Latest News

14 May 2021 (Radio Lingua)

This week's round-up of resources from the team at Radio Lingua:

Q and A videos

Each week we are publishing Question and Answer videos, discussing language learning queries from our listeners. This week we talked about the use of Bitte in German, how to apologise in Spanish, Italian possessive adjectives and the phrase ça te dit in French. You can watch all these videos on our YouTube channel here.

Travel Diaries

This week sees us on our fourth episode of our Spanish and German Travel Diaries. Join our Spanish travellers as they head to the wondrous Machu Picchu, while our German tourists reach the historic city of Würzburg. 

14 May 2021 (SCILT)

The latest edition of the SCILT newsletter is here!

Read about SCILT’s work to support the learning and teaching of languages, including our professional learning offer, our motivating competitions and our online events. Find out how schools celebrated Languages Week Scotland 2021, and hear from local authorities about their latest inspiring initiatives. There is also the opportunity to read about the work our partners have been doing to support language learning in Scotland.

Read more...

13 May 2021 (Babel)

Individuals and groups studying linguistics at sixth form, college or university are invited to enter this year's young writers' competition for a chance to be published in the Autumn edition of Babel magazine.

This year's theme is 'Attitudes to languages' and invites entrants to give their views about and experience of attitudes towards languages in a piece no longer than 2,500 words.

See the website for full details and enter by 27 August 2021.

Read more...

13 May 2021 (The Herald)

Karen Adam MSP has made history as the first parliamentarian to take the oath in British Sign Language (BSL).

The SNP politician won the Banffshire and Buchan Coast seat in the North East of Scotland in last week's Scottish Parliament election with 14,920 votes. 

She was previously a councillor in the Mid-Formartine ward of Aberdeenshire where she was elected in 2017 and is a passionate advocate for BSL.

[..] In all, the Scottish Parliament will hear 23 oaths and affirmations in different dialects and languages other than English.

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13 May 2021 (APPG)

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages (APPG MFL) notes widespread concern and disquiet in relation to the review. At a time when languages are already uniquely fragile in English schools, the proposals in their present form represent a fundamental change to the nature of language learning, with unclear evidence that the approach would be successful in relation either to raising standards or increasing take-up. The APPG MFL believes that changes to the GCSE specification should be suspended to allow time for further evidence and expertise to be taken into account to avoid unintended consequences.

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13 May 2021 (French Film Festival)

The French Film Festival UK’s Learning Programme continues to bring French-speaking cinema to Scotland’s schools throughout May and June 2021.

A selection of films on DVD are available on request and will be sent directly to schools. To accompany the selection of films for different age groups, school screenings are enhanced by online learning resources prepared by Lise Morel. Participating teachers will be able to download these Learning Packs as PDFs to use in the classroom. These resources have been designed in accordance with the Modern Languages Experience and Outcomes for Curriculum for Excellence.

Please note that for schools within attainment challenge authorities, this resource is available free of charge. For further information, email schools@frenchfilmfestival.org.uk

12 May 2021 (RZSS)

This unique course introduces you and your family to the Mandarin language and Chinese characters while also learning about some Chinese animals and their habitats. Designed for 8 years right through to adults but children must be accompanied by an adult. The course is a series of three, one hour live virtual sessions spread across three days. Two opportunities to book. The course will run Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10am on 20-22 July and repeated on 27-29 July. The course is for beginners and has had great reviews from previous participants: "Great balance of listening, interaction and engagement. Brilliant resources and a great experience."  Booking is through Eventbrite - Zoo Fun with Mandarin

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11 May 2021 (King's College London)

King's College London is running two online taster events next month for Year 12 students (S5 in Scotland) who would like to find out about studying German at university. These will include a short talk and Q+A, a language taster class, and a cultural studies session. Follow the relevant link below for further information about each event:

• German Language and Culture - KC21373 - 15 June 2021 (for students at A Level or equivalent)

• German Language and Culture for Beginners - KC21374 - 17 June 2021 (no prior knowledge of German required)

11 May 2021 (SCILT)

SCILT monthly drop-ins are free, themed virtual events that are open to teachers and student primary teachers working in Scotland. Drop-ins are an opportunity to share your thoughts on that month’s Bitesize resource and/or share your own experience on the theme.

In May 2021, we’re looking at parental engagement and how schools approach this in a languages context. So join the drop-in on 26 May, share your ideas and experiences and hear what others do too!  

Find out more, along with the registration link, on our Bitesize webpage.

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11 May 2021 (Education Scotland)

Es & Os and Benchmarks for modern languages for a Primary 1 start to language learning were published on the NIH on Monday, 10^th May and represent an important piece of national curricular support for the 1+2 policy. The original Es & Os published in 2009 for modern languages were for curriculum levels 2, 3 & 4 only, as language learning in primary schools at that time traditionally began in P6. When the 1+2 policy was introduced in 2012/13 in schools, Education Scotland provided First Level Es and Os to support practitioners with planning to introduce language teaching from an earlier stage in primary schools; these represented a sufficient resource for a number of years, however, a measure of success of the implementation of the policy has meant that many more schools have language learning fully in place from Primary 1, hence the need for a partial suite of Es & Os and Benchmarks to support teachers with a P1 start to language learning (as the 1+2 policy begins in P1 and is not funded for pre-P1 learning) and comprise eight Es, Os and benchmark statements.

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11 May 2021 (Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL))

The Threlford Cup is CIOL’s prestigious award for inspiring the learning of languages. The cup is presented annually to a person, or for a project, or to an organisation for an activity that has inspired others with an original language-learning or teaching initiative.

The winner of the award is selected from nominations received from the wider languages community. Everyone is welcome to nominate.

Visit the CIOL website for more information and nomination criteria. Nominations close at 5pm on Sunday 25 July 2021.

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11 May 2021 (Light Bulb Languages)

Write Away! is an exciting project from Light Bulb Languages. It's a magazine celebrating the writing that primary children do in their language lessons.

We are now accepting submissions for issue 6 up until 23.59 on Friday 21 May 2021.

Visit the website for full submission guidelines.

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11 May 2021 (MASSOLIT)

We’re delighted to present the first ever MASSOLIT Video Essay Competition in partnership with Brasenose College, Oxford.

We're inviting UK-based students in Years 10, 11 and 12 (S3, S4 & S5 in Scotland) to create a “MASSOLIT-style” video lecture running at around 8-12 minutes on any academic topic.

The best entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges made up of academics from Brasenose and members of the MASSOLIT team.

For more information about the competition and how to enter, visit the MASSOLIT website. The deadline for the receipt of entries is 17:00 on Friday 2nd July 2021.

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7 May 2021 (British Science Association)

The study of foreign languages may not seem closely tied to STEM, but in fact they have a strong relationship. As well as improving cognitive skills that help in STEM study, speaking other languages opens up lines of communication with scientists all around the world, essential for international scientific progress.

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6 May 2021 (Stephen Spender Trust)

The Stephen Spender Prize is an annual competition for poetry in translation, with categories for young people (14-and-under, 16-and-under, and 18-and-under) as well as an open category for adults. All entrants must be UK or Irish citizens or residents, or pupils at a British School overseas. Translate into English any poem from any language – ranging from Arabic to Uzbek, from Danish to Somali—and win cash prizes!

This year the prize will open for entries on 6 May and close on 16 July 2021.

Each year also features a Spotlight Prize encouraging young people to engage with community languages. For 2021 the focus is on Urdu.

More information about both competitions can be found on the Stephen Spender Trust website.

Read more...

6 May 2021 (Radio Lingua)

Here’s a round up of the latest news from Radio Lingua:

French 

• Did you have a chance to watch our new Question and Answer video last week? Our latest video about how to form questions in French is sure to be of use to your learners. You can find it on our YouTube channel here and if you have any language questions the team could answer in future videos, simply submit your request here: coffeebreakquestions.com.
• Our Coffee Break French Facebook page focused on pronunciation last week and how words which have very different spelling are pronounced the same way. Why don’t you use our short gap-fill exercise in which you have to put the words vert, verre and vers into 3 sentences with your learners? Click here.

Spanish

• Our second episode of the latest Spanish Travel Diaries has now been published and this week our intrepid travellers are in the city of Cuzco. Did you know there is a unique piedra de 12 ángulo there? Find out more about this city here.
• In our new Spanish Q and A video,  Marina and Mark talk about the various ways to ask for the bill. Which phrases would you normally use?

Italian

• If you are learning or teaching Italian, we are sure you will find our latest short videos helpful, as we take a specific language point and talk it through with our native speaker Francesca. This week’s lesson looks at the difference between giorno and giornata. 
• Do your learners confuse when to use bene or buono? This Facebook Grammar Activity post gives you the chance to practise in class.

German

• The second episode of our new German Travel Diaries series finds us in Cologne. You can find out how Karl and Birgit spent their time in this beautiful city.
• We shared a post all about Modalpartikel with our German learners on Facebook last week. Modalpartikel are words which add stress to a sentence, but which don’t really change the meaning. This means they can be quite hard to translate. Click here to see some examples of these words being used in sentences

Coffee Break English

We are delighted to announce a new podcast for pre-intermediate learners of English, which is sure to be of use to learners in your schools and the wider school community. You can check out the first three lessons now.

6 May 2021 (TES)

School leaders say primaries and secondaries working more closely on languages won't be enough to meet EBacc target.

Headteachers’ leaders have warned that schools cannot be expected to meet the government English Baccalaureate (EBacc) targets without more language teachers coming into the system.

Ofsted has suggested that getting primary and secondary schools to work together more closely on languages could help to meet the government targets of having 90 per cent of students studying the subjects needed for the EBacc by 2025.

However, the Association of School and College Leaders has said that Ofsted’s idea is unrealistic and warned that achieving the Department for Education’s target will be impossible because of a lack of language teachers in the system.

Ofsted has been producing a series of reports looking in depth at subject teaching following a series of inspections carried out before the Covid pandemic.

In its most recent blog on the teaching of foreign languages, inspectors said that they did not see much evidence of a joined-up approach to language teaching between key stage 2 and key stage 3.

It is suggested that more focus on progression between primary and secondary schools would support the government's EBacc target for 2025 of having 90 per cent of students studying for the qualifications needed.

(Note - subscription required to access full article)

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5 May 2021 (RZSS)

Beyond the Panda is the RZSS giant panda and Mandarin education programme. RZSS is a science specialist Confucius Classroom and offers a unique programme covering science while learning some of the Mandarin language and Chinese characters. It is designed for cross curricular learning where students investigate and discover more about China, its culture, language, geography, giant pandas and other Chinese wildlife. 

This virtual CLPL course will hope to engage and inspire teaching staff to use the Beyond the Panda online resources with their students in order to develop a love of nature, animals and conservation and in particular to realise the biodiversity of China and the relevance of the Chinese language and culture. Delivered through Microsoft Teams within Glow. 

In partnership with DYWLive and eSgoil, there are three opportunities to book, starting at 4pm on either Tuesday 25th May, Thursday 10th or Thursday 17th June. Booking is through DYWLive, under Professional Learning - Beyond the Panda CLPL 

Read more...

4 May 2021 (Japan Foundation)

Institutions can apply for up to £3000 for non-profit-making projects or activities which promote Japanese language education in the UK. Please check out our website for information on the type of projects we support, such as newly introducing Japanese into the curriculum or funding Japanese clubs. Alternatively if you're considering applying for funding but aren't sure how to go about it, or have a project in mind but aren't sure if it's eligible, you can sign up to take part  in our Online Seminar and Q&A session. During this one-hour session, a member of our staff will talk participants through the application process, and then open the floor to questions and answers. We want to make sure the application process is as easy-to-understand as possible.

This session will be held twice on Friday 14 May 2021:

• First Session: 13:00 to 14:00
• Second Session: 18:00 to 19:00

Register for one of the seminar sessions on the Japan Foundation website by 12 May 2021.

Deadline for funding applications: 28 May 2021.

Read more...

4 May 2021 (The Guardian)

In the wake of Brexit, there’s a defiant note in the overarching theme – Happy Together – of this year’s survey of European shorts, brought to us by EUNIC London, an umbrella organisation for EU cultural institutions, and pulled together by London-based curator Shira MacLeod.

The In Short, Europe short film festival, takes place online from 7-16 May. 

Read more...

4 May 2021 (Planet Radio)

We can reveal every main political party in Scotland is backing a Fife girl's campaign for free sign language tuition.

Niamdh Braid's calls for extra funding to allow every deaf child to get support from the age of 5 have been heard.

The 12-year-old, who taught herself BSL, hopes it'll ensure no other youngster goes without.

I'm really excited that my campaign's been taken on as it means deaf children have the opportunity to learn BSL and it makes communication a lot easier for them," she said.

The Glenrothes schoolgirl started her push for change two years ago, shortly after her rendition of Lewis Capaldi's Someone You Loved caught the popstar's attention.

Niamdh later met with the singer at an event backstage, and performed a sign language duet alongside him.

The SNP pledged to provide additional funding for councils to roll out free tuition in its manifesto, with Scottish Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens following suit.

Mum Sam believes it's a vital step forward for many families.

Read more...

4 May 2021 (Consejería de Educación)

Course for Spanish language teachers on language, culture, and gastronomy (University of Valladolid, July 2021)

Open until May 10th the deadline to apply for one of the 50 scholarships to take a week-long course in Valladolid in the month of July 2021.

For whom? For teachers of Spanish in British secondary schools or universities (regardless of nationality (British, Spanish or other).

What? The course combines a varied didactic program (history, cinema, culture, games, language skill development, gamification…) with recreational and tourist activities. It is organized by the University of Valladolid, the Academia Mester, and the Junta de Castilla y León.

What does the scholarship include? The course (classes and cultural program), accommodation, and most of the meals. The selected participants only pay 100€ for management and the plane ticket to Madrid (round trip). Transfers from Madrid airport to Valladolid are also covered by the scholarship.

All the information about the dates, details of the course and the scholarship, and the online application form is available on the Consejería de Educación website.

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4 May 2021 (Alliance Française/Institut français)

The Alliance Française in Glasgow and Institut français in Edinburgh offer a range of opportunities for learners of French. The following are some of their forthcoming activities.

• AF online Summer Classes for adults between June and September 2021
• To celebrate the Cannes Festival in July, IFcinéma à la carte is offering a special selection of French films from 10 May to 10 June 2021
• A selection of online resources including cinema reviews, podcasts, virtual tours of French museums and monuments, a baking workshop and news about the IF Beyond Words literary festival from 17 May 2021

Further information can be found on the Alliance Française website.

Read more...

4 May 2021 (SCILT)

In 2018 SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, submitted a successful bid for Erasmus+ funding for a three year international project, called Generation Global. Full details of this can be found on the Generation Global webpage. The project partners are the respective national centres for languages in Denmark and Norway, and University of Aarhus.

The project is aimed at three groups, one each year. These are:

• Phase 1: Business & Industry
• Phase 2: Education sector, specifically careers staff, school leaders, policy makers & university staff
• Phase 3: Young people & Parents

Our project aims to address the skills gap in languages and intercultural competencies in our respective nations, looking at attitudes towards language learning and seeking to increase awareness in the target groups about the value of languages through events and online toolkits.

As we begin Phase 3, we would like to find out your views on the current language learning situation, and what you feel might help to address the issues that we as languages teachers are all facing. We have compiled a short survey which we would be really grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete. This will be invaluable in informing the contents of the online toolkit which we will produce for this phase. All answers are anonymous!

The link to the survey is here: https://forms.office.com/r/nHzg6F380w

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete this survey - we really appreciate it!

In addition, we have prepared two further surveys; one for parents and one for learners. If you would be willing to share these links with pupils and/or parents in your school, we would be so grateful! These are also anonymous. Please email sheena.bell@strath.ac.uk for these links.

3 May 2021 (BBC)

Fèisean nan Gàidheal has developed a course for Glasgow City Council staff as part of the authority's aim to develop Gaelic in the city.

The Gaelic arts organization is working with the council after many staff indicated that they would like to learn the language.

The online lessons for adults will be available over nine weeks and the course will start on the 4th of May.

Read more...

30 April 2021 (SCILT)

In academic session 2020-21, after a short hiatus, SCILT relaunched the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition, with a new focus on the spoken word. Learners were invited not only to write a poem in their mother or other tongue, but to perform it so that their words could be heard in their own voice. The work produced by all the young poets who took part was wonderful, especially during this most challenging year. The winning and highly commended video entries from this year's competition in Scotland are now available to view on the MTOT Awards page of SCILT's website.

Read more...

29 April 2021 (SCILT)

The Scottish Languages Employability Award (SLEA) encourages innovation and creativity in the promotion of language skills through meaningful engagement between employers and schools. The award aims to help schools and businesses to build partnerships through languages and supports teachers in raising awareness of the importance of languages in their school community.

The next deadline for submissions is Friday 21 May 2021. 

Due to restrictions over the past year, online events and activities will be accepted as evidence towards the award. To read the full guidelines, watch videos from the pilot schools and read case studies from previous winners, visit the SLEA page on the SCILT website. 

If you have any questions about the award or the submission process please contact SCILT. 

Read more...

29 April 2021 (Radio Lingua)

Travel Diaries

We hope you enjoyed the second seasons of both our French and Italian Travel Diaries podcasts which finished last week. However, you can still access our trips round Northern France here,  or join our travellers as they end their trip in Trento here.

It is with much excitement then, that we announce the release of two new Travel Diaries and would love you to join us on season 2 of our Spanish Travel Diaries round western South America. You can listen here as we set off from Lima in Peru. 

Or, you may prefer to join us on a virtual river cruise through Germany and Austria in our German Travel Diaries, as we have also released Season 2 which you can access for free here.

Q and A videos

We have recently launched a new series of Question and Answer videos on your YouTube channel which are sure to be helpful to you and your learners. Our latest videos cover topics from how to say “I miss you” in French, the difference between muy and mucho in Spanish, how to say good luck in German and the differences between potere and riuscire in Italian.

If you have a language query, you can get in touch with us at coffeebreakquestions.com and we may feature this on a future video. 

29 April 2021 (The Courier)

An Angus student has been named among a select band of youth ambassadors in a United Nations celebration of the Chinese language.

Alexandra McCombie, from Carnoustie received the honour during the organisation’s Chinese Language Day celebrating one of the six official languages of the UN.

The seven recipients received the accolade during a live video ceremony from Geneva.

Alexandra, together with brothers Robin and Owen Wilson of Irvine and Elgin’s Brodie Lawrence were nominated for a short film project they completed.

The work, Spring Memories, explored their experiences whilst studying Mandarin and Chinese culture for a year in China in 2017.

The four initially met in 2016 whilst attending a short summer immersion school in Tianjin and Beijing.

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27 April 2021 (UK-German Connection)

Our meet-up group, Café Connect gives you the chance to get to know other young people aged 14-19 through fun, interactive activities, and group discussions on current topics. Take part and make new friends, learn about the other culture, and practise (or even pick up) some German!

Taking place twice a month, these online meet-ups are a unique opportunity to exchange with other young people from the UK and Germany in a friendly atmosphere – on topics that interest you! You can join as many sessions as you like and you can get involved even if you don’t speak any German.

Visit the UK-German Connection website to find out more and to register to take part.

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26 April 2021 (Stornoway Gazette)

A Stornoway Primary School Pupil, whose family moved to Lewis from war-torn Syria, has gone viral this week after receiving an award for the progress he has made in learning Gaelic.

Ten year old Abdullah Al Nakeeb moved to Stornoway from Homs, four years ago. Now in Primary Six, Abdullah has a good grasp of the local language.

The Al Nakeeb family said: “We are really proud of Abdullah, he loves going to school here and Gaelic has become one of his favourite subjects.

"Addullah always works really hard and it is nice to see him get praise for all his efforts.

“We never expected our son to learn the language but since moving here he has managed to pick up Gaelic very quickly.

"His younger brother Majd has also got a good grasp of the language and received a certificate for his progress in December.

“Hopefully Abdullah’s brothers will continue to follow in his footsteps, it would be great to have them all speaking a new language.”

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24 April 2021 (ECML)

The European Language Gazette, the ECML's e-newsletter, provides up-to-date news about the ECML (events, projects, resources) and other relevant sectors of the Council of Europe, as well as of our partners. It focuses on national developments in the field of language education in the member states and beyond.

Enjoy the latest issue which can be accessed on the ECML website.

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22 April 2021 (SQA)

The SQA has added a new additional resource document on Gathering key evidence and provisional results. This can be found in the Understanding Standards dropdown section of the AH Modern Languages page on their website.

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28 April 2021 (Polish Social and Educational Society in Glasgow / Polish Consulate / SCILT)

SCILT has been working, in collaboration with the Polish Social and Educational Society in Glasgow, and supported by the Polish Consulate in Edinburgh, to produce the much-anticipated resource for primary teachers to support the teaching of L3 Polish in the classroom. We are delighted to announce that this resource will soon be launched and made available to primary teachers ahead of session 21/22. This interactive handbook has been designed for teachers, by teachers and is supported by online classes where primary practitioners can build their confidence for teaching Polish. 

Primary teachers who are interested can register now for a block of free online Polish language lessons, led by a native Polish speaker and an experienced primary practitioner. These online classes:

• begin on Tuesday 31^st August
• will take place on MS Teams
• will be an hour in length, once a week, for 8 weeks
• take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays – choose the day that suits you best
• support Ten Steps to L3 Polish and aim to give the class teacher the confidence to lead exciting Polish lessons in school

This L3 programme has been developed to provide a rich language and cultural learning experience, suitable for children from P5-P7.

Chris Sagan, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Polish Social and Educational Society in Glasgow, has led the programme from its infancy and looks forward to seeing the resource being used in classrooms across the country. He states, “Since 1989 when Poland was released from the grip of Soviet Russia, the country has grown and developed exponentially so that today Poland is one of the new tiger economies of Europe. Poland now takes her place as an equal among the Nations of Europe.

“It is fitting then that we are going to now introduce to classrooms in Scotland an interactive, web-based handbook to assist teachers who choose to teach Polish as an L3 language. The Ten Steps to L3 Polish handbook has been designed to introduce learners and teachers to the customs, culture and traditions of Poland while learning the basics of the language.

“In addition to the handbook, free language lessons for teachers will be offered to provide support and encouragement. We are eager to welcome Scotland’s teachers to both the handbook and lessons and look forward to hearing enthusiastic Polish voices in classrooms across the country.”

These classes are aimed at teachers planning to introduce Polish as an L3. Places are limited and offered on a first-come first-served basis. 

For more information about Ten Steps to L3 Polish and/or language classes, please contact scilt@strath.ac.uk.

Wszystkiego najlepszego.

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22 April 2021 (British Council)

Today is Earth Day and British Council is bringing people together around the world through The Climate Connection to meet the challenges of climate change.

Amongst their resources on climate for schools there is a collection to help you integrate environmental issues into language teaching, learning and assessment, including a 3-module professional learning course for language teachers. The first module starts on 28 April 2021.

Visit the British Council website for more information and to register for the course.

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21 April 2021 (Oxford German Network)

A German Classic is Oxford's essay competition for sixth-formers with prizes up to £500. This year's set text is Heinrich von Kleist's "Die Verlobung in St. Domingo". For more information about this year's competition visit the website and request a free study pack by 25 June 2021.

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21 April 2021 (Financial Times)

I’m a rootless cosmopolitan, so we’re moving the family to Spain for a year. The kids are up for it. Growing up with anglophone parents in Paris, they speak French and English, and once you know one Romance language, learning another is a cinch. “Lexical similarity” is the measure of overlap between word sets of different languages; the lexical similarity between French and Spanish is about 0.75 (where 1 means identical).

I want the children to have such good Spanish that they can say everything, understand everything, have deep friendships and be fully themselves in the language for life. That’s what matters, not perfect grammar.

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1 April 2021 (Open University/SCILT)

Registration for the Open University (OU) and SCILT online CPD programme in primary languages, known as TELT, is now open for the 2021 intake. The modules begin on 2 October with induction activities starting on 20 September, and finish in July 2022. The fee in Scotland is £264.00 per module place and the registration will close on 30 June 2021.

You can find important information about the programme at our dedicated TELT programme website. There you can see which languages and levels we offer, FAQs and what our past students say.

To register, please contact the OU corporate registrations team by writing to corporate-enquiries@open.ac.uk. NB please also copy scotland-languages@open.ac.uk into your email.

Please note it is important for prospective TELT students to plan ahead and ensure that they will be able to dedicate sufficient time to their study, because, once the module start date has passed, deferral is not possible. The fee will still be payable and cannot be refunded if students decide to defer or withdraw from studying the module.

Should you have any questions about this programme please contact scotland-languages@open.ac.uk.

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1 April 2021 (University of Oxford)

The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators is a brand new competition for MFL learners aged 11-18. The scheme is inspired by the life and work of the great translator Anthea Bell. It aims to promote language-learning across the UK and to inspire creativity in the classroom. By providing teachers with the tools they need to bring translation to life, we hope to motivate more pupils to study modern foreign languages to National 5, Highers and beyond.

In its first year, the prize is for learners of French, German, Mandarin and Spanish.

All interested teachers receive teaching packs for the prize, with ready-made resources designed to be used in class, for home learning or for extra-curricular activities.

See the attached document for more information and visit the website to register.

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25 March 2021 (SCILT)

Did you attend Education Scotland and SCILT’s Summer School for the 1+2 Languages Leadership Programme 2017-2019, or Train the Trainer 2014-2016? If so, then this role might be for you!

Scotland’s new Languages Leadership Programme launches in June of this year. To begin with, participants will attend 2 days of online professional learning led by Education Scotland on 18-19 June through a vibrant online LLP learning community using Teams in Glow.

During 2021-22, participants will then take part in the LLP affiliated professional learning of their choice from a menu of LLP affiliated opportunities from Education Scotland, SCILT and LANGS partners. During this time they will complete a number of critical reflection tasks in relation to their leadership activity and LLP affiliated professional learning. Over the course of the year, Critical Friends will each support a small number of participants, providing regular feedback on their critical reflection tasks.

Wondering whether you could be a critical friend?

• Have you benefitted from taking part in the 1+2 LLP/TTT programme yourself?
• Have you previously undertaken or would you like to undertake a coaching, mentoring or critical friend role to support colleagues with their professional development?

If so, then you will bring a wealth of commitment, understanding and skills to the new Critical Friend role on this innovative pilot. You will be involved in the evaluation process at different stages during the year and professional learning and support will be provided to you. In addition, Critical Friends will also be supported to submit an individual application for GTCS Professional Recognition. 

Visit the registration page to find out how you can apply to join the LLP team as a Critical Friend by Monday 17 May.

If you have any questions about applying for this role, please email scilt@strath.ac.uk and include ‘LLP’ in the subject line.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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13 November 2020 (SCILT)

The Scottish Languages Employability Award (SLEA) aims to help schools and businesses to build partnerships through languages in order to develop young people’s learning about the world of work and the value of language skills.

Videos are now available on our website of two of the SLEA pilot schools talking about their experience of working towards, and submitting evidence for, the award. These include advice from teachers and school co-ordinators, and feedback from pupils who took part in the qualifying events, and would be useful for any teachers considering putting their school forward for the award. Huge thanks to the staff and pupils at St Mary’s Primary School and Bishopbriggs Academy for their fantastic contributions!

The next deadline for submissions is Friday 22nd January 2021. In view of the current restrictions, online events and activities will count towards the award. Please get in touch with Sheena Bell if you have any questions about any aspect of the submission process or if you would like more information about the award generally.

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