North West

Following the success of the Summer 2010 Cockermouth Event, Cockermouth School will be hosting another Language Enrichment Event for local Cumbrian schools in their excellent Eco Centre.

Routes into Languages are coordinating this, to provide two Taster Sessions as well as two Cultural Workshops, in the COLT Languages of Arabic/Urdu/Chinese/Italian. There will also be a talk provided on "Why Study Languages?", discussing the importance of Languages in Careers and everyday life.

The impact of this event will be measured by a pre and post event questionnaire, to evaluate the success of the day. The Summer event proved extremely successful, with 98% saying that they would choose a Language at GCSE.

The Multilingual Manchester archive contains reports on multilingual practices in schools, businesses, local services, neighbourhoods, and families in the Manchester area. The reports have been compiled by students of the Linguistics & English Language programme at the University of Manchester.

The archive is accessible to all and provides a unique source of information on multilingual practices in an urban environment that has been shaped by immigrants for many generations. As more contributions are added every year, it is anticipated that the archive will become a valuable resource that will inform language policy at local level. It will also be used as an important information source for researchers and local authorities across the world who are seeking answers to questions related to multiculturalism and community cohesion.

The event will also mark the launch of the Multilingual Manchester initiative ‑‑ a cluster of activities combining research, consultancy, training and community outreach work. It will feature presentations by staff, students, and guests, and will be followed by a wine reception.
 

The laucnh will take place from 4-5pm and will be held in the main lecture theatre of the Samuel Alexander Building.
 

This *free* workshop is designed specifically for teachers of community languages and is part of the Community Café project, led by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies.

The objectives of the workshop are to:

• learn how to use an innovative resource-sharing site called LanguageBox
• learn how to publish your teaching resources online for students and other teachers to use
• consider some of the issues around publishing your teaching online and discover where to find free resources
• join a group of community language teachers sharing their resources online
• share ideas and teaching materials with other teachers of your language across the UK

Join us and become part of a project which is connecting community languages teachers across the UK, and part of a community which is creating a pool of resources and information for language teachers to use in their everyday work.

The workshop is free to attend and refreshments will be provided.

If you wish to find out more about the project, please read about our café meetings and workshop sessions on our blog
 

This *free* workshop is designed specifically for teachers of community languages and is part of the Community Café project , led by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies and supported by Routes into Languages North West.

The objectives of the workshop are to:

• learn how to use an innovative resource-sharing site called LanguageBox
• learn how to publish your teaching resources online for students and other teachers to use
• consider some of the issues around publishing your teaching online and discover where to find free resources
• join a group of community language teachers sharing their resources online
• share ideas and teaching materials with other teachers of your language across the UK

Join us and become part of a project which is connecting community languages teachers across the UK, and part of a community which is creating a pool of resources and information for language teachers to use in their everyday work.

The workshop is free to attend and refreshments will be provided.

If you wish to find out more about the project, please read about our café meetings and workshop sessions on our blog.
 

MMU are holding a German A Level day on 3rd November. Sample some German lectures to find out more about studying German at university. You will also have an invaluable talk from an Edexcel Exaimer about how to succeed at A Level German.

Routes North West are delighted to be part of the first ever Peace Mala Festival of Interfaith & Culture for Education to be held in England.

The event will be held in the award winning, beautifully restored setting of The Monastery Manchester in Gorton on the 4th October 2010.

We are bringing together Peace Mala with the Greater Manchester Authorities and representatives of local Faith and Peace groups to celebrate our humanity, unity and diversity.
 

Routes North West will be at the event to tell the local community about the community cohesion benefits of language learning.

Further develop your classroom expertise by joining our practical 20-hour course for Arabic teachers of Arabic and Chinese teachers of Mandarin Chinese.

The course is packed with practical ideas and suggestions for making your classes more motivating, more enjoyable and more memorable. All the ideas we will share with you are designed to make your classes more effective and to help you prepare and teach lessons that will help your students make rapid progress.
 

The course runs for 10 weeks (20 hours in total) and costs just £140.

For further details and a course outline please contact:
langcourses@mmu.ac.uk or phone 0161-247-3945.

To mark the European Day of Languages, we are launching a National Spelling Bee competition.

Following the success of a regional Spelling Bee run by Routes East, this competition will be rolled out nationally for 2010-11. The National Spelling Bee is for Year 7 pupils studying French, Spanish and German. This is the perfect way to get your new students interested in language learning, and to help them learn vital vocabulary.

All schools are invited to participate and will hold the first round of the competition in their school in the Autumn term. Four finalists from each school will then be invited to a Regional Final in March, hosted by Routes into Languages North West at Manchester Metropolitan University. All the Routes consortia will be organising regional competitions across the country, with all the winners coming together for a National final in Cambridge in July 2011.

Projector is Cornerhouse’s year-round education programme, which introduces students and teachers to the latest concepts in contemporary visual art and film, helping to bring innovation to the classroom.

Following the success of last year's first ever Film Study sessions in Community Languages at the Cornerhouse, we are delighted to be continuing the collaboration.  These sessions are aimed at GCSE pupils working towards their Mandarin Chinese, Urdu or Arabic GCSE or equivalent examinations.

These cinema based study sessions for 14-19 year olds use a subtitled film screening in the target language, enabling students to enhance their language skills and cultural awareness whilst also developing their visual literacy.

For more information about any of the study sessions listed below please visit the Cornerhouse website.

Study guides for a range of films are available to download from the Cornerhouse resources page. 

This is an excellent opportunity for your pupils to revise their language in a fun and innovative way, prior to their GCSE/ASSET exams. It also introduces pupils to the cultural aspects of the countries where the target language is spoken.

Organised by Routes into Languages and Links into Languages North West, Cornerhouse Cinema and the Association for Language Learning (ALL).

Open to teachers of: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Urdu and Mandarin Chinese.

This course is for language teachers seeking innovative and effective strategies to enhance and enrich language learning for their pupils. Film has been shown to be a particularly stimulating and successful resource for language teachers at all levels: providing focus for discussion, access to vocabulary and even a suitable stimulus for speaking and writing assessment.

With the aid of a ‘how to read a film’ guide, teachers will also be able to explore different filmic approaches, learn about models for using film in the language classroom, in addition to creating workable activities to be used to further enhance language learning for their pupils.
 

Carmen Herrero will provide a brief overview on why teachers should use film and the positive impact it has on language learning. Practical breakout sessions will enable teachers to analyse a scene from a film in their specialist language. With the aid of a ‘how to read a film’ guide, teachers will also explore different filmic approaches, learn about models for using film in the language classroom, in addition to creating workable activities to be used to further enhance the learning of languages.

Please note there will be a small charge of £20 to attend this event.