The Mother Tongue Other Tongue (MTOT) multilingual poetry competition celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity through creative writing, and showcases the many languages spoken and learned by young people in school and at home.
Like last year we are continuing to embrace our new digital way of workinig. Whether in the classroom or at home pupils can still take part. For 2021-22 the focus is again is on the spoken word. We loved the creativity of the entries last year and particularly the opportunity to hear your voice and your fabulous language skills.
Information about the competition
The competition is split into two categories:
Mother Tongue - children and young people who do not speak English as a first language can record and submit an original poem, song or rap in their mother tongue language. In Scotland, pupils will be able to submit entries in Scots and Gaelic in this category.
Other Tongue - children and young people learning another language in school, college or university (French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin, Urdu, Gaelic and Cantonese) can record and submit an original poem, song or rap in that other tongue.
In both categories, entries can be sound files only, a performance video, or a drawing or illustration representing the entry with recorded voice over.
All entrants will complete a pro-forma in English to accompany the piece. An important part of this is that the entrants must outline their inspiration as this accounts for part of the judging criteria.
Find out more about the competition timeline and requirements below. Please take time to read these even if you've participated before as there are some differences depending whether your pupils are in primary or secondary education.
**Please note, registration for MTOT 2021-22 has now closed** Registered schools will be contacted late October with instructions for submitting entries. Submission deadline: Friday 3 December 2021.
Winning and highly commended entries from the 2021-21 competition can be seen on our MTOT Awards 2020-21 webpage.