European Week of Languages 2020 – Multilingualism

During the week of 21st-25th September 2020 we celebrated our European Languages with a focus on Multilingualism. In tutor groups we looked at what it means to be monolingual and multilingual and found that we were perhaps much more multilingual than we thought if we take into account dialects and accents. We did a number of activities including the Stroop test and listening to Rita Ora speaking Albanian and 3 different readings of Mr Tickle with different accents.

https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Evolving-English-VoiceBank/021M-C1442X01867X-0101V0
https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Evolving-English-VoiceBank/021M-C1442X00571X-0101V0
https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Evolving-English-VoiceBank/021M-C1442X05279X-0101V0

Research shows that learning languages can have positive effects on our brains across the whole of our life.

In class we celebrated with research and creating bookmarks with the information gathered. Students in Year 7-9 in both of their languages were given a theme or topic to focus on and have produced some excellent book mark creations which you can view here.

French

The French Department has been very busy during the European Week of Languages considering various aspects of French culture and the French speaking world, to help students design and create a bookmark.

Year 7 researched attractions (buildings, sites, tourist spots) from the French speaking world. In Year 8, students researched pop artists or bands and Year 9 focused their attention on Food, Dishes and Recipes. The students were very original with their designs and created some fantastic bookmarks on those topics, earning themselves plenty of rewards and prizes.

Russian

During the European week of Languages the Russian department asked students to look into something relevant for their current learning and research it. Year 7 researched the Cyrillic alphabet that they are busy learning, Year 8 students created colourful bookmarks with the names of the Russian colours on them and Year 9 researched the Russian Dacha.

German

In German Year 7 researched facts about the first day at school, Year 8 information about Austria and Switzerland and Year 9 were thinking ahead to future jobs and researched German companies here in Great Britain where their German might be useful.

Spanish

Key Stages 3 students studying Spanish carried out research about the Spanish-speaking world.

Year 9 students researched tourist sites of interest or monuments, Year 8 students researched food and traditional recipes in the Spanish-speaking world, and Year 7 students found out about Spanish-speaking musicians and artists. Well done, everyone!

Italian 

Year 7 and Year 9 had to research an Italian town or city while Year 8 were given the brief ‘Made in Italy’ and they had to decorate their bookmark on the theme of a famous Italian brand.