Whether your students are first or second language learners, fluency in English can open many doors in life. To help your bright young thinkers develop their English skills, we have created new series in line with Cambridge Assessment International Education’s primary and lower secondary curriculum frameworks.
Here, we will look at some of the changes to the new resources and curriculum frameworks in more detail.
Are you teaching other subjects? We’ve also outlined the changes to our Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Mathematics and Science series.
English
1. More integration of the four key skills
Communicating effectively is an incredibly important life skill and it requires students to build their ability and confidence with reading, writing, speaking and listening.
However, these skills do not stand alone, and so to help students build a natural use of English, each lesson should include all four (although you may focus more on some than others).
Each session in our learner’s books integrates reading, writing, speaking and listening practice. The activities in the books take students through this cycle, integrating all four skills.
This cycle is varied throughout the book, so it doesn’t become too formulaic.
2. Learning objectives made clear in the teacher’s resources
Some learning objectives are now in ‘pairs’:
- Stage 3 Reading: Explore texts and understand similarities and differences between the punctuation of narrative and direct speech
- Stage 3 Writing: Use speech marks to punctuate direct speech
Similar to point 1, this helps students to see links between the four skills so that they can build their English in a natural way.
We have made links to the Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary English curriculum frameworks clear in the teacher’s resources, so you can be confident that you have all learning objectives covered.
3. Increased speaking and listening in line with new sub-strands
We know that students often struggle more with the speaking and listening elements of English. And so to help, we’ve increased the amount of speaking and listening in our learner’s books, with opportunities to develop these skills embedded into every session.
The Speaking and Listening strand is about becoming confident, analytical and reflective communicators in a range of contexts, including when giving a speech, having a one-to-one conversation, or in a group discussion.
All the extra speaking and listening practice will help students to develop the communication skills necessary for studying other subjects in English, and for later life.
4. Teacher’s resources show clear progression through learning objectives
The learning objectives now show progression more clearly. We have covered this in the teacher’s resources so that you can track your learners’ progression.
As a handy reminder of the changes to Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary English series, we’ve created this little infographic. Click on the image below to download for quick reference.
English as a second language
1. Clearer CEFR alignment
It is now much easier to understand where your learner is on their language development journey. In turn, this will make it easier to communicate with parents and school leaders. So if you are using the learner’s book stage 1, or stage 9 (and everything in between) you’ll know if your students are on track.
The diagram above shows how the CEFR levels map to the Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary stages.
2. Increased focus on speaking
Whether studying in another country or just visiting, spoken communication is the most important skill to learn. With this in mind, the new speaking sub strands contain learning objectives for pronunciation, fluency and accuracy.
There is an increased focus on productive skills (speaking and writing) in the new edition, in line with the new speaking sub strands in the curriculum frameworks.
For example, stages 3–9 include new ‘Talk About It’ lessons, which provide scaffolded, structured speaking practice with audio model examples. Learners will also regularly be encouraged to engage with topics and share opinions with their peers in fluency tasks.
Students will need to develop the following speaking sub-skills in line with the curriculum framework changes:
- Communication
- Expressing an opinion
- Organising talk
3. Clear pathway to Cambridge IGCSE™
Our new series follows the revised Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary English as a second language curriculum framework and now provide progression through the stages. This gives learners the skills and knowledge they need to make a smoother transition to Cambridge IGCSE.
We’ve summarised these changes to our Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary English as a second language series in this handy infographic. Click on the image below to download for quick reference.
If you would like to know more about how our resources help you adjust to the changes to the curriculum frameworks, click on the individual subjects on our Primary and Lower Secondary hub page.
