Embracing multilingualism in Wales: introducing the new GCSEs in French, German and Spanish
Laura Griffiths, Qualifications Manager, gives a tour of the new GCSEs in French, German and Spanish and what this will mean for teachers and learners from this September.
The Curriculum for Wales places a strong emphasis on multilingualism, encouraging learners to develop skills in Cymraeg, English, and international languages. This approach fosters effective communication and cultural understanding, preparing students for an increasingly diverse, multilingual and globalised world.
Engaging and relevant contexts
To ensure the new GCSE qualifications in French, German and Spanish are engaging, the content emphasises everyday language, essential vocabulary and grammar. These qualifications focus on developing reading, listening, speaking and writing skills across three broad themes that resonate with young people. These are:
- language for leisure and wellbeing
- language for travel
- language for study and work
These overarching themes provide real-life contexts for developing language skills for life, further learning and work while also enabling broad opportunities to engage with key aspects of the Curriculum for Wales, including the four purposes and cross-cutting themes.
Key changes in the new GCSEs
Set for first teaching from September 2025, the new GCSEs in French, German and Spanish introduce several key changes to align with Curriculum for Wales.
Oracy assessment
Alongside discussion, conversation and role play (which all feature in the current qualifications), the new GCSE oracy assessments also include a presentation. Learners can prepare their presentation in advance and are able to select a topic of their choice based upon their individual interests.
Inclusion of literature
Studying language and literature together helps learners to unlock the power of literature and contextualise the study of language. It encourages them to engage constructively with different texts, ideas and viewpoints. Literature has therefore been integrated into the new international language qualifications.
Learners will have the opportunity to study a piece of literature from a range of forms, such as a short story, graphic novel or film script, thereby encouraging the transfer of skills from one language to another and fostering a multilingual mindset.
The inclusion of literature aligns with the other qualifications in the languages, literacy and communication (LLC) area of learning and experience (English and Cymraeg) and is consistent with the Curriculum for Wales, in which both language and literature are central aspects.
Removal of tiers
Unlike the existing GCSEs in international languages, the new GCSEs will not be tiered. This allows learners to access to the full range of marks and grades, thereby avoiding capping of learner achievement based on the tier they are entered for.
Changes to non-exam assessments
The new GCSEs will feature two non-exam assessments (NEA), an increase from the existing GSCEs which only have one. As a consequence, NEA will contribute 45% of the overall grade in the new GCSEs (as opposed to 25% in the current qualification). The two NEAs are:
- Unit 1 – oracy assessment: This includes a presentation prepared in advance on a topic of the learner's choice, in addition to read-aloud, role play and conversation assessments.
- Unit 2 – reading and writing: This unit provides the opportunity for learners to study a short piece of work (graphic novel, short story, film script, or novel) in French, German or Spanish. This engages learners with language through literature, aligning with the statement of ‘what matters’ in the curriculum that literature fires imagination and inspires creativity. This unit gives centres flexibility and freedom to select suitable works of literature, including different works for different groups of learners.
Support for centres
There is a wide range of support available to teachers as they prepare to deliver the new international languages qualifications from September 2025.
WJEC has already delivered a number of ‘preparing to teach’ events, as well as subject-specific specification briefings. You can access recordings of these briefings here. WJEC has also launched its new digital resources website and you can find details of this, along with the publication schedule, here.