The Links into Languages LinkedUp Award Scheme has produced a series of free resources for teachers of primary, secondary, and post-16 languages. From CLIL to transition and from alternative accreditation to progression, these materials have been created and tested by groups of practising teachers and others working with languages. The LinkedUp Award Scheme aims to tackle the challenges we are facing and make a difference to teachers and learners, with the emphasis on innovation and creativity. Funded projects cover all ages from 4 to 19, a wide range of different languages and ten themes which reflect national priorities for language learning. Find out more about the Award Scheme.
Over the next few months we will be highlighting a selection of these LinkedUp resources, and this week the focus is on Home Languages. There are currently seven amazing transition projects on the Links resource finder, each one with a project overview and downloadable materials. All of them are brilliant, and here are a few to give you a taste:
Theme: Home Languages
Knowledge about Language (KAL) and Language Learning Strategies (LLS) as a source of next practice: A case study of Mandarin Chinese:
http://www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk/resources/1920
The project aimed to improve understanding about Knowledge about Language (KAL) and Language Learning Skills (LLS), strands of the Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 Frameworks for Languages, by exploring how KAL and LLS can build productive connections between Chinese and English when pupils learn Chinese. Chinese primary teachers in a group of schools worked collaboratively to develop a better understanding of the nature and value of pluri-lingual awareness in children.
Web-based teachers pack: languages and cultures:
http://www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk/resources/2355
Within the multicultural, ethnically and linguistically diverse West Midlands region, it is important to value and recognise pupils’ individual backgrounds, experiences and languages. This project aimed to raise the profile of community languages by engaging pupils in a new learning experience where they become central to the teaching and learning of the language(s). It set out a framework where pupils will actively contribute to the teaching and learning by exchanging ideas, networking and developing resources for delivering specialist sessions to new groups of learners.
All of the LinkedUp projects can be accessed on www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk/linkedup.