The modern foreign languages curriculum in Year 7 (6e)
When starting secondary school, Year 7 (6e) students study a modern foreign language for around 4 hours a week. That’s the same amount of time as maths, slightly less than French (5h), but more than history-geography (3h) and science & technology (3h). Traditionally, this first language is either German or English, though pupils are completely free to choose.
Choosing the first modern foreign language
Year 7 (6e) is marked by a first key decision: the first modern foreign language taught will lay the foundations of the pupil’s knowledge, which will need to develop over the following years right up to the baccalaureate.
Generally, schools offer:
- German: learning the specific sentence structure, vocabulary, stress and pronunciation. The aim is to be able to make contact and express basic exchanges (introducing oneself, saying thank you, expressing likes, describing activities, giving an opinion…)
- English: as with German, the aim is for a Year 7 (6e) pupil to be able to express who they are, what they like or would like to do. Note that studying English, which began in Years 4 and 5 (CM1 and CM2, cycle 3), is naturally an advantage for building solid foundations in writing, reading and speaking.
But Year 7 (6e) pupils can also choose other first modern languages – such as Spanish or Italian. Note that some secondary schools also offer Portuguese, Chinese, Russian or Arabic… in every case, pupils will also need to understand everyday, contemporary vocabulary and discover the country’s culture, as expected for their first modern language…
