Many primary schools are recognising the benefits of
employing the services of a native speaker to assist in the
delivery of primary languages.
Native speakers might be parents, support
staff, governors, other members of the local community, or foreign
language assistants. They work closely in partnership with the
class teacher, team-teaching, leading sections of the lesson,
modelling dialogues with the teacher, planning collaboratively and
supporting small groups.
They provide an excellent model of
pronunciation for the children as well as enriching lessons with
the wealth of intercultural knowledge they bring with them. They
often have knowledge of up-to-the-minute authentic resources for
the classroom and may play a key role in establishing links with
schools abroad.
Questions
- How might you consider maximising the language
and culture aspects of having a native speaker in your
school?
- Which specific points of language and
culture teaching would you consider best delivered by a native
speaker?
- How would you seek to ensure that, as one
FLA leaves,
the knowledge and experience of that person is to some degree
shared with their successor for the following
year?