Any language course, whether a school scheme of work or an evening class, has to decide what to teach first. Ofsted’s research review on languages, published on 7 June 2021, sets out the evidence it draws on for that decision in England’s schools. This article summarises the review’s account of curriculum progression: the “three pillars” of phonics, vocabulary and grammar. It relies on the research review itself and on Ofsted’s announcement of it. The review applies to England, describes a review of the literature rather than inspection rules, and says there is no single way of achieving high-quality languages education. It is general information for learners and parents, not a recommendation of any course.
Why Ofsted reviewed the evidence
Ofsted’s announcement says the review explores the literature on foreign languages education to identify what contributes to a high-quality languages curriculum, assessment and teaching. It says good curriculum design is crucial to ensuring that pupils securely learn the vocabulary, grammar and phonics that will let them manipulate the language for themselves. The review’s national context notes that the number of pupils taking a language at GCSE fell significantly after 2004, when studying a language after age 14 stopped being compulsory, and that a language has been required in primary schools from age 7 since 2014.
The three pillars
The review says a language curriculum must be planned by considering the building blocks of the subject and their sequence. For languages, those blocks are the sounds, the words and the rules connecting them into sentences and meanings. It calls them phonics, vocabulary and grammar, and says assessment systems typically incorporate all three. It stresses that this is not a reductive approach: the goals of conversing fluently and exploring cultures can only be reached on firm foundations. It also says language is more than the sum of its parts, and that learners need other competencies to communicate with different people in different contexts.
Phonics
The review says clear pronunciation and the link between sounds and spelling are integral to second language learning. Strong phonological awareness, such as hearing the difference between “back” and “pack”, supports listening, and being able to decode written words into sounds helps reading, autonomy and vocabulary learning. It also says there is little strong evidence for one prescribed order for teaching sound-spelling relations in fine detail, but that teaching needs to draw explicit attention to them. Knowledge of a learner’s first-language sound-spelling system can strongly influence learning a second. The review notes there are significantly more unfamiliar sound-spelling correspondences in French than in Spanish or German for English speakers.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is described as crucial: studies show a wider vocabulary correlates with other aspects of language ability, including reading and grammatical awareness. The review says vocabulary choice should be considered carefully with regard to age and word frequency. It cites several studies estimating that the 2,000 most common words of a language make up more than 80% of the words in most written and spoken texts, and that high-frequency words act as anchor points for navigating texts.
Less frequent words can still be useful for an individual learner’s needs. Many textbooks organise words by topic, such as hobbies or holidays, and the review accepts that this is practical but says learners need to use words across many contexts. It gives three reasons: meaning and use vary with context, words are easier to remember if met in several topics, and exam boards expect learners to transfer topic vocabulary to other themes.
The review also divides word knowledge into three components:
- breadth, meaning the number of words known;
- depth, meaning whether pupils understand a word and can use it appropriately, know its forms across gender and number, and know related synonyms and antonyms; and
- fluency, meaning the speed and automaticity of recall.
Curriculum plans should let learners use new words in comprehension and production, in both spoken and written forms. The review says practising across modalities is likely to embed vocabulary better and increase fluency.
Grammar
Grammatical progression, the review says, needs careful planning over time so that pupils do not become confused or demotivated as structures grow more complex. It expects a logic running from simpler to more complex concepts and lists decisions about when to introduce:
- different tenses;
- verb agreement for person and number;
- agreement on nouns and adjectives;
- negation;
- question forms; and
- different parts of a verb paradigm, since giving a whole paradigm early may overwhelm working memory.
The review adds that GCSE and A-level specifications contain a substantial amount of grammar and that the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) outlines grammatical progression across ability levels.
Learning principles behind the sequencing
The review’s guiding principles come from cognitive science and Ofsted’s inspection framework research. Among them, it says short-term memory has limited capacity, so overloading it with too much at once limits learning. Spaced or distributed practice, where knowledge is rehearsed briefly over a longer period, is described as more effective than massed practice, and retrieval practice, recalling something previously learned, helps retention. It also mentions the expertise reversal effect: explicit teaching works best for novices, while enquiry-based approaches can work for experts.
What this means for choosing a course
The review is aimed at schools, so its features of high-quality education are not a checklist for adult classes. Even so, they suggest questions any learner can ask of a course: whether pronunciation and spelling are taught explicitly, whether the most frequent words are covered early, whether vocabulary returns in new contexts, and whether grammar is introduced in a planned order with regular review.
The bottom line
Ofsted’s 2021 review treats phonics, vocabulary and grammar as the pillars of language progression, with high-frequency words, deep and fluent word knowledge and carefully staged grammar as central. It rests on a review of research, not on a single trial, and it applies to England’s school curriculum.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Ofsted, “Research review series: languages”
- GOV.UK, Ofsted, “Ofsted publishes research review on languages education”