A STRATEGY FOR COMMUNITY AND LESSER TAUGHT LANGUAGES Sharon Handley (North West Consortium of Routes into Languages -COLT) November 2009

What is the North West Consortium ?  Part of the Routes into Languages initiative  Consortium of five universities  Focus on COmmunity and Lesser Taught languages (COLT)  Language choice determined by profile of urban area

Background to the project  Hobson’s school leaver data* -languages seen as difficult  Focus groups –languages seen as boring  Perceived difficulty reduces motivation level  One objective was therefore to show that language study could be fun and achievable!  *

Focus groups with parents and teachers Five areas of concern  teaching methodology  lower language status for CL  negative images of some cultures in media  division between MS and CS  language choice

Our strategy  Events for schools to improve attitudes towards languages and raise status of community languages  Teacher training workshops  Links with complementary schools  Information on flexible programmes in HE  Data collection on demand for CL, particularly Urdu, in HE

Changing attitudes towards language learning Language Enrichment Events Innovative language taster sessions to show that languages are attainable and fun Student ambassadors who speak the languages as role models Multicultural activities to promote intercultural understanding and fun

LEE feedback: interest in studying languages Pre event questionnaires n: 615 Post event questionnaires n: 628 I would like to study languages at GCSE 53%33%15%81%14%5% I would like to study languages at A Level? 43%42%16%70%24%7% I would like to study languages at university 32%48%20%62%25%12% If I had the chance, I would choose to learn less common languages such as A, C or U 1. Certainly or probably likely to continue 2. Undecided 3. Probably or definitely not 47% 1 29% 2 24% 3 70% 1 17% 2 13% 3

Comments from pupils who attended our LEE in June 2009 “The event has definitely persuaded me to carry on studying at least one language to A Level standard.” Pupil, Sale Grammar School, Sale. “Before the day I didn’t realise how important languages are …. I now conclude that it’s a very good idea to take languages at GCSE level to keep in touch with people from other cultures. I’m now seriously considering taking French.” - Pupil, Bispham High School, Blackpool.

Teacher comments “Our intake has increased because of your valuable contribution. Some of our year 10 that we have taken last year are talking about doing it at college. We would love to do it every year because it has had a great impact on our intake”. MFL Teacher from Burnage Media Arts College, Manchester.

Pupil feedback  “The trip for me was fantastic. … It motivated me to take up a less common taught language for GCSE and A Level as I have discovered that they aren’t as hard as they are made out to be.” – Pupil from Sale Grammar School, Sale.  “It has also encouraged me to learn more languages; I am interested in learning Chinese”. Pupil from Sale Grammar School, Sale.  “I really enjoyed the day learning new languages and experiencing other cultures. This trip has inspired me and many others to take languages to a further level.” – Pupil from Irlam and Cadishead Community High School, Manchester.

Languages can be fun!  “This trip was a real eye-opener to other languages, I thought other languages were very hard to learn, but this trip has showed me that it is great fun to learn other languages and they aren’t hard to learn.” Pupil from Irlam and Cadishead Community High School, Manchester.  "I think it made me feel differently about taking a language at University because it showed me languages could still be fun. I think the whole event has encouraged me to go to University and take a language." Pupil from Ulverston Victoria High School.

Community cohesion and global citizenship ‘Would you like to learn a CL and why?’  (Chinese) “I think it will be a challenge and I’m up for it because it is an interesting language and there are many Chinese people in England” (Y9, Fearns School).  “I’d like to learn Arabic so I can communicate with people in my local area” (Y9, Holly School).  “Chinese is becoming a very important language like French, German and Spanish and it would be interesting to learn” (Y9, Cannon Slade School).  “Next time I go to the chippie, I’ll say Ni Hao”

Attitudes towards Urdu  “I’d do Urdu at university, I speak it at home and it’s easier for me, but also because I’ve got lots of family abroad that don’t speak English” (Y8, William Hulme School Academy).  “I’d like to learn Urdu because this country is multicultural” (Sandbach school).  “Before I came here, I didn’t know Urdu was a language and it is very unusual” (Y8, Wellington School).

URDU: a case study  Urdu activities are now very popular after a slow start  Urdu teacher forum  Asian media network interest  Aspect Market Research project in Urdu  Degree level Urdu one step nearer?

A Level Urdu event 45 pupils studying A Level Urdu  15% would like to do a full degree in Urdu  55% would be interested in Urdu with another subject  30% would study Urdu as an option  Most pupils would not take a degree in MFL but some would combine MFL with Urdu  Aspect Market Research gathering further data

Language Clubs  Student ambassadors run lunch-time language clubs in schools. Rochdale and Crompton school will introduce Italian at KS3 as a result of a successful language club  William Hulme Grammar School Academy is working with the Hijra Arabic Supplementary School to run an Arabic language class  Excellent initiative but may have to be reduced due to increased cost of CRB checks

Language and film  Collaboration with the Cornerhouse Cinema in Manchester. Successful bid to the ‘Film: 21st Century Literacy’ foundation and the UK Film Council  Language workshops relating to Arabic, Chinese, Italian and Urdu films  Working with a cinema raises the status of the languages and showcases the culture  Creative workshops –blogs, podcasts and videos  Downloadable materials for teachers

Language and film Teacher feedback for Spanish: ‘The fact that we are now doing film post- 16 means that numbers have doubled from 9 to 18 students in two years. …. (Film) for our students has become a real ‘draw card’ for continuing languages at A level’ (Head of MFL)

Teacher Training Overall resultsoptions 1 and 2option 3options 4 and 5 Excel to GoodAveragePoor Training days 1 & 2 average score85%15% School visit average score85%8%7% Observation average score81%10%9%

Comments from participants  “I have spent 20 years in the UK and 15 years in teaching but this first time I am attending this kind of training, for which I am thankful.” (Urdu)  “It laid a foundation for my future career.” (Chinese)  “I gained relevant information and it encouraged me to be a language teacher.” (Chinese)  “I hope that the university will provide similar training in the future as well. We are thankful to the people who designed this course where we learned a lot. Thanks.” (Urdu)  “I would like more courses – I enjoyed myself.” (Arabic)

Improvements to teaching as a result of the course  Greater variety of materials used  More interactive activities -role play and games  Target language to give instructions in the classroom  Prepare lesson plans in advance  Management and communication with pupils with lack of interest  Use of differentiated activities for different needs

Impact  One of the Chinese Trainers has registered for a PhD. She became interested in the topic whilst working as a trainer for COLT.  One of our Chinese course participants gained a full time teaching post at the Confucius Institute after gaining confidence through the course.  COLT tutors in Chinese and Urdu are now teaching in two of the partner universities  Several of the participants in the Urdu training now want to study Urdu at University  Several course participants want to continue with further training

Conclusions  It is possible to increase motivation to study languages through innovative cultural and language activities  Language choice in schools and HE is too limited for the changing needs of an increasingly diverse population  Languages can play a role in the community cohesion agenda (recognised in the Worton report)*  COLT training provides a route into HE opening up opportunities for tutors and a rich resource of native speakers for the education sector  COLT activities have built links between complementary and mainstream schools  Initial research suggests there is demand for Urdu in HE but further data is required  How can we work together to take this agenda to the next stage? Perhaps the time is now right! *