An interactive survey is now available here:
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=LanguageLearning
It takes just a few moments to answer, and your contributions could help more young people to learn languages.
Posted on behalf of the European Commission's DG Interpretation
Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a multilingual poetry competition that celebrates cultural diversity and the many languages currently spoken in secondary schools across the north west of England.
Mother Tongue / Other Tongue is open to all mainstream and supplementary secondary schools in the North West and pupils can enter as individuals or groups of any size. It is, in effect, two separate competitions.
Mother Tongue
Entries for this category will be in two parts:
The first part is the poem, song or lullaby. This can be an original, creative piece, written in any language at all (except English).
It can also be a poem or song that is ‘remembered’ – i.e. something in your Mother Tongue that you recall, or that has been told to you by a relative.
The second part of the entry will be a short written explanation of the first part. This will be either a translation, or an account of why the entrant has chosen to share this piece i.e. why it is important to them or the person who told it to them.
This part of the entry must be written in English but pupils can be helped to scribe or edit this by teachers, parents, carers or by friends. We welcome jointly-written entries.
Other Tongue
Entries for this category will be a single, original poem, written in a language that is being studied in school and is not the first language spoken by the entrant.
This must be an original piece of work, giving pupils the opportunity to be creative with their Other Tongue.
Allowed languages in this category are: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Urdu, Mandarin or Arabic.
The deadline for entries is Monday 28th May 2012, 5pm.
Please see below to download an entry form.
Workshops
A number of free workshops to help participating schools to explore language and poetry are also available. The workshop themes are below:
Finding your Voice
The 2012 Olympics
Past, Present and Future
Memories
Playing with Spanish
Translating Poetry
Mixing Tongues
Full details are available on the MTOT website: www.mtot.org.uk
Please note: These workshops are now fully booked.
Prize Giving Ceremony
The best entries will be illustrated and published. Posters of the winning pieces will be displayed at the Manchester Children’s Book Festival Family Fun Day on June 30th, 2012.
There will also be a prize-giving ceremony with Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, in the Capitol Theatre between 3 and 4pm with a special performance by the Huaxia Chinese School.
This will form part of a wider celebration of other languages and cultures. All are welcome.
For further information please go to www.mtot.org.uk or email mtot@mmu.ac.uk
To launch the Mother Tongue Other Tongue multi-lingual poetry competition we’re offering a free CPD session for teachers. This takes place on Monday March 19th 2012 from 5.30 – 8pm in the Geoffrey Manton Building of Manchester Metropolitan University. Everyone welcome, just email mtot@mmu.ac.uk to book your place.
Join us for a glass of wine and refreshments and enjoy a special performance by children from the Huaxia Chinese School and a panel discussion about why it is important to celebrate other languages and other cultures. This informal introduction to the competition will be followed by a CPD session led by writer, Mandy Coe, who will inspire you with ideas and resources that you can take straight back into your classrooms. Publicity materials to help promote the competition in schools will be available on the night and you will also be able to sign up for free workshops that will be offered to schools taking part in the competition and that will run in schools throughout April and May.
There is no charge for this event and everyone is welcome. It would help with catering if you could rsvp in advance to this email address. If you are interested in running the project in your school but cannot make the session on March 19th, please email your details anyway and we will send publicity materials and make sure you receive links to the website where resources will be made available after March 19th.
We hope to see you there!
COMPETITION DETAILS
The Mother Tongue/Other Tongue poetry competition aims to celebrate the multitude of languages and cultures that make up the North West of England. Young people between the ages of 12 and 18 whose first language isn’t English, are invited to send in a remembered poem or song written in their Mother Tongue and tell us why it’s important to them or what they like about it. Young people studying an Other Tongue at school are invited to use the language that they are studying creatively by writing a poem using it.
The competition deadline is Monday 28th May and the competition is free to enter. Winning young writers will be presented with prizes by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy at a Manchester Children’s Book Festival event in June. Posters of the winning pieces will be displayed at the festival and they will also be performed as part of it.
The project is a HLSS Faculty project that brings together Manchester Writing School writers and Routes into Languages language specialists. Workshops led by MMU students will be offered free to participating schools.
If the North West pilot is successful, we plan to roll the project out nationally next year. Watch this space …
Tuesdays, 5.30 - 7.30 pm
The course uses a number of key set films presented and studied on a weekly basis to enable teachers/future teachers to develop their experience of using film as part of their language classes. It includes lectures which provide a basic theoretical framework of film terminology in context and film analysis enabling the participants to understand the teaching of film better. These are complemented by weekly practical workshops covering aspects of genre, thematic/cultural motifs, film style and production. During these workshops, participants will develop their own portfolio of teaching resources, and will share ideas with other members of the group. They will have access to a database of on-line materials.
Location: Department of Languages, Mabel Tylecote Building, Manchester Metropolitan University http://www.mmu.ac.uk/travel/allsaints/
For further information, please contact Carmen Herrero (c.herrero@mmu.ac.uk)
A series of 3 workshops:
1) Video Editing (Tutor: Benoît Guilbaud, MMU and FILTA) on Tuesday 8th November 2011, 5 - 8 pm.
2) Creating a Podcast (Tutor: Benoît Guilbaud, MMU and FILTA) on Tuesday 22nd November 2011, 5 - 8 pm.
3) Making Subtitles (Tutor: Jessica Frye, MMU and FILTA) on Tuesday 6th December 2011, 5.30 - 7.30 pm.
Fee: £30 per session or £80 for attending all 3 sessions.
Location: Room GM120, Geoffrey Manton Building, All Saints Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University www.mmu.ac.uk/travel/allsaints
Organised by MMU (Languages) and FiLTA (Film in Language Teaching Association www.filta.org.uk) with the support of COLT, Routes into Languages.
For further information or to book, please contact Sue Nolan, the COLT Project Administrator s.nolan@mmu.ac.uk
Xue Theresa Teng, a close friend of the Routes NW project, was the winner of the University of Manchester's Community Award for staff.
Theresa has served since 2004 as the Head Teacher of the Huaxia Chinese School which teaches Chinese language and culture to 300 children and adults from Greater Manchester. The school often perform at Routes events, such as the Breaking Barriers event and MMU's Children's Book Festival.
Theresa does great work in promoting the Chinese language and culture across the North West and we are proud of her recent achievement.
Looking for a unique and exciting resource for the classroom?
Produced by Routes into Languages, the new txt spk badges offer a different approach to language teaching. Packs available to order in English, French, German, Spanish and Welsh.
For further information please see http://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/txtspk
A brand new Routes into Languages initiative has tested the foreign language skills of thousands of North West school pupils, with 12 going through to represent the region at the National Final in Cambridge.
Over 8,500 school pupils from around 70 North West schools have been taking part in a new teaching initiative, which sees year 7 pupils competing to spell the highest number of words in a foreign language.
The Spelling Bee, launched on the European Day of Languages in September 2010, uses the format of traditional Spelling Bees to encourage young pupils to learn new vocabulary in French, German and Spanish.
On Wednesday 16th March the North West Regional Final was held at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), where 100 pupils, who had won earlier rounds of the competition, came together to fight for a place in the National Final.
Dr Sharon Handley, Director of Routes North West and Head of Languages at MMU, said: “Languages play such a vital role in education and beyond, but they are a hugely under-used resource in the UK. We hope this competition has served its purpose in teaching younger pupils the benefits of learning languages.”
Twelve pupils have now won their place in the National Final, which takes place in Cambridge in July 2011. At the grand final pupils from across the country will come together to compete, determining an overall winner for French, German and Spanish.
Regional finalists came from schools across the region, including Stretford, Bury, Oldham, Lancaster, Wigan, the Wirral, Liverpool and Cheshire.
Sarah Durkin from Priestnall School in Stockport, commented: “The Spelling Bee encouraged my pupils to really learn the French alphabet. It also provided the opportunity to get my year 11s to meet with year 7s regularly, supporting them with the competition. We hope it continues in future years”.
The winners were:
French:
1st place – Sahifa Akther, Chesterfield High School, Liverpool
2nd place – Zach Gilbert, Lancaster Grammar School, Lancaster
3rd place – Alice Fairhurst, St Peter’s Catholic High, Wigan
4th place – Louise Munch, St Gabriel’s RC High School, Bury
German:
1st place – Emily Pote, Wilmslow High School, Wilmslow
2nd place – Jake Stonall, The Blue Coat School, Oldham
3rd place – Kate McGranahan, Wilmslow High School, Wilmslow
4th place – Darcey Reader, Crompton House School, Oldham
Spanish:
1st place – Amna Khan, Stretford High School, Stretford
2nd place – Aaron D’Cruz, Wirral grammar School for Boys, Wirral
3rd place – Tayeba Bhamjee, Stretford High School, Stretford
4th place – Ian Jones, Wirral Grammar School for Boys, Wirral
Why study languages? Classroom calendar and website
Order now for January!
2011 will be the third year that Routes into Languages produces its popular 'Why Study Languages?' calendar.
New for 2011 is the addition of interactive support materials that are designed to generate classroom discussion. These resources will draw on other areas of the curriculum including art and design, music, food technology, creative writing, history and culture and geography.
At just £6 including p&p, it's fun and ideal for raising awareness of a wide range of languages.
Feedback from teachers:
"The calendar has been a super resource, sparking interest and debate at a number of levels ‑ thank you again"
"The calendar you produce is fantastic and every Language Centre should have one ‑ what a great way to see different languages, scripts and alphabets with excellent images to match"
"As Head of Modern Languages I would like to congratulate you on the 2010 Why study languages calendar. It has been a joy to turn from one month to the next and learn about different countries and language"
Also, our new student facing website contains lots of interactive quizzes, videos and practical advice for KS3, KS4 and Post‑16. Visit the Why Study Languages website to access these resources.
The University of Manchester today launched their new Multilingual Manchester web archive.
Multilingual Manchester is based at the School of Languages, Linguistics & Cultures at the University of Manchester. Their aims are:
Their activities bring together university students, experienced researchers of international repute, community representatives, and members of local services. Together they want to celebrate Manchester's linguistic diversity while building bridges among communities and encouraging individuals to learn more about their neighbours and their cultures and languages.
For more information please visit the Multilingual Manchester website.
