RiPL

Our mission

The RiPL network investigates and reports on the learning of languages in primary classrooms.

Our research

View our one page, reader-friendly summaries of published research articles and book chapters.

The White Paper

Find out more about the outcome of the RiPL Primary Languages Policy Summit.

Teaching resources

Browse our collection of resources for teachers and researchers to use in their teaching and studies.

Join our Network

If you are interested in what RiPL does, join our Network and receive our Newsletter. Sign up here!

Discovering primary languages

The RiPL network is a group of researchers, practising teachers, teacher educators and policy makers interested in Research in Primary Languages. The teaching and learning of foreign languages in English state primary schools has been a compulsory part of the curriculum for all children at Key Stage 2 since September 2014. But context really does play an important part, and a one-size national curriculum, however worthy in intention, is not always easy to teach! Here we explore issues, gather and share ideas, discuss and evaluate with the aim of supporting and improving foreign language teaching.

Research

Find out what research has been carried out on the teaching and learning of languages in primary schools.

This White Paper is the outcome of the RiPL Primary Languages Policy Summit, which took place on Friday 23rd November 2018 at the British Academy in London.

Here we house a collection of resources for teachers and researchers to use in their teaching and studies.

If you would interested in what RiPL does and would like to be a part of our network, contact us to receive the regular newsletter and updates. Sign up here!

With the introduction of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) as a compulsory part of the primary curriculum back in 2016, many Key Stage 2 teachers were tasked with getting to grips with a new a subject and new pedagogies. At the same time, the linguistic diversity of classrooms across England has continued to grow, with 20.9% of primary school children now using a language other than English at home (DfE, 2021). This combination of growing linguistic diversity and a new linguistic subject in primary classrooms has created an interesting intersection to explore.

ELAPSE Language Resources now online!

ELAPSE (Embedding Languages across Primary and Secondary Education) has now published its resources online, free of charge to schools and teachers with a wealth of information and classroom materials for teacher interested in integrating broader curriculum content with language learning at primary and secondary levels, and for transition.

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Our mission

Our research

The White Paper

Teaching resources

Join our Network

Discovering primary languages

Research

Policy

Teaching

Join the RiPL Network

Teacher Toolkit: Teaching Primary MFL in Multilingual KS2 Classrooms

ELAPSE Language Resources now online!