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About the European Award for Languages | 2006 winners |
Tanya Roirdan talks about her experience of winning a European Award for Languages for the Able Linguist Day at the University of Portsmouth.
Having seen an invitation to apply for a European Award for Languages on the CILT website, I decided to submit an application. The project had to demonstrate an innovative, effective and replicable approach to learning languages and I felt that our project could indeed meet the criteria. At the University of Portsmouth, we were in the process of organising our Able Linguist Day for the fifth year running. I believed that the Event met all of the requirements:
- It was an initiative which involved a new approach to improving previous provision both in the field of teacher training and in collaborative work with schools.
- It could easily be replicated in other contexts and other educational partnerships, with the potential for further development.
- The event was thoroughly evaluated by all parties concerned and could show verifiable progress towards learner targets.
Our Able Linguist Event involved different University departments (the School of Education and Continuing Studies, the School of Languages and Area Studies, Aim Higher and Widening Participation) working together to improve liaison and partnership with schools in order to promote the take up of languages post 16.
‘Winning has meant gaining recognition for language learning’
I was thrilled to discover that we had been shortlisted and extremely excited to know that a team of judges would be visiting us to view, at first hand, one of our Able Linguist sessions. It gave us all an opportunity to show off what we had been claiming to be innovative practice and provided a focus for all the hard work put in by those involved. The three judges from CILT, ALL and the Goethe-Institut were extremely professional and gave nothing away on the day so it was an enormous relief to know that we had actually won an Award.
Winning has meant gaining recognition for language learning and teacher training at the University of Portsmouth . It has raised the profile of MFL in Portsmouth schools which has undergone dramatic restructuring and devastation following the decision to scrap compulsory languages at Key Stage 4. It has also served as a reminder that training future language teachers provides a valuable resource to the educational community.
Colleagues have been very generous in their praise and congratulations and the publicity generated from winning the Award is key in raising the profile of languages locally and nationally. Along with this is a more intrinsic motivation, a feel good factor, where one is made to feel valued and important, that what one does matters and makes a difference.
‘An increasing number of schools want to be involved in the Event’
Since winning the Award I am regularly being asked to give presentations in order to disseminate the work achieved so far. This has resulted in an increasing number of schools wanting to be involved in the Event. However, with 500 students wishing to take part we have reached out limit. The upshot of this is that our neighbouring HEI is developing a similar event in tandem so that we may both host as many local students as possible.
‘We intend to reach out to the wider community’
Following a recent LLAS report into Outreach work in modern languages ( Davis , 2006), to which we were a case study contributor; it has become apparent how we might develop this project further. We intend to reach out to the wider community by involving parents in the work that their children do at the University. We are hoping to set aside an evening where parents are invited to the School of Languages and Area Studies to view their children’s work, meet the teachers, examine the facilities and engage in a presentation of languages for life. We will begin to track this year’s language students at the University of Portsmouth to see if any have attended previous Able Linguist Days. We are also planning further collaborative events involving ITT , local schools, colleges and students. This event will focus on languages at work and the 14-19 agenda.
‘This is the perfect opportunity to raise morale amongst language teachers’
I have already begun to encourage teachers to put forward their own initiatives for recognition. I feel that language teachers work extremely hard, spend longer hours planning and preparing and expend more energy than most as they strive to engage and interest their students in the target language, whilst making learning challenging. All of this is routine as they plan for a daily programme of good, language lessons. They regularly think of creative ways in which to present new structures and topics to make languages practical and relevant to their students. This is the perfect opportunity to raise self-esteem and morale amongst language teachers and to recognise that what they are doing is inspiring – if only they would tell us about it!
Tanya Roirdan
Able Linguist Days, University of Portsmouth
