Summary

This project set out to create a model of support for community languages that can be copied across other Local Authorities. We brought together and trained teachers of different languages, enabling them to plan lessons using the Key Stage 2 Framework and to monitor and assess pupils using Asset Languages tests.

What were we trying to achieve?

We were trying to produce some materials in four languages which could be used in community language classes and school language clubs either in their own right or as a revision tool to help prepare children for Asset Languages external tests.

We saw this as an opportunity for linking primary languages methodology and resources with the teaching and delivery of community languages. Through enabling community language teachers from North and South Tyneside to attend primary French language and methodology training, we were trying to upskill them in languages pedagogy based on the Key Stage 2 Framework for languages. They would then be able to use what they had learned from these sessions to help them in the planning and creation of their own materials.

We wanted lessons to be interactive and engaging so that the children would be motivated and would learn new language learning strategies for use across all languages. We also hoped for the children to appreciate the value and status of their own language and for that to be reflected in the ethos of the school.

What did we do?

We employed four teachers covering four languages: Bengali, Arabic, Punjabi and Urdu. Two other teachers, of Farsi and Polish, also participated in the project.

The teachers attended training with the Primary Modern Foreign Languages French teachers from North and South Tyneside, so as to become more familier with ideas about how to teach languages in a lively way making use of games, rhymes and songs, with a view to adapting the primary French materials to other community languages.

We then held three resource-making sessions in which the teachers of the different languages worked together, swapped ideas and discussed ways in which children can become more engaged in language learning. Then we drew on the Primary French methodology to create materials in four languages. We focussed on the same five topic areas in each language; alphabet, animals, colours and clothes, prepositions and numbers 1-10. In some of the languages, a further text was added in the form of a song, poem or story.

How well have we achieved our aims?

The linking of community languages with primary languages has been beneficial for LA personnel, teachers and pupils. Using the expertise across two local authorities has enabled the creation of some very good materials in four languages, and the LinkedUp funding was essential for the dialogue and planning to take place.

The materials (without the sound files) have been trialled successfully within language clubs in schools and the feedback from the children has been very positive. The project is helping to raise the profile of community languages and to maximise the potential of the EAL children by giving them accreditation for their multilingualism.