Eurostars Summer Residential:
Year 12 students from across the region participated in a languages'summer residential course which was hosted on the Clifton Campus of Nottingham Trent University. Eurostars gives Year 12 students, who have recently taken AS in a modern foreign language, the opportunity to enrich their knowledge and to taste a language they have never studied before.
The talented young linguists experienced tasters in Italian, Japanese and Mandarin, as well as enrichment sessions in the language(s) studied at AS. Alongside the language activities, participants were able to experience teaching and learning in higher education by attending mini lectures/debates on Linguistics and International studies.
Student hosts and staff from Schools and Colleges gave talks on other aspects of life at university: budgeting, accommodation, careers in languages and the variety of languages' degrees available. There was a full programme of evening entertainment at Peveril Halls, where the school pupils were accommodated. The event, which is programmed to take place again in July 2009,attracted a total of 68 participants. For further information on Eurostars 2009 contact the Project Manager of the East midlands consortium: mirella.santamaria@ntu.ac.uk
Languages Road show gets underway in Lincolnshire
Lincoln Universty has recently begun a programme of one day language taster sessions. The tasters are delivered by Language Student Ambassadors and aim to give school pupils in rural areas the opportunity to enrich their language skills and to learn about other countries and peoples. Lincoln University hopes to link these activities to its own community radio station, which is based on the campus. School pupils will be able to produce and air a short radio programme in a foreign language. Participants and their families will be invited to attend an internationally themed farmily language supper, where the children's work will be showcased. For further information contact Adaglish@lincon.ac.uk
After School Language Clubs
The university of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University are meeting to discuss the second round of after school language clubs for year 6 pupils. The language clubs, which will be delivered by Language Student Ambassadors from both universities, aim to provide pupils with both knowledge of modern foreign languages or community languages, and the cultures of the peoples who speak them. For further information contact the Project Manager for the East Midlands Consortium: mirella.santamaria@ntu.ac.uk
Joint Celebration of European Day of Languages
Routes into Languages at Nottingham Trent University teamed up with the Regional Languages Network, Nottingham City Central Library, Nottingham City Council's Regional and International Development Office and the Collaborative Models Project to create a celebration with a difference.
Suzannah Hutton of the East Midlands Regional Languages Network, provided a tutor of Arabic to deliver Arabic tasters and, she also invited Mark Wingfield one of the network's Business Language Champions to give a seminar on 'languages and the world of work'. Two members of staff from the council's regional and international development team delivered the Italian and Mandarin tasters and provided stands with information on countries of the world. Spanish and German were delivered by Nottingham Trent University's Routes into Languages Project Manager and its Project Officer for the Collaborative Models Project.
Modern languages students from the university, handed out invitations and balloons to members of the public in order to publicise the event. The Social Inclusion Librarian from the central library commented that it had been a wonderful day, which had encourage passers-by and regular library users to participate in the celebration.
