London

Don’t struggle – sign up for the AS level language revision programme to revise and prepare for your exams. You will have the opportunity to review and revise core topics with language academics from the University. During the three days you will develop your reading, writing, listening and oral skills as well as enhance your cultural awareness of your chosen language.

These sessions will take place at London Metropolitan University, Holloway Road.

For further details email: p.blagburn@londonmet.ac.uk.

4-day A Level Language Workshops for students of French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian aiming to raise language awareness / confidence: focus on language skills, practical language use and language learning strategies.

 These sessions will be taking place at the University of Westminster, Regent Campus.
 

Programme of activities attached.

For more information, please email: vonpapm@wmin.ac.uk

Please note that in the case of no-shows or cancellations, we reserve the right to invoice your school to contribute to costs incurred.

The dates above are currently provisional.

State secondary schools and supplementary schools in London will be invited to participate in a competition to create a class wall display or an individual's set of 3 still photos + commentary in the target language to give an idea of "Our Area", or "Postcards from London" (in the target language). Details from terry.king@ucl.ac.uk.

Take a look at the competition poster.

This activity is aimed at Years 8 and 9 at state secondary schools and supplementary schools

Now in its second year, our on-line mentoring scheme is aimed at:

• Promoting language learning alongside IT communication skills and E-learning.
• Promoting self-confidence among secondary school students
• Raising secondary school students’ awareness of opportunities to study languages (and other subjects) at universities
• Provide an innovative scheme to support language acquisition and collaboration between schools and universities

In 2009-2010, the scheme will be available to students of:

• French
• Spanish

and we are recruiting lecturers and mentors in:

• Arabic
• Chinese
• Swahili
• Yoruba

Other languages may be added upon request.

For more information, please contact Renata Albuquerque, project manager at: ra40@soas.ac.uk

Please note that in the case of non-show or late cancellation, we reserve the right to invoice your school to contribute to costs incurred.

This proposal is to enhance teachers’ professional learning through the process of practitioner research by teachers.

Teachers will investigate school student motivation for languages learning at key transition points to find out why languages take-up in KS4 and post 16 is so low – providing evidence in the form of student voices.

Process

1. Identifying sample of schools/teachers and students: 6 teachers (3 from different primary schools and 3 from different secondary schools) Primary teachers would work with one class of 25, secondary teachers with one KS3 and one KS4 class
    
2. CPD input for teachers to support

• development of design for teacher research (eg questionnaires, focus group etc) – to include ethical considerations.
• implementing research process
• Presentation of findings, interpretation and analysis.

       3.  Teachers writing overview report recommendations

       4. Final report and dissemination to schools

Aims and Objectives

This activity will add information that is local to the linguistically diverse London context and focussed on key transition points, to existing research on motivation for language learning (such as studies summarised in Dornyei and Ushioda 2009 and the Routes into Languages 2007 survey at the point of transition to University).

The use of teachers as action researchers to obtain data in the form of student voices is also new and will enable teachers to be closely engaged with the issues and future actions.
 

Target Group and Beneficiaries

• Six schools
• Sample of 75 students at each transition point = 225 students overall.
• 6 teachers as researchers to research student perceptions of languages study

Please note that in the case of non-show or late cancellation, we reserve the right to invoice your school to contribute to costs incurred.

As part of this project, schools recruit a group of 10 to 15 pupils from all year groups to act as Language Leaders. With the support of a teacher and Capital L Ambassadors, Language Leaders develop and deliver a programme of language related activities in their own and feeder schools.

Language Leaders meet on a monthly  basis following an all-day training session at SOAS when they define their goals and draft a calendar of activities for 2013-2014. Among these activities, Language Leaders might include visits to feeder primary and partner secondary schools to raise the profile of Modern and World languages, language and culture festivals and competitions . Activities such as film screenings, workshops and master-classes will be available to Language Leaders through Capital L.

Language leaders will follow the Learning to Lead model. They will develop a range of soft employability skills as well as knowledge of organising events. We strongly recommend that  Language Leaders use their schools' virtual learning environment as a platform where all information can be shared, plans entered and the calendar updated.

For more information, or to register, please write to routes@soas.ac.uk.

CrossRoads is an on-line language support for 13-19 year old bilingual pupils.

More specifically, the project  will support individual pupils who wish to develop their skill in a language of which they already have some knowledge but which they are not learning in a mainstream class. They may have no formal lessons at all or may be taught it in an extra-curricular or supplementary class.  It is envisaged that participating pupils will apply for a qualification exam in the language studied.

Programme of activities, include:

Sept to October 2009 
Teachers in secondary schools to refer up to 20 pupils. 

November 09 
Face-to-face meeting to match pupils to trained undergraduate mentors and train them to use UCL Moodle.
Pupils' self-evaluation in writing, reading, speaking and listening skills to be followed by developing a  work-plan with mentors.

Dec 09 to Mar 10 
The project will last for 8 weekly on-line meetings, followed by an end of project celebration.

April 2010
Evaluation

All undergraduate mentors will be CRB checked and trained for this project. On-line communication between mentors and pupils will be supervised by British Council Language Assistants and Language Lecturers.

For more information and/or to refer a student, please contact Terry King on: terry.king@ucl.ac.uk

Please note that in the case of non-show or late cancellation, we reserve the right to invoice your school to contribute to costs incurred.