This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Modern languages in primary schools
15/09/2003
Pupils are leaving primary school with encouraging
levels of attainment in French or German, a new report on
modern language teaching has shown.
The Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP) 2001
Modern Languages Survey provides the first clear evidence
that teaching modern languages in primary school is
effective.
The survey provides a baseline against which future
achievement can be measured.
Education Minister Peter Peacock said:
"We live in an ever-shrinking world and I believe it is
vital that young Scots are equipped with skills that will
help them to raise Scotland's profile around the world and
help Scotland play a bigger role in the global economy.
"Communication skills - both English and other languages
- are vitally important for all pupils and I'm encouraged
that this report confirms that primary pupils are now
developing these essential skills.
"This survey provides an excellent baseline to allow us
to assess recent developments in language teaching such as
the revised 5-14 guidelines and additional funding to
support improvements. We are committed to improving
language learning in all schools and the three conferences
on language learning and teaching - taking place over the
next few weeks - will help us to share best practice across
Scotland."
The survey's findings include:
- Almost all (four fifths) of P7 pupils achieved
Level C in listening and speaking skills and around a
third achieved Level D
- Attainment is higher in German than in French,
significantly so in respect of listening and
reading
- Girls outperform boys on almost every element of
the skills assessment
- Around two thirds of S2 pupils achieved Level D in
listening and reading
The AAP is a national sample survey run by the Executive
which monitors performance at P3, P5, P7 and S2. It runs on
a four-year cycle and covers English and modern languages,
maths, science and social subjects in rotation. Each survey
involves around 600 schools and 10,000 pupils.
The modern languages survey was conducted by specialists
at Stirling University in collaboration with Scottish
Council for Research in Education statisticians.
The national conferences on Good Practice in Language
Learning and Teaching take place on September 16
(Aberdeen), October 2 (Glasgow) and October 7
(Edinburgh).
Revised 5-14 guidelines for modern languages were
distributed to schools in 2001.Attainment in the 5-14
curriculum is measured at six broad levels: A-F.
Around £10.5 million has been provided to education
authorities and independent school since 2001 to support
improvements in language learning and teaching.