Skills you learn from a Modern Foreign Language (Year 11)

A modern foreign language builds a surprising range of skills - speaking across cultures, reading meaning in context, communicating around what you don't know, and writing clearly to a deadline. This lesson plan will help you to show Year 11 students the skills they've built and which subjects build the same ones.

This lesson is designed to be delivered in 30 minutes as a teacher-led classroom activity.

This activity supports the following frameworks:

  • Gatsby Benchmark 4

This activity is suitable for Year 11 and features careers linked to the following subjects:

  • Modern Foreign Languages

This is one of three lesson plans designed for Year 11 Modern Foreign Languages teachers:

These lesson plans will help you show students how learning a language connects to their future careers.

We recommend using this lesson plan at the end of the autumn term. By this point Year 11 students have over a year of GCSE language study behind them and are beginning to weigh post-16 options. Recognising the skills they've built - and seeing where the same skills are developed in other subjects - helps them choose a complementary set of A-Levels, T-Levels, or training routes.

Learning objectives

  • Students will name specific skills they've built through GCSE language study, with examples.
  • Students will recognise other subjects that build the same skills.
  • Students will consider how that shapes their post-16 choices.

Before the lesson

  • You will need a computer connected to the internet and a classroom screen.
  • Open the What can you do with a Modern Foreign Language? page and have it ready on the screen.
  • Review the Skills that a Modern Foreign Language builds section and think of recent teaching examples for each one.

During the lesson

1. What have we studied over GCSE? (5 mins)

  • Ask students to call out topics, vocabulary themes, or speaking practice they've covered in GCSE language lessons.
  • Write the suggestions on the board and highlight any patterns.

2. Skills that a language builds (15 mins)

  • Bring up the What can you do with a Modern Foreign Language? page on the classroom screen.
  • Review the contents of the page with students so that they understand what it covers.
  • Scroll to the Skills that a Modern Foreign Language builds section and work through each skill in turn.
    • Ask students which topic, activity, or piece of speaking practice involved that skill.
    • Share your own teaching examples if students are stuck.

3. The same skills in other subjects (10 mins)

  • Ask students to think about where else they've built these same skills.
    • Which other subjects involve speaking and listening - presenting ideas or holding a discussion?
    • Which involve close reading or judging meaning by context?
    • Which involve writing accurately to a strict structure or deadline?
  • Go round the class, asking each student to name one skill and one other subject they've built it in.
  • Close by reminding students that choosing a good set of post-16 subjects isn't just about which ones they enjoy - it's about which ones compound the skills they want to take into work or further study.

After the lesson