Modern Languages Blog

The Scotsman reports:  Pupils will be able to study new qualifications in science and languages from next year, the government has announced.

Fiona Hyslop, the education minister, also revealed that baccalaureates in social subjects and art might be created in future.

LANGUAGESPUPILS choose two languages from: French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Classical Greek, Latin, Learners’ Gaelic, Urdu, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Plus: English, English for speakers of other languages or Gaelic and an interdisciplinary project.

Any two of the languages chosen should be at Advanced Higher, with one at Higher. The project will be at Advanced Higher level and graded A, B or C.

For example, a candidate might choose Advanced Higher English and French, Higher Spanish and the project.
Read the Scotsman article.

Nominations for the 2009 Scottish Education Awards are now open.

The Scottish Education Awards are a celebration of the good practice and innovative developments taking place in Scottish education.  The awards highlight best practice in Scottish classrooms, celebrate schools and acknowledge the dedicated individuals who devote their lives to helping young people fulfil their potential.

Nominations for the Scottish Education Awards can be made until Friday 27 February 2009 and awards will be given across 17 categories, details of which can be found on the website.

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/scottisheducationawards/?

LTS Spanish Language podcasts: Immigration – Language barriers in the playground

Salvadorean Nancy Arévalo remembers what it was like to be in a new country where she didn’t speak either English or the Mexican Spanish spoken by everyone else in the playground.

You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes

0r watch and download on MFLE website 

or even watch and subscribe through YouTube if you like.

UK-German Connection and the British Council Scotland are holding a conference at the Stirling Management Centre on Friday, 12 December 2008 to celebrate and develop cross-curricular Scottish-German school partnerships and joint activities. The event is free to attend and teachers of all subjects and age groups, headteachers, representatives of local authorities as well as other education organisations are invited to attend.

For more information please download the Scottish-German Conference invite  or email Sarah Jenkins  (Telephone: 020 7824 1572).

Made for you to share with your language teaching chums, five foolproof demonstrations in English, each translated by native speakers into French, German and Spanish.
Each illustrated demonstration will also give you some ideas about the country’s culture.

Good for language days, as an eccentric end of term treat, or even a flashily French, jazzily German or sparklingly Spanish assembly.

Visit the Planet Language website

Our latest podcast – LTS Spanish Languages – is a series of 17 short movies on what it means to be Latino in modern America. The episodes have been split into Intermediate and Advanced based on the complexity of the topic and language.

The topics include Immigration, Aspirations, Family, Identity and Freetime.

We hope to release an episode a week over the next few months and you can stay up to date with these Spanish podcasts by subscribing to the RSS feed.  

The first two episodes are available to watch now. You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes

0r watch and download on MFLE website 

or even watch and subscribe through YouTube if you like.

Confucius Classrooms has published a series of video case studies on how Perth High School approached the topic.

Supporting our international future: cross-sector partnerships to promote languages in Scotland
Date: 1 December 2008
Venue: University of Edinburgh, Playfair Library

Organised jointly by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (LLAS) and the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (University of Edinburgh), this event will focus on providing support for languages through partnerships between universities, colleges and schools.

A full programme and registration details are available from http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/3073

NB. There is no charge to attend for employees and postgraduate students of publicly funded UK educational institutions.

Scottish CILT will be hosting a FREE CPD session on Citizens of the World – Life in the DRC  resource on Wednesday, 26th November, 4.30pm – 6pm.Please contact catriona.oates@stir.ac.uk  for more information.

SCIAF is giving a voice to the young people of the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in a new and innovative modern languages resource for Scottish secondary schools launched today (Wednesday 12 November).

The new resource Citizens of the World – Life in the DRC (Citoyens Du Monde – La Vie en RDC) is has been specially designed to support Curriculum for Excellence. It comprises a web-based video wall of young Congolese talking about their lives, an interactive blog enabling young Scottish students to ask questions and hold discussions with a young person in the Congo, and a teachers’ pack including background, lesson ideas, factsheets and a DVD.

£9.95 is being charged by SCIAF to help recover the costs of production.

The new resource can be obtained by schools by emailing youth@sciaf.org.uk or by calling SCIAF direct on telephone: 0141 354 5555.