Prepare yourself for the...

2012-2013

Languages Challenge!

Where will languages take you?

Welcome to the 2012/2013 Languages Challenge at Ormiston Sudbury Academy!

What is the Languages Challenge? The Languages Challenge has been created to support and reward pupils at Ormiston Sudbury Academy who love languages and want to use their languages creatively in their own time. Pupils complete a series of tasks and present the evidence to language teachers at school and the Routes into Languages panel. On successful completion of the Languages Challenge, certificates and prizes are awarded at a special Languages Challenge celebration. Who is the Languages Challenge for? The Languages Challenge is for any pupil at Ormiston Sudbury Academy. We are looking for commitment, creativity and enthusiasm. We have assumed you are learning or have learnt French and/or German but if you are learning a different language or speak another language at home, then why not try the Challenge in that language? What do you have to do? There are 8 categories: Learning the Basics, Using your Talents, Research, Culture, Creativity, Resources, Futures and Wild Card. Each category has a choice of tasks. You must complete at least one task from each category. Tasks are worth 5 or 10 points. To successfully complete the Languages Challenge, you are aiming for a total of 100 points from all 8 categories. What else do I need to do? You must keep evidence of each task in your portfolio. This could be in the form of photographs, videos or written accounts. You will also need to write up an overall self-evaluation explaining what you have achieved and what you have learnt. The whole portfolio will be submitted to the Routes into Languages East panel. You should choose one of your outcomes to be performed, shown or presented to parents and visitors at the Languages Challenge celebration.

If you think that you will generate a lot of digital files, you could investigate keeping an online portfolio, such as a blog. What happens next? Once you have decided to take on the Languages Challenge and decided how you will record your portfolio, you should look at the tasks and decide where to start. You could plan all of the tasks you want to do, or you could pick one and get started. Your teachers will help you and check that you stay on track. When you complete a task, make sure you can show what you did and keep the evidence in your portfolio. What happens when it is finished? When you have completed your portfolio, bring it to show Mrs Culshaw or Ms Turner who will make sure everything is ready for it to be presented to the Routes into Languages panel at the end of July. There will be a Languages Challenge celebration, where visitors and parents will look at what you have been doing. You may be asked to perform, show or present one of your tasks to an audience. Pupils who successfully present evidence of completion of tasks worth 100 points from all 7 categories, will be given a Routes into Languages East Challenge certificate and prizes will be awarded. What is Routes into Languages East? RiL is an organisation that works with education establishments and businesses in the Eastern region to promote language learning. RiL is providing portfolios in which you can record your challenges and they will also be part of the team judging your work at the end of the year.

Category 1 > Learning the Basics

1a 1b 1c Experiment with three different techniques for learning vocabulary. Evaluate which one works best by measuring your results. Produce a grammar guide in your chosen language. Evaluate how well it works by getting feedback on how helpful it is. Find resources to teach yourself something in your chosen language that you have not done in class yet. Teach someone else something that you have already learned.

Points

5 10 10

1d

Category 2 > Using your talents

2a Use your chosen language in an area where you have a talent, for example: song, drama, sport, dance, web-design or gaming. Run a successful language club or event.

Points

10

2b

10

2c

Assist in a language promotion event.

2d

Pursue/investigate a topic of interest to you in your chosen language.

10

Category 3 > Research

3a Investigate an aspect of culture, history or geography from your chosen language/ country. Research a famous person who speaks/spoke your chosen language. Find and follow instructions in your chosen language to make something, for example: a recipe, a machine, a toy.

Points

10

3b

10

3c

10

3d

Research 2 athletes from the Olympic or Paralympic teams from your chosen country. Research the most common baby names in your chosen language. Which one do you like the most and why?

3e

Category 4 > Culture

Listen to some music in your chosen language. Share what you nd with your friends. Watch a lm in your chosen language. Write a review of it in English or in your chosen language. Read an on-line magazine in your chosen language. Write a review of this in English or your chosen language. Choose a celebration for your chosen country and teach someone else how this is celebrated.

Points

4a

4b 4c 4d

10 10 10

Category 5 > Creativity

Write a song, story or poem in your chosen language. Share it with your friends and family.

Points

5a

10

5b

Learn a joke in your chosen language and tell it to one of your teachers. Create a video tutorial in your chosen language. Show it to someone and get them to write a review of it. Record of lm yourself speaking your chosen language. Share it with friends or family. Create a collage about yourself in your chosen language. Create a Christmas card to represent the differences between Christmas in the UK and in a country that speaks your language.

5c 5d

10 5

5e

5f

Category 6 > Resources

Use the school library (or ask your language teacher) to nd a book / resource / CD / 6a DVD in your chosen language. Write a review of this in English for the MFL blog (see your teacher for details). 6b Use your local public library to nd a book / resource / CD / DVD in your chosen language. Write a review of this in English for the MFL blog.

Points

10

10

6c Complete a MYLO challenge (www.hellomylo.com). Find two ICT resources for language learners. Evaluate them and write a review for the MFL blog.

10

6d

10

Category 7 > Futures

If you have a career that you would love to pursue, investigate the opportunities that 7a would open up if you could speak another language or travel abroad. How can having another language help you break into that job? 7b Investigate which local companies or businesses regularly use a language or have connections with other countries. How could we at school help them? Investigate which opportunities there are to study languages at college or university. What do people who end up studying languages at university go on to do? Interview a university student who is studying a language or someone who has worked abroad or uses a language in their job.

Points

10

7c

10

7d

10

Category 8 > Wild Card

Think of your own language-related task, describe what you chose and why. Provide a full explanation and evidence of what you did.

Points

8a

10

Make a penfriend in one of our partner schools in Denmark, Germany or France. 8b Exchange letters or emails with each other. If you are feeling brave you could Skype them! 8c Design a website or an app for language learners.

10 10