Modern Languages Blog

The European Award for Languages Ceremony 2006 will be held in the Chamber of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on the European Day of Languages, 26th September. Award winners will receive their prizes from Sir Trevor McDonald, OBE, who is the patron of CILT, the National Centre for Languages. Peter Peacock, Minister for Education and Young People, will officially open the event. This will be a great opportunity for Scotland to celebrate language learning and to recognise home-grown talent.

For a technical reason (i.e. we don’t really know why) the Marc Prensky keynote seems to be cut short in the podcasts section. I’m working hard to work out why and resolve the issue. Thanks for bearing with us.

The USA government has made language learning a priority again, the first time since the 60s according to Always Learning Blog. The initial interest was in overcoming the issues brought by the Cold War. Now it’s the economy that’s heating up and needing languages to keep the US at the top of the pile. Perhaps this really is one occasion we could look over to the USA to learn how we could affect school and LEA policy in Scotland

Audrey Tautou of Amelie fame stars in the Da Vinci Code, out in the movies this Friday night featuring my favourite actress and Tom Hanks. The film provides an amazing array of learning opportunities in the domain of French culture, art history, religious and moral educaction, history… Here is one of my ideas. What could be added on here?

The INA Video Archive
I recently discovered over 100,000 archive videos from the INA in France, black and white and colour footage charting history from a Francophone point of view. Imagine using these as the backdrop to some digital storytelling in any language (Wes, would this work?). Here’s a whole pack that goes with the Louvre museum. Excellent quality audio (in French) and video. I love the bit about La Joconde arriving from the States via Le Havre to the Louvre, along with the story of how they had to swap the real one for a fake during the filming of the blockbuster.

Update:
Wes has taken the gauntlet, bought a matching one and a whole darned suit of armour in my quest to make a teachable moment out of the Da Vinci code. The wiki page – a webpage anyone can change – is there now for you to give your own ideas.

If your school is involved in imaginative curriculum-based international work, it may be eligible for an International School Award
(ISA). The ISA scheme offers a framework within which to form and
develop international partnerships and achieve curriculum goals. It
recognises and rewards the integration of global issues and awareness
into the curriculum and encourages and supports schools in: embedding
an international ethos throughout the school, involving a majority of
pupils in international work across a range of subjects, collaborating
with partner schools, undertaking year-round international activity and
involving the wider community. Apply online on the Global Gateway site
for an International School Award.

The Subject Centre has launched a new CD designed to excite, educate and encourage young people to continue with their language learning in KS4 and beyond. The Why Study Languages CD is divided into two parts. ‘Language Lab’ is aimed at pupils in KS3 and 4 and contains quizzes, language facts, learning style tests that pupils can work through either on their own or with the teacher. It also includes audio clips of young people talking about their reasons for choosing to study languages. ‘Why study languages’ is aimed at pupils in KS4 and post-16 and provides information on all the many options available for studying languages at university. It includes a quiz and video clips of students talking about their love of studying languages.

The MFLE has just launched its own World Cup 2006 section, including links to existing quality resources, audio and video and internet challenges surrounding the World Cup and football in general.

Is there something we’ve missed? A great resource you could upload to us for inclusion? Let us know here in the comments or upload your resource at the MFLE Uploader.

  scotedublogmeetup 
  Originally uploaded by Edublogger.

We are trying to arrange for a wee meetup of Scottish edubloggers, educators, noneducating bloggers – anyone who fancies some nice drinks with some nice people. It’ll be this May 24 in Edinburgh, with our inaugural guest as Will Richardson.

If you want to join us – it’s at the end of Edinburgh City’s eLive event – then get over to the meetup wiki to sign up, give your ideas on where we can go and put your name down for one of Will’s books, being imported by the man himself.

Oh, and you can pick up this nice little graphic to advertise the night.

I’m just about to set off to the Shetland Isles for the last Outreach session of
the year. How do you get from Leith to Shetland in 44 minutes? Why, on
the Number 22 bus, of course. I’ll be using the latest video
conferencing technology to run a session on the MFLE for our friends at
the northern most tip of Scotland. Hopefully, more Shetlanders will
join the community on the MFLE, which has grown 840% in eight months.