Students learn the value and fun of languages

On Thursday 4th December 2003 at Green Park Centre in Aston Clinton, 163 students in Years 11 & 12 at Aylesbury High School, Aylesbury Grammar School and Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School attended a Modern Language Awareness Day organised by Dr. Angela Wall, the Language College Director at Aylesbury High School.

In her Keynote Speech Sue Balmer, the new subject leader for the (URL "http://www.specialistschoolstrust.org.uk" "Specialist Schools Trust"), gave an inspiring presentation on the value of learning foreign languages.

Sue's personal love of languages came through clearly as she spoke, saying:

• More languages are offered in schools nowadays than ever before.
• Learning languages gives you confidence.
• A foreign language in your portfolio will be an important extra skill for your career.
• Seeing links between languages is key to being really multilingual and is fun.
• It can be fun simply trying to recognise foreign languages spoken in public.
• Listen to this recording of (URL "http://music.mysic.com/La_Mc_Solar.html" "MC Solar") the popular French and English speaking Rap singer
• Be aware of (URL "http://us.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/11/18/whistle.language.ap" "Silbo Gomero") the whistling language on the island of Gomera, which can travel up to 2 miles, an ancient answer to the mobile phone!
• Find out about (URL "http://www.language-investigator.co.uk" "Language Investigators") a web site aimed at Primary School teachers seeking to introduce a multilingual dimension into their lessons.
• Look at the aims of the (URL "http://www.france5.fr/emploi/travailler/W00211/77/95814.cfm" "Compagnion du Devoir") a professional association for people with traditional skills.

To put this in a contemporary UK context Sue reminded the audience that 400 different languages are spoken in London making it the most multicultural city in the world.

She also cited the case of an English engineering company that had found France to be a source of very able engineers because they had kept the traditional guild-based apprenticeships. The French engineers' language ability was once again a key to their successful recruitment in England.

On a personal note she spoke of how, she had approached a man from Haiti because she knew she could communicate with him, and of how this lead to a link with her school in England, which enhanced their link with Senegal. Her new Haitian and Senegalese partners in turn had greatly benefited from the discovery that their peoples had historical connections. She went on to mention the importance of the work of the (URL "http://www.scolanet.org" "Écoliers du Monde") which is trying to address the fact that million of children world-wide have no access to schooling.

Sue ended by saying "An increase in communication technology and a decrease in trade barriers mean international borders are blurred and those with many language skills and cultural awareness will have a passport to global business".

The audience reacted with spontaneous applause for this enlightening speech delivered with obvious enthusiasm.

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This was followed by language taster courses in: Chinese, Danish, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Welsh

I attended the Welsh session lead by Mrs Louse Cannon an English Teacher at Aylesbury Grammar School whose first language was Welsh. We learned about the revival of the language, practised useful phrases and grappled with the basic rules for reading it. It was fun to hear a native speaker who knew different styles of Welsh and its modern usage.

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• Languages give you more opportunities to travel.
• The speakers' careers and personal lives had been enhanced by their interest and skill in languages and you can do the same.
• To join the EU you must speak at least two European Languages and your proficiency is regularly tested. Consequently the British people there are manly linguists and there is a need for more specialist skills.
• If you leave university with a degree in languages you should then train in a profession for which your languge can be a powerful additional skill.
• With the present day increase in email use the written word is becoming as important as the spoken word in many lines of business.

The students had been given many aspects of language use to consider and the afternoon ended with a thank you from Dr Wall to the contributors and to the students.

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Report by Derek Jones

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