North West

Join us online to celebrate European Day of Languages on 26 September 2023. This event, aimed at KS3-5, is organised by the Routes into Languages NW network, a collaboration between the Universities of Chester, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Register on behalf of your class and beam us into your classroom. Your students will hear from our staff and UG ambassadors about why languages are fun, rewarding and an amazing investment into their future.       

We will be running four identical sessions throughout the day, delivered via Zoom, and you can join as many as you like. The one-hour sessions will run at 9, 10:30, 12 and 13:30. Each session includes: 

• Why Study Languages? -  Motivational talk led by university languages staff   
• Languages can change you! - Panel with MFL student ambassadors
• Q&A session 

How to register: fill in the form here https://gck.fm/xsowb

This workshop will be hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University and will explore the relationship between poetry and music, look at poems turned to music, and allow students to create their own musical poems. There will be an introduction for all led by Laura Martin-Cisneros, with break-out sessions for Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Target audience: Years 7-9

Languages: Arabic, French, Spanish

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetry-and-music-tickets-570030315017

Please see the Word document below for further information on other free online workshops to accompany the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition.

This workshop will be hosted by Lancaster University and will analyse protest songs from across the world: What do they have in common? How do they help understand the context in which they were composed? How do they bring their message across, and what makes them efficient? We will then break into language groups (Chinese, French, German, Italian & Spanish) in which we will look into specific examples in the relevant languages and give you the tools to create your own protest song.

Target age-range: Years 12-13

Languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/get-up-sing-up-protest-songs-across-the-world-tickets-570022270957

Please see the Word document below for further information on other free online workshops to accompany the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition.

This workshop will be hosted by the University of Manchester. Unleash the poet within you, have fun, be creative! Join poet Rebecca Hurst as she guides you through a number of writing prompts and exercises that will set you on your path to create poetry in the language(s) you currently study at school. Rebecca’s session will be delivered in English and classes can then complete the activities in the languages taught at their school, at a time that fits into their timetables. Work can be shared via an online exhibition on Padlet, which will be open to submissions for a week after the workshop. We will post a video with feedback and appraisals of some of the works presented.

Target audience: Years 10 & 11

Languages: Held in English, with materials to adapt to all languages based on the core vocabulary lists from your MFL lessons.

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/we-are-poets-nous-sommes-des-poetes-somos-poetas-wir-sind-dichter-tickets-570043043087

Please see the Word document below for further information on other free online workshops to accompany the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition.

This workshop will be hosted by the University of Chester and will explore the power of words and their emotional connections. Students will discover a new field of possibilities to create a text in a foreign language. We will identify new vocabulary that can be created from a given word, and we will finish this session with some creative writing, such as poems, plays or songs. This will be an interactive workshop, student-led, but facilitated by a tutor to provide support and guidance.

Target age-range: Years 7-9

Languages: French, German and Spanish

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pop-up-pops-tickets-567742983547

Please see the Word document below for further information on other free online workshops to accompany the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition.

This workshop will be hosted by the University of Liverpool. It will examine the use of language in song lyrics and explore what makes catchy and effective lyrics. In an initial plenary session, we will think about the different features of song lyrics (rhythm, rhyme) and the way that language can inspire a composition. This will be followed by breakout groups in French, German and Spanish, in which each group will explore different song lyrics, and provide you with ideas for creating your own (and get you in the mood for this year’s Eurovision!).

Target age-range: Years 10-11

Languages: French, German and Spanish

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tangerine-trees-and-marmalade-skies-words-and-music-in-song-lyrics-tickets-567100030457

Please see the Word document below for further information on other free online workshops to accompany the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition.

Routes into Languages North West is coordinating a series of free online workshops to accompany the Mother Tongue Other Tongue (MTOT) competition this spring. Each workshop will be themed around a specific element relating to poetry and languages and involve breakout groups in different languages. This is the ideal opportunity to engage pupils in creative language production, whether they intend to enter MTOT or not. We hope to engage a wide range of teachers and pupils to these live events, but will record the opening plenary session and ensure materials from the breakout sessions are shared with registered teachers after the event. 

Further details and sign-up links will be posted here prior to 2 March, when there will be an online CPD webinar about the MTOT competition, including free resources and information about the workshops. To sign up for this event, led by the MTOT team, please register here. The webinar will run from 16.00-17.30 on Thursday 2 March.