupil and iris words. In school I've learned that pupil means a kid who is going to school, but this time I've found a comment saying that it is rarely used in that meaning. Maybe that was indeed more related to american English
No idea how it makes it old fashioned lmao. The english language comes from England so
because that’s how languages work? the word has fallen out of use compared to the UK, so it sounds more old fashioned in the US compared to the UK. that’s literally how language works across the world. don’t know why you’re making this into a UK vs. US thing when it was never that to being with
Idk, I think it's weird to call a 4 year old a student 😂
English does not belong exclusively to the English any more than it exclusively belongs to the Americans. Some words that are common in the UK are old fashioned in the US and vice versa.
[deleted]
By the time you sit your GCSE at age 16 there are basic words in the language they expect you will know, but you’re never given that list to study, it’s used by the teachers and textbook writers to come up with study material. If you’re learning French and don’t know that “dog” is “chien” after years of study you’ve obviously failed. All this article is saying is that they’re updating old terms, which is good, because I was taught hobbies like “stamp collecting” instead of “playing video games”.
Fair enough, I’m just surprised there’s an official wordlist at all that needs to be updated. I teach English as a foreign language in Austria and our curriculum is entirely based on what the students can do, rather than what specific words they can or can’t say.
As a gcse lang teacher I can tell you, we very much do give you that list of words, it is in the Specification published by the exam board (eg AQA) and all exams have to be based around that lengthy list. Words like diet and gender have been in the Specification for years and years, it's not an addition. This article was purposely written as clickbait.
I suspect you have wildly misinterpreted how languages are taught in the uk.
Well thats bullshit because I'm ENGLISH from ENGLAND and can speak fluent Russian, French and Spanish, intermediate Italian, Ukrainian, Japanese, and German and basic Latin, Greek, and Arabic. So wind your neck in you yank - someone from a country which is actually widely known for being shit at foreign languages btw. Lol at you
And you learned Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian, Japanese, German, Latin, Greek, and Arabic in school?
Yes, America also famously sucks ass at teaching languages, and that’s why I owe absolutely none of my language learning to my school years.
God, I barely managed the basics of French in the English educational system.