Modern Foreign Languages

The MFL faculty at The Avon Valley School believe that learning a language is an exciting and enjoyable challenge which enables students to explore new linguistic skills and learn about other cultures. 

The offer available to students is currently changing, and is correct below for the academic year 2025-2026.

In Year 7 all students learn French or Spanish. In Year 8, students study French.

In Year 9 students continue with their study of French, Spanish or German.

To support the learning of MFL, the faculty runs overseas residential trips to give students the opportunity to practise their language skills and experience being in a different country. 

EPI Methodology

To achieve our aim, the MFL department is using the EPI method, developed by Gianfranco Conti, to deliver language learning. 

Vocabulary is introduced by modelling and focusing on sounds (phonemes) – noticing sounds and the teaching of phonics is key to the development of good pronunciation. Students are given the opportunity to learn vocabulary in chunks to help them to remember more and to avoid cognitive overload. Sentence builders provide scaffolding and enable students to confidently use more advanced vocabulary and grammar structures, which are introduced implicitly. More explicit instruction comes later. Each group of vocabulary is thoroughly practised by initially concentrating on the receptive skills of listening and reading. Understanding is regularly checked using whiteboards and a variety of retrieval activities. Once students are fully familiar with the vocabulary they move onto the productive skills – speaking and writing. As students’ confidence increases, the scaffolding is removed to encourage autonomy. Less able students are supported for longer if necessary. 

Vocabulary is constantly recycled and interleaved from one topic to another and the components of learning a language (knowledge and skills) are built upon to develop a deep knowledge and understanding of more complex structures. Each lesson includes an opportunity to retrieve vocabulary and grammar from previous learning – this is in the form of quizzes and other retrieval activities in class. 

A brief overview of the topics covered by the faculty.

Courses currently offered by the faculty 

The faculty also supports students in taking the GCSE in a range of other Modern Foreign Languages. In recent years, students have achieved a GCSE in Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Polish, Turkish and Urdu.  

MFL Staff