European Day of Languages 2008
Today at Nodehill was European Day of Languages and as you can see from the pictures below we really celebrated with style. Pupils and staff dressed up in traditional costumes and as in 2007 and 2006 we gave everyone the opportunity to sample foods from all over Europe
... for free!
During whole school assembly, I played a few video clips which promoted the benefits of language learning from Arsene Wenger, a goldfish and a cat, tested the pupils' language awareness with an EDL quiz from the TES Resource Bank and finished by playing them Yakko's Nations of the World which made them smile.
Adding a personal touch, I also included an excerpt from an audio recording I made yesterday with one of my form class, Calum who speaks very good Spanish because of his positive language learning experience at primary school, going to Spain on holiday and living there for a year.
His message to the pupils of Nodehill was possibily the most effective as it gave a real life example of successful language learning from someone they could totally relate to. Well done Calum.
You can download the interview in full here.
Download Interview_with_Calum.mp3
After assembly, I took a picture of those pupils who dressed up and here it is. How many nationalities can you spot?
Finally I'd like to thank my colleague Susan Peoples who helped doling out the food at lunchtime and for creating the wonderful display below. Happy European Day of Languages!
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I hope that the "European Day of Languages" will encourage many people to learn a new language. Especially in the United Kingdom where the interest in learning languages seems to be declining.
You may know that four schools in Britain have introduced Esperanto, the neutral international language, in order to test its propaedeutic values?
The pilot project is being monitored by the University of Manchester. Why not extend this project to other countries as well? Further academic appraisal is essential.
An interesting video can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
Otherwise http://www.lernu.net might help ?
Posted by: Brian Barker | 26/09/2008 at 18:25
What a fantastic interview with Calum! I am sorry I missed it in assembly but just downloaded it and he sounds so confident and fluent! I am sure that this will inspire the pupils. I was really pleased with how many people dressed up - well done you!
Posted by: Mrs Bushell | 26/09/2008 at 20:55
Great stuff Joe - I knew it was EDL and got my form to greet as many staff as possible in a foreign language. They got a signature for each one - the most signatures will win a mention in assembly! They loved it :)
Look forward to seeing you all next month!
Posted by: Sam | 26/09/2008 at 22:57
Hi Joe,
Your blog is so inspiring! We've had European language day at school as well and I describe how it went on my blog: http://aliceayel.posterous.com/european-day-of-languages
I have mentioned you and two great videos that will appeal to year 9 when choosing a language as an option.
Posted by: Alice Ayel | 27/09/2008 at 12:30
Wow, looks like this was very successful! Being American myself, I only just learned about it today in various blog posts.
Posted by: Samantha | 29/09/2008 at 03:44
Thanks for all your comments on our EDL celebrations. I'll pass them on to the pupils.
:)
Posted by: Joe Dale | 29/09/2008 at 07:21
Congratulations to everyone who took part. I hope that there are some budding polyglots amongst the children! :)
Posted by: Damon Lord | 30/09/2008 at 02:00
EDL is great for dispelling myths about language learning such as 'everyone speaks English'. It also should make pupils think about the importance of learning languages to break down barriers and raise cultural awareness.
The pupils really enjoyed Friday and I hope that it will stay with them when they think about why they are learning French or any other language in the future.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 30/09/2008 at 10:49