Author: Tania Czajka
Date of Publication: March 2024
Notes: Scottish Languages Review Issue 37
The publication of Realising the Ambition: Being Me by Education Scotland in 2020 shows a strong national commitment to providing a play-based education for early years children from nursery to Primary 2 and beyond. However, it would appear that teaching languages – referred to in the Curriculum for Excellence as Modern Languages – is teacher-led and less play-based than other subjects. This article discusses the current Scottish Modern Languages (ML) teaching context, with an account of the main tools available to support teachers, and provides a brief overview of how languages are largely taught to early years groups. Focus then turns to the exploration of an approach to teach ML, based on creative puppetry. Firstly, an explanation of what the practice entails and how it can fit within educational theories is discussed. The article then focuses on a case study, which set out to test the creative approach within two primary classes, and to analyse what differences, if any, it would make to the participating teachers’ learning and professional development. The findings are then outlined and suggest that such an approach could positively impact on the children’s engagement and confidence in speaking the language while supporting the teachers in their play-based practice.