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Pupils take part in CILT e-Conference on community languages
(13/03/08)

CILT is hosting an e-Conference this week as part of the “Our Languages” project on community languages. Pupils from both maintained and supplementary/complementary schools from the project clusters have been invited to participate in the online discussion. Participants are given the opportunity to discuss the languages they speak, how they prefer to learn and which languages they believe people will be learning in the future.

Pupils are actively engaging with the online discussion, which will continue until the end of this week. This morning (13 March) the blog had shown that 31 languages were spoken to some level, with English, Arabic, French, Gujarati and Urdu as the most common. Many pupils had knowledge of three or more languages, including those spoken at home and at school.

Popular motives for languages learning mentioned by pupils included speaking to people while on holiday or travelling in other countries, working abroad, and meeting people from other cultures. Other pupils said that languages helped to increase their confidence and improved their skills in other subjects.

One said: ‘I enjoy learning different languages because it helps me to communicate with different people. It gives me an opportunity to learn new languages and make my life easier around the world.’

The question on how pupils preferred to learn will be of particular interest to those involved in language teaching. Many pupils said they liked interactive activities which actively involved them in using languages, such as role play, songs, plays and games. Others said they enjoyed using ICT in language learning, including web based activities, Powerpoint presentations, interactive whiteboards and use of a languages lab.

One pupil said: ‘I enjoy learning the new and interesting vocabulary of a language and comparing it to the other languages that I know. The activities that help me to learn are interactive lessons and activities that I can get involved in e.g. plays.’

Opinions vary on which languages would be most popular to learn in the future, with English, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, French and other European languages as popular choices. Many students said they thought that English would continue to be the most commonly learnt world language.

The blog is live until the end of the week. To view the discussion, visit www.ourlanguages.wordpress.com.

For more information on the “Our Languages” project, see the interim web pages: www.cilt.org.uk/commlangs/our_langs. The project website will be launched at the National Community Languages Conference in Sheffield on 11 June.