Foreign Language Spelling Bee

By Mrs Charlie Knightley
 

Please find below more information about our amazing Modern Foreign Languages Team as well as the National Competitions for this year.

Years 5 & 6 Spelling Bee

This week the MFL Department launched the Foreign Language Primary Bee to all keen linguists in Years 5 and 6. 

This initiative will support pupils to practise and improve their vocabulary, pronunciation and memory skills in Spanish. 

Words and phrases have been selected according to the work of NCELP (National Centre for Excellence in Language Pedagogy) which highlights the importance of word frequency in informing vocabulary learning, particularly during the early stages of language development. The list includes many high-frequency words (e.g. some numbers, some colours, some verbs, days of the week, question words and a number of common verbs to help early learners to acquire a robust knowledge of verb vocabulary). 

In the Autumn Term pupils learn the alphabet in order to be able to pronounce the first set of 40 words. In the final week of Autumn Term pupils will be given an opportunity to have a go at the competition. They will be given the words in English and then have one minute to translate and spell them out correctly for the point. The ten pupils with the highest total will continue to the next round. They will then be given a different set of 40 words to learn and be tested on at the end of the Spring Term. In the Summer Term the remaining pupils will learn the final 40 words and be tested again to determine a winner. 

Autumn Term - In school competition 

Spring Term - Regional competition 

Summer Term - National competition 

Those pupils who are interested in participating will be supported and will have time to practise in school. Obviously repetition outside of school is encouraged.

Please do email me with any questions slk@felsted.org

 

Years 7 & 8 Spelling Bee

This term, the MFL Department launched the Foreign Language Spelling Bee to all keen linguists in Year 7 and the Foreign Language Translation Bee to all keen linguists in Year 8. We have also offered a new competition for budding translators. The Anthea Bell Prize - this is for poetry both original and translations. 

The aim of the Spelling Bee is for pupils in Year 7 who are learning a foreign language to practise and improve their vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation and memory skills in the target language (Spanish and French or German). Vocabulary learning is strongly associated with proficiency. Words and phrases have been selected according to the work of NCELP (National Centre for Excellence in Language Pedagogy) which highlights the importance of word frequency in informing vocabulary learning, particularly during the early stages of language development. In the competition, pupils learn 50 words in Stages 1 and 3, and a further 100 words in Stages 2 and 4. At each stage, the vocabulary list includes many high-frequency words (e.g. some numbers, some colours, some verbs, days of the week, question words and a number of common verbs to help early learners to acquire a robust knowledge of verb vocabulary).

Building on the requirements of the KS3 curriculum, with its emphasis on translation and grammatical manipulation, the aim of the Translation Bee is for pupils to practise and improve a range of skills vital to preparation for starting a GCSE course: vocabulary, pronunciation, memory, verb conjugation, tenses, and sentence formation. Pupils learn a set of sentences containing key high-frequency vocabulary from a foreign language toolkit and then, racing against the clock, have to translate as many sentences as possible into the target language in one minute. There are 3 stages to the competition before the National Final and each stage introduces a further tense; present, future, past. 

Pupils are given time during lessons and prep to prepare for these competitions but the most successful pupils will take every opportunity to practise outside of the classroom. The national finals of both of these competitions will take place at Cambridge University at the end of the Summer Term.

Please do email me with any questions slk@felsted.org