Year 7 Languages

At Viewbank College, students in Year 7 elect to study either German or Japanese as their Language choice.

Year 7 German

In Year 7 German, students begin to understand and use the language within the world of their own experience, sharing information about their personal world. Modelled language and simple expressions are used to ask and respond to familiar questions and make simple statements. Students obtain key points of information and identify main ideas in simple texts relating to their own world and that of teenagers in German-speaking countries. A range of basic grammatical elements are applied and students identify the relationship between language and culture, as well as the key similarities and differences between English and German.  

Communicating

Students will learn to:

• Socialise and interact with teachers and peers to share personal and factual information.  
• Present in modelled spoken and written texts information relating to own world.
• Adapt familiar texts and use modelled structures and language to create simple and original imaginative texts.  
• Translate and interpret texts such as greetings, signs and conversations, from German to English and vice versa, noticing similarities and differences. 
• Reflect on experiences of learning and using another language and share aspects of their own identity. 

Understanding

Students will learn to:

• Recognise and use key features of the German sound system. Students develop knowledge of elements of the German grammatical system. 
• Recognise some of the common variations in German.
• Recognise that German and English are related languages and that German is an important European and global language. 

Year 7 Japanese

The Year 7 Japanese curriculum aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that students can communicate in Japanese. Using modelled language, they share information about their personal world.  They begin to read and write the hiragana script and use their language knowledge to identify the main ideas in simple texts. Students explore connections between languages and cultures and develop an awareness of the impact of culture on language.  

Communicating

Students will learn to:

• Interact with others to exchange information about self, personal worlds and immediate environment. They engage in collaborative activities and use appropriate formulaic expressions and gestures to participate in classroom routines. 
• Use a range of written and spoken texts to locate key points and present the information in new forms.  
• Listen to, read and view a range of texts, share reactions, create and present their own versions.  
• Translate and create short texts, noticing similarities and differences between Japanese and English.  
• Participate in intercultural interactions and reflect on communication, identity and culture

Understanding

Students will learn to:

• Recognise the nature and roles of the three Japanese scripts, developing an understanding of the hiragana script. Students structure sentences using correct word order and apply aspects of pitch, accent, rhythm and intonation in spoken Japanese.
• Recognise variations in language use that reflect different social and cultural contexts, purposes and relationships. They learn that languages change over time through contact with other languages and cultures. 
• Explore connections between languages and cultures.