Language Futures was originally developed by Linton Village College as part of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation initiative. Management of the initiative passed to the Association for Language Learning in summer 2015. When using and/or adapting resources, we would ask you to acknowledge the Language Futures initiative and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation as the original publishers of the material.

This morning I’m going to tell you about Language Futures This morning I’m going to tell you about Language Futures. Language Futures is quite a new project. It started a few years ago at Linton Village College, as an experimental project into language learning.

What if… …you could choose the language you wanted to learn? …you decided the pace at which to learn? So, what if… you could choose the language you wanted to learn and you decided the pace at which to learn. (Here I thought I would mention briefly that we have very good reasons for choosing the languages we have in our curriculum – i.e. our proximity to those countries.. But also mention that there are nearly 7000 languages spoken in the world and so it stands to reason that there will be individuals that would like to learn specific languages that are not part of the curriculum for everyone).

How does it work? You choose the language The teacher designs and supports You also work with a native speaker mentor volunteer Your learning is project-based You have one Language Futures session after school each week You learn how to learn a language (so that you could learn any language at any stage in your life) You build your language into your daily life (FB, online activity, music, films, books) In the Language Futures approach, pupils choose the language they want to learn, so there are multiple languages being learnt all in one room. The teacher in the room is not an expert in every one of these languages, but s/he is an expert linguist who knows how languages work and the sorts of questions you need to ask to find out how they work. There are also adult volunteers who are speakers of all the languages who come to sessions to help and act as mentors. There is a lot of independence, as you have to find things out yourself using a whole range of resources, including ICT – computers, ipads or tablets, textbooks, dictionaries etc… You have one session after school each week but you to two very important things: you learn how to learn a language and also, you integrate language learning into your daily life so that you are a bit immersed in it – e.g. you listen to music, you read on the internet, you put your FB or phone into your language, etc…

Which language? A language you speak and understand but do not read or write A language someone in your family speaks A language a pupil in the school speaks A language you just like the sound of A language that at least one other student in the group is also learning A language spoken in a country you have been to or are interested in How would you choose the language you want to do? Here are some different motivations that have inspired students in the past few years.

إن شاء الله مستقبل 未来 未来 Przyszłość l’avenir futuro (Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish. todhchaí 未来 未来 This year several schools across the country are offering the project – these are some of the languages that students are learning. gelecek Какой кошмар! مستقبل Zukunft

Language Futures was originally developed by Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire as part of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation initiative.  Management of the initiative passed to the Association for Language Learning in summer 2015.  “It is great to learn a language at your own speed and not feel that you are trying to catch up all the time.” “We aren’t getting spoon-fed information, we have to find it and learn it for ourselves. We have to keep ourselves on track” “LF lessons are quite relaxed, but you still learn a lot. You control your learning, which i like. You also control your learning at home.” “You are more independent in LF, which has made me more independent in my other lessons as well.” Some of the students doing it there at the moment had this to say about it:

Why do you like it? We enjoy having many different languages in one classroom We like learning more independently We feel more relaxed in our learning We do more group work We feel valued and trusted as learners We control our own learning We learn from each other Why do students say they like this approach?

What next? Take a letter and application form from xxx Talk about it at home Complete the form and hand it in to XXX by XXX We will let you know by the end of xxx if your application is successful. Language Futures starts in September. Then, these are the steps to follow. Thank you very much for listening. Come and see me if you have any questions.