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'Your future in languages' at Ryde High School Language and Arts College
'During the three years in which we have been running this event, we have seen our numbers of students studying languages post-16 increase threefold.' Pat Suttmann, International Centre Manager, Ryde High School
Context
Ryde High School is a maintained mixed comprehensive school with Languages and Arts College status from Year 9 to 12. The school offers French, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese as part of their curriculum. In 2002 they achieved British Council International School status.
Key Objectives
'It was interesting to find out what jobs are involved with languages and of what use a language can be to you'. Florence, Carisbrooke High School
For this project they have linked with other High Schools on the Isle of Wight in order to motivate students to continue with their language studies post 16.
How the programme is organised
The event aims at Year 11 able linguists across the Isle of Wight who may be considering pursuing their language studies post 16 but are not convinced that it is the right decision for them. It is sponsored by Aimhigher, Young Chamber and Ryde High School Language College. 47 Year 11 students and their tutors attended and participated in a range of workshops which had been designed to convince them of the importance of continuing with their language studies. These were as follows:
Construct a wind turbine – Students were issued with instructions in various languages on how to make a mini wind turbine out of a set of resources. The students were fascinated with this task which was designed by Gurit, who produce composite materials for a range of industries and aimed to show them how they can achieve a lot with only a little knowledge of the language.
Synthetic Language – Another Gurit workshop, this aimed at showing students how frustrating it is when you receive correspondence which you cannot understand. Students were given a piece of correspondence written in code and the code to decipher it. They found this task frustrating but very worthwhile.
Secret Assignment – Students had to imagine they were on interview for the secret services and were given 20 minutes to learn Greek using Eurotalk software which keeps a score of their progress. The best students received a prize of a Greek phrasebook which they could use on their ‘first assignment in Greece’.
'I liked making the windmills and learning Greek'. Lauren, Ryde High School
Tourism Task – Students had to prepare for an imaginary Chinese delegation of visitors arriving on the island and staying at the hotel. They were given an introduction into Chinese culture and language by Mandy Yu, a Chinese student from Portsmouth University and had a chance to learn some Chinese online. They were also advised by representatives from the tourism industry on how to prepare for visitors from different cultures.
'I loved the fact we could actually talk to a Chinese person.' Laura, Sandown High School
'The Chinese was different from the basic European languages we usually learn and was challenging'. Alex, Cowes High School
They also had speakers from the Isle of Wight Fire Services, Osborne House and Gurit explaining how languages are used in the workplace and from Portsmouth University talking about what it is like to study a language degree. They received letters from the Prime Minister and Richard Branson complimenting them on our goal and supporting the need for young people to study languages for business.
'It was interesting to see how much languages are used and I now have a better knowledge of language degrees at university.' Laura, Carisbrooke High School
Results/effect
85% of those students who had said they were unsure about continuing with their language studies were now more interested in doing so and all of those who had opted to continue were more convinced that they had made the right decision.
Future developments
‘This is the third year we have hosted this event, which is bigger and better each year!’
Author: Pat Suttmann, International Centre Manager, Ryde High School
