London

Mastering Your Language is an AS Level Revision Programme which will provide a 3-day intensive course in French, German and Spanish for 60 students. It is open to AS Level students of either French, German, Spanish or any combination of these languages.

You will have the opportunity to review and revise core topics with language academics from the University. The programme will be split up to ensure you can prepare for your exams in an interactive environment. 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. Places are limited.

Please find below an information poster and application form.

Please note that this programme is only open to students from schools in the London area.

A school based project involving an initial workshop to introduce teachers and pupils to the storytelling project run by the French team at LSE. Students will be encouraged to tell a story through animated photo presentations developed by themselves using computer software.

The stories are told in the target language and can be chosen from different topics agreed in advance with the class teacher. The project, which is designed to span a number of weeks, involves students writing the story, selecting images and editing them into a sequence. Students will record an oral commentary to accompany the photo presentation. Computer programmes include Microsoft Moviemaker and Apple iMovie. If these are not available, powerpoint may be used.

A Multi-Lingual and Multi-Cultural Conference and Storytelling Event for Schools, Colleges and Universities, and for Storytellers of All Ages

Storytelling is a practice shared by all human cultures which has endured from ancient times to our contemporary societies. The sharing of tales, tall and short, humorous and didactic, for pleasure and for necessity was, and continues to be, essential for the survival and development of all our cultures.

The oral traditions of storytelling respect and value traditional cultures, encourage cross-generational and cross-cultural sharing, and foster the development of the precious, intangible heritage that is storytelling. It privileges speech and language, and the sharing, preserving and revitalisation of oral heritages.

Beyond the sharing of the oral storytelling and written folktale traditions across cultures, ‘storytelling’ in varying forms is also a newly emerging tool that has been affecting fields as varied as the study of management, strategy and organisation studies, military science, medicine, psychology and psychiatry. For many practitioners in these fields, storytelling is beginning to be a key competency and knowing how to deliver a story effectively combined with knowing the right story to tell is actively reshaping these, and other, disciplines.

Storytelling has also been used in education as an exercise to improve language skills as it offers students a chance to run a self-motivated project in which they have the opportunity to talk about themselves and put across a personal message.

Necessarily shape-shifting and constantly open to new influences, the story in all its forms is a place where languages and cultures meet. This event is both a celebration of that ‘place’ and an attempt to bring together multiple forms of storytelling that may not have yet met.

Two forms of Storytelling will be showcased at this event:

Showcase 1 The Story Bazaar: A Multi-Lingual Storytelling Performance Project

The Story Bazaar is an exciting creative event that conjures up the atmosphere of the bazaar – traditionally the place where traders and travellers met to exchange goods, news and tales. It was a melting-pot where different cultures and languages met, mixed and influenced each other. Stories and storytellers were, and still are, an important part of the bazaar. The oral tradition was nourished by the cross-fertilization of languages, creating new versions of stories, which were carried away by traders. As the African ending to a story goes: ‘Carry some away and bring some back’. Story Bazaar aims to inspire and encourage a creative approach to learning languages, and to re-create the dynamic atmosphere of cultures and languages to share tales.

Teachers and students in a selection of London schools are currently researching and collecting traditional folk stories in their key languages and exploring the rich cultural heritage behind those languages with a focus on engaging the students in speaking and communicating, and developing confidence in expressing themselves in those languages. The Story Bazaar is a cross-curricular activity, linking language learning with written and oral culture, history, social and cultural studies, religion, drama, and art and design. Teachers and students will gather together to perform, share their stories and celebrate the cultural heritage of their key languages.

Project led by Storyteller Sally Pomme Clayton

Showcase 2 Digital Storytelling: Why Digital Storytelling is Good for Your Students

Two emergent trends – storytelling in various fields and the use of social computing tools – can be combined to give renewed options to foreign language studies and help develop both students’ linguistic and cross-cultural skills. Students have the opportunity to develop their fluency by using their own voice while working on a personal story. DST gives them a creative space while focusing also on current issues. Key narrative skills are developed through storyboard writing and the analysis of visual material while also focusing on complex language issues. Throughout the conference, there will be presentations to outline the function of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool through which students reflect on their experience, present it to others and improve their language skills. Examples of DST developed by students will be shown.

Project led by the LSE Language Centre team (Matteo Fumagalli; Helen Mayer; Hervé Didiot-Cook)

This event has been certified for CPD purposes by the Continuing Professional Development Certification Service. Please register your details with an event steward at the event in order to obtain a CPD certificate of attendance. If a delegate fails to register their details at the event, it will not prove possible to issue a certificate.Certificates of attendance will be emailed out within 10 working days of the event.

The shadowing project will give the opportunity for Year 11 students (from a Widening Participation background) to shadowan HE language student for a day. The pupils would attend lectures and language classes along with the university student, spend time on campus and talk to their language student about life at University.

For more information, please contact Julien Boast at jb73@soas.ac.uk or 020 7898 4113

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

This is a day for learners of French in Years 11 and 12 to demonstrate the wider links between language, culture and history. The day will give them the opportunity to not only upgrade their knowledge but experience a university setting as the event will be held at SOAS. It will consist of two main sessions - the first will look at the history of the French empire in north Africa and the second will discuss some of the cultural ramifications of this period. Some language work will be embedded in these sessions.

For more information or to book a place/date, please do not hesitate to contact us on the e-mail below.

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

This workshop will help you discover what goes on behind the scenes in the world of scientific and audiovisual translation by giving you a hands-on introduction to the skill of subtitling.

If you have an interest in languages or in the media and you would like to know about the practical applications of translation and have some direct experience with the “tools of the trade”, this workshop is for you!

The workshop will be taking place on Friday 10th December from 10am-3pm at Imperial College, South Kensington Campus.

A light finger lunch will be served. Please note that there are limited places. In the case of no-shows or cancellations, we reserve the right to invoice your school and ask that you contribute to costs incurred.

Interested in finding out about translation and interpreting as professions?

If you are studying a language for AS or A Level, this is for you.

Come and discover the latest translation technology. Find out about film subtitling software. Experience what it is like to be a conference interpreter in our Interpreting Suite. Have a chat with a conference interpreter working for the EU.

See poster attached.

The University of Westminster as part of the Routes into Languages Capital L London Consortium has put together a range of special thematic days for London school students. Each day will be unique and will focus on different employability-related themes and different community languages.

Activities offered include:

Leisure & Tourism: London 2012 - Thursday 13th January 2011
For speakers/ learners of Spanish or French; language tasters in Arabic & Chinese

Creative Arts: Video Game Localisation - Friday 14th January 2011
For speakers/ learners of Spanish; language tasters in Arabic & Chinese
 

For more information or to book a place/date, please do not hesitate to contact Alexa Alfer at the following email address:  A.Alfer01@westminster.ac.uk. You can also consult the attached application form.

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

Now in their second year, the University of Westminster’s Language Immersion Saturdays are designed to help GCSE students develop their language abilities and gain more practical expertise in the language they are studying. The languages covered are French, German, Italian and Spanish.

This 2-day workshop will take place on Saturday 27th November and Saturday 4th December at:

University of Westminster,
309 Regent Street,
London W1B 2UW

Times: 9.45am–2.15pm
Fee: £25 (refundable on successful completion of workshop)

To book a place, please complete the attached booking form and return to the address indicated. We are unable to accept email and telephone bookings.

For informal queries, please contact Dr Manuela von Papen: m.von.papen@westminster.ac.uk

This event will give the chance to Year 12 pupils who are speakers of Bengali to make an advert for visitors from Bangladesh. An academic from SOAS would be involved in helping to script the advert on the first day of the event and the second day would consist of filming in the SOAS media suite.

For more information please contact Julien Boast at jb73@soas.ac.uk or 020 7898 4113

Final date to be confirmed.

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