Lucy Jenkins

Back to Cerdd Iaith! It’s worth saying that the British Council is passionate about people learning international languages; we recognise the importance of languages in building friendships and empathy between cultures and we believe that young people having the ability to speak and understand international languages is essential to this. We also know that this leads to increased trust, engagement, and trade between and within societies.

And so, with the advent of the new curriculum in Wales, and its stated aim to provide young people with curiosity and enthusiasm, we aim to create the foundations for a lifelong interest in the languages of Wales and the languages of the world. Therefore, we think now is just the right moment to create new Cerdd Iaith activities and to roll these out to as many schools in Wales as possible.

There are four main aspects to language learning, speaking, listening, reading, and writing – these are recognisable to many of you who will be reading! Cerdd Iaith starts with the idea that if you get speaking and listening right, then the motivation to investigate reading and writing will follow. Cerdd Iaith is aimed at upper primary school learners, years five and six, so that learners go into secondary school with a positive and confident approach to learning a new language.

There is something vital in the British Council’s approach and appetite for teaching international languages, coming together with the aims of the new Welsh curriculum, and then using the pillars of creative education to build this resource. Cerdd Iaith is based on encouraging learners to be independent enquirers, creative thinkers, reflective learners, team workers, and effective participants – what’s not to love?!

The Durham Commission on Creativity and Education was convened to look at how our education system and wider system of learning for learners can grow the capacity for creativity. The commission began by asking how creativity is experienced and valued in the world:

‘Creativity, of course, goes by many names. It may be called intuition, enquiry, or expression; for business, it may be described as innovation, invention, or entrepreneurship. In all areas of life, from the sciences and humanities to the arts, creativity is seen as the ability to think laterally and come up with imaginative solutions to problems, to work across disciplines or to enjoy constructive play’.

So how does this relate to language learning in the classroom and in particular, in relation to Cerdd Iaith? To take one example, Cerdd Iaith offers language learning (Spanish and Welsh) in the context of travelling to Patagonia. Learners are asked to think about the voyage of the Welsh settlers to Patagonia on their ship the Mimosa. The teacher asks them to imagine how the settlers would have felt and what they might have seen? Then they ask the learners to ‘become’ a frozen picture of something on the ship. The exercises encourage learners to use vocabulary learnt in a previous exercise while also exploring Welsh culture and history. They speak and hear Welsh and Spanish, while having fun and using their imaginations. In another exercise learners are asked to take it in turns to introduce themselves, and to state what they will be taking in their suitcase. They must then repeat, (remember) all the objects that the learners before them have said, in the right order, before they name their own object. They can create an action or gesture to go with their object which everyone must repeat. This is a memory game with context, one which places language in a real-life scenario. When we set rules for learners, such as those involved in playing a game, they often find it easier to be imaginative and free. The fact they had previously learnt new words and were being asked now to use them in the story, makes it easier and ‘encourages a deeper level of learning.

My next blog will explore some more aspects of the Cerdd Iaith resource, so keep a look out for the next in our series!

Medium: English

Location: Tonyrefail

Languages: French, Spanish

When looking at how to raise the profile of IL amongst our Year 9 learners, we felt it was important to focus on the key aspects that the majority of learners are looking for when deciding their option choices; enjoyment of lessons, perceived competence in the subject, and perceived relevance of the subject. As a result, the following strategies are currently being implemented to improve learners’ attitudes in these crucial aspects.

The introduction of EPI within the department has made a substantial impact in terms of the enjoyment Year 9 experience during IL lessons and the sense of accomplishment that they feel in each and every lesson. The abundance of varied activities introduced has given all learners multiple opportunities to understand and then produce high-frequency target chunks,  providing them with ready-made building blocks that they are able to use confidently and accurately. This has really helped build the confidence of our learners and allows them to see our subject as something that they can make clear progress in. In particular, the competitive edge to many of our speaking activities (sentence stealers/battleships/mind reader etc.) has led to learners being willing to speak more enthusiastically which has really made a difference in how successfully they feel they can communicate in the target language.

We are also lucky enough to have built a strong link with a school in Paris over the last five years and as a result, two of our year nine classes this year have had the opportunity to be matched up with a French Pen Pal. Learners see this as an excellent way of using their language knowledge for authentic purposes and they respond extremely well to receiving a letter of their own from their new companion. Our letters are written in the target language with the French school writing in English, so this also gives us an excellent opportunity to revise what we have covered over the course of the year. Learners therefore send letters describing their family, school, hobbies etc. and again this has meant that learners are seeing the value in the language they have learnt and the joy of connecting with people they would not normally have the chance to. Just one of the fantastic reasons for studying a language, I am sure we can all agree!

Something that we are now re-introducing, that has been very successful in the past is a Year 9 stand-alone group project where learners are given the opportunity to plan a beginners’ French lesson of their own. They are given the task of planning a thirty-minute lesson on a topic such as greetings, numbers, colours etc.  Which includes a starter, 3 main activities and a consolidation activity. Learners then present their ideas to the rest of the class and each teacher decides on a winning group who will then deliver the lesson to our younger year groups such as Years 3 and 4. As an all-through school, this provides an excellent opportunity for our younger groups to get a taster of International Languages and be exposed to role models in language learning. All year 9 classes have responded positively to this project and the purpose of their language studies has again been underlined. As they say, there is no better way to learn than to teach and this project has really helped us to continue to boost the confidence of our year 9 learners.

The MFL Mentoring scheme run by Cardiff University has also been a massive help to us in terms of improving uptake at GCSE. The use of trained university students delivering cultural sessions has really helped to inspire and motivate our learners to continue with their language journey as it highlights to them the many joys that learning a language can bring. All learners who have taken part in this scheme have really appreciated the opportunity to learn more about languages in general and it has improved their appreciation of cultures, which has helped to broaden their horizons and aspirations when thinking of their own future.  Furthermore, learners have been much more engaged with the chance to look into topics and themes that we would not normally have the time to look at during our own IL lessons and talk to an inspiring role model who can share with them all the amazing opportunities learning a language can bring. This scheme is something which we are extremely grateful for as a school, as it helps to reinforce the message we are continually trying to embed into our lessons.

Lastly, this year we have tried to take advantage of the many opportunities offered by both Cardiff University and CSC, which has allowed our learners the prospect of speaking to people outside of the school in regards to their option choices.  Indeed, over the last month we have managed to secure a languages workshop delivered by Cardiff University on ‘Where languages can take you’ and we have also taken part in a ‘Wales Language Outreach Event’ by the British Council. Indeed, both events gave our learners a real insight into the types of careers that could be open to them with a language qualification. The use of real life examples in both presentations really grabbed the learners’ attention and it really made them aware of the amazing success stories of  people who they could immediately relate to; people who started their language journey just like them in year seven and who have travelled the world and experienced so many wonderful moments thanks to their language skills. We are now looking at introducing the ‘Routes Cymru Pupil Language Ambassadors Scheme’ to our learners with the aim of using peers as role models, who can support us in continuing to raise the profile of our IL department and help us to further promote the value of studying languages in our school.

With all these strategies, learners at Tonyrefail Community School are being given an abundance of opportunities to foster a love of learning languages.

Languages that they understand are going to provide enriching opportunities for them in the wider world. Last year with just some of these strategies, we were able to secure some of our highest numbers at GCSE and we hope this will only continue to grow year on year! 

I am Rebecca Gould, Head of Arts at the British Council in Wales. Before joining the British Council, I was a theatre director and during this time I worked for ten years for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Here I spent much of my time enthusing teachers and students across the UK, about the language, the many worlds and the contemporary relevance of our house playwright, William Shakespeare.

My experience here showed me that active – ‘on your feet’ – theatre-based approaches were the best way for students to develop an understanding and enjoyment of the plays, and particularly of the language. The workshops I delivered encouraged speaking out loud, regardless of your ability in English (I worked with many learners for whom English wasn’t their first language). The workshops were designed to encourage learners to taste and ‘chew’ on Shakespeare’s words, to see how they sounded in their own voices, and in doing so to place them in their minds and bodies. I asked learners to use their imaginations, and to walk in the shoes of the characters they created. This usually gave the learners the confidence to think of Shakespeare’s language as belonging to them, as something to be relished, enjoyed, and shared.

This is where Cerdd Iaith comes in! Cerdd Iaith is a British Council resource for teaching languages in primary schools. Cerdd Iaith, which roughly translates as Music Language or the Language of Music, is a free online teaching resource full of activities and original songs, for primary teachers to use in their language lessons. The online resource is accompanied by a teacher training programme, led by British Council Wales, that can either take place online or in person. The entire resource has been developed by linguists, musicians, and drama practitioners, working closely with primary school teachers in Wales, and aims to build and enhance teachers’ skills to support delivery of the Languages, Literacy and Communication Area of Learning of the new Curriculum for Wales.

Cerdd Iaith is already helping primary school learners and their teachers to learn Spanish, Welsh, and German, (French will be added to the programme in the spring).

In my next blog, I’ll tell you a little about why we thought it was important to create a new resource like this!!

Hi all,

How times have changed! Language learning looks so different in schools nowadays compared to when I was in school. It’s not just about words and grammar anymore (although they’re still very important!), it’s all about becoming more in-tune with the wonderful world of culture and multilingualism these days, which makes perfect sense seeing as we are so closely connected to people across the world now!

Our department take much pride in promoting multilingualism at our school. Many of our learners are speakers or learners of multiple languages and we love to hear them talking about the languages they use. The new CfW allows us to draw on this and help our learners to view language as part of their identity. It’s always a magical moment when a learner is able to link the language being learnt and a language they already know, through cognates for example. I remember setting a piece of cover work (thanks flu season!) for my learners to fill in a class map of how they might ‘link’ to other countries (e.g. do they speak their language, have relatives from there, have a favourite food come from there, and so on). When I came back my mind was blown to see how many learners could link to other countries, I couldn’t see any blank maps anywhere! This was just as eye-opening to me as it was to them! Our department also offers an extra-curricular Italian language club, which is proving very popular with learners, and they have been able to see similarities between the languages taught here at our school and Italian. Another teacher in our school has launched a Japanese culture club too, which is going down a storm. These initiatives are getting the learners so excited about language and culture, so much so that I’ve had learners asking me to run other clubs for all kinds of languages (here I come Duolingo!)

Another thing I love about the new curriculum is the chance it gives us to step outside our subject bubbles and think in a wider context. I’ve been preparing our new booklet for our year 7 cohort and thinking about the opportunities I could give them to develop the 4 purposes. Learners will be looking at pencil cases and colours and, at first, I was at a total loss as to how I could deliver this in a way to develop ethical, healthy, ambitious, and creative learners. Luckily, I stumbled across a wonderful charity who make school bags for learners in need outside of the UK. Since then, I’ve been working on using this for the new topic, allowing learners to design their ‘perfect’ school bag, so that we can narrow down a list of items to send to the charity. Thanks to the CfW not only can we now work with outside agencies such as this wonderful charity, but we are also encouraged to work with other departments. I’ve been thinking of getting the learners to create a piece of art using words for colours to depict an image – this style of art can then be looked at further in the art department’s lessons. I can’t wait to see what our budding Picassos come up with!

And that’s me signing off!