My first presentation at ICT Links into Languages Conference aka ILILC3 was entitled I want to break free.

The blurb promised –

In I want to break free  we’ll be looking at ways to break away from ‘chalk and talk’ and involve learners, encouraging them to interact with and demonstrate their understanding as they learn using (mobile) technology. We’ll investigate some ways of doing this using tools such as Nearpod, Socrative and Memrise and whilst I’ll be using my iPad and Mac to present, that doesn’t mean you need a fruity device to join in as some tools are web based and others are both Android and iOS. And on top of that, we’re a friendly bunch so I’m sure people will share!

Below are my slides which were more a summary of the session for those who weren’t there, and an aide-memoire for me to make sure I said all I wanted as we were flipping between apps most of the time! We did a Socrative quiz on the MFLTwitterati, learned about Healthy Eating in Spanish using Nearpod, saw how rubbish I really am at German using Memrise, looked very quickly at how to use Book Creator app and explained everything using Explain Everything!

(Apologies for the weird typeface – Slideshare has done something odd as it’s fine when I open in PPT!)

[slideshare id=16645089&style=border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px 1px 0; margin-bottom: 5px;&sc=no]

My song for the ILILC3 Show and Tell is….

El pollito pio!

httpv://youtu.be/dhsy6epaJGs

If you want the actions, here’s a cute kid doing them!

httpv://youtu.be/oxuyvHLveCc

And here’s a version with the lyrics – a stronger South American accent though!

httpv://youtu.be/sEszVwMn7t8

Also available in

Italian

Dutch

German

Catalan 

Portuguese

French

Greek

Cyprus version

Romanian

Lyrics :

Pulcino Pio – El Pollito Pio (Il Pulcino Pio – Radio Globo)

En la radio hay un pollito,
En la radio hay un pollito,
Y el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay una gallina,
En la radio hay una gallina,
Y la gallina coo, el pollito pio
el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay también un gallo,
En la radio hay también un gallo,
Y el gallo cocoroco y la gallina coo,
y el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay un pavo,
En la radio hay un pavo,
Y el pavo glu glu glu, y el gallo cocoroco,
y la gallina coo, y el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay una paloma,
En la radio hay una paloma,
Y la paloma ruu, el pavo glu glu glu,
el gallo cocoroco, la gallina coo,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay también un gato,
En la radio hay también un gato,
Y el gato miao, la paloma ruu,
el pavo glu glu glu, el gallo cocoroco,
la gallina coo y el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay también un perro,
En la radio hay también un perro,
Y el perro guau guau, el gato miao,
la paloma ruu, el pavo glu glu glu,
el gallo cocoroco, la gallina coo
y el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay una cabra,
En la radio hay una cabra,
Y la cabra meee, el perro guau guau,
el gato miao, la paloma ruu,
el pavo glu glu glu, el gallo cocoroco,
la gallina coo y el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay un cordero,
En la radio hay un cordero,
Y el cordero beee, y la cabra meee,
el perro guau guau, el gato miao,
la paloma ruu, el pavo glu glu glu,
el gallo cocoroco, la gallina coo
y el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay una vaca
En la radio hay una vaca
Y la vaca moo, y el cordero beee
y la cabra meee, el perro guau guau,
el gato miaoo, la paloma ruu,
el pavo glu glu glu, el gallo cocoroco,
la gallina coo y el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay también un toro,
En la radio hay también un toro,
Y el toro muuu, y la vaca moo
y la cordero beee y la cabra meee,
el perro guau, el gato miaoo,
la paloma ruu, el pavo glu glu glu,
el gallo cocoroco, la gallina coo
y el pollito pio, el pollito pio,
el pollito pio, el pollito pio.

En la radio hay un tractor,
En la radio hay un tractor,
Y el tractor bruum y el tractor bruum,
y el tractor bruum y el pollito prrrr.

Linguamedia is an app that allows you to watch foreign TV stations online. Originally launched earlier this year with French channels,  Linguascope announced today that their Linguamedia app has been updated so you can now watch German, Spanish, Italian and English channels as well as French ones. They’ve also improved video playback, and updated it for the iPhone5 screen.

The app costs 69p and offers 16 French, 6 German, 12 Italian, 12 Spanish and 5 English channels (NB the channels are in that language not necessarily from that country so there is an Austrian and a Swiss channel for German) It is possible to access TV online e.g. by searching “RTVE” you can watch the stream of RTVE1, RTVE2, Telesport and Canal 24H, but for convenience, this app is great. You need a wifi connection to view the stations, and as Linguascope warn

I’ve mentioned Linguatrivia Spanish and Newshound previously but there are many other apps from Linguascope available. Worth a look!

Thanks to REAL (The European Network of Language Associations) for drawing my attention to the following;

The European Union has launched a drawing and writing contest for 8-24 year olds, in partnership with the European Youth Forum. The four winners will be invited by the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament, to be part of the official delegation of the European Union that will travel to Oslo to receive this year’s Peace Prize. The European Youth Forum will pre-select the 16 best entries for each age group (8-12, 13-17, and 18-24). A jury will select three of the final winners (one per age group) who will win a trip to Oslo. Participants can take part in the contest and propose entries on: www.peaceuropefuture.eu.

The question that they must answer?

In the youngest age group, 8-12 years old, entrants must draw their response (they can use a computer so I assume that includes mobile devices like iPads too!)

In the other two age groups, entrants have to ‘text’ their response in 120 characters – in any of the 23 official languages of the EU. This actually so that they can be retweeted with a hashtag #peace4EU according to the rules. All entrants are then allowed to expand on and explain their  drawing/text in 300 characters.

The competition is open to nationals of the EU (so that means my kids can enter even though we’re currently in non EU Switzerland!) but you need to get your skates on as the closing date is 25th November at midnight CET. Entry is online though so no need to worry about posting pictures!

In celebration of the new features of Storybird, I’ve been back to the site and had another play around and written a new book!

I’ve written about Storybird before here, here and here. Oh, and here and here too!

New things on Storybird that I think are particularly useful from an educational point of view –

1. No more Flash so you can use and view the Storybirds on any smartphone or devices including iOS such as iPads and iPod Touch devices. This also means that you can write Storybirds in scripts that do not use Latin characters such as Greek, Mandarin and Arabic.

2. More categories, making it easier to search for a story written by someone else, and also filter for age appropriate stories.

3. New ‘create’ page and new covers.

HOWEVER,  you may now be able to write in other scripts but you still can’t publish them to the PUBLIC gallery, nor can you publish in any language other than English. The Community Guidelines state

‘While we celebrate all cultures and languages, we can not at this time moderate and thus approve Storybirds for the public library that are written in languages other than English. We will be expanding internationally soon, and we will add specific language support as we do. In the meantime, the stories can still be published in your private library and shared with your family and friends.’

Whilst I know that this is a small company and moderation in lots of languages costs money, the MFL Twitterati did offer to help, and I’m sure that offer still stands?! And I wonder what their plans are – the site is now 3 years old. I will tweet and ask. Watch this space!

UPDATE

Here is the Twitter conversation with Storybird! (NB read from bottom up!)

So it seems we have a while yet before we can freely share our Storybirds on the site.

HOWEVER, to get around this, you can embed them into a blog (as I have here), or share the URL of your Storybird (I shared with my own email address then opened the book and copied the URL)

And there is also the wonderful MFL Storybird wiki. Whilst the URL way will still work, the fact that you are now given an embed code means that the books can now be embedded on the page and read there and then rather than having to be transferred to Storybird.com to read!

A shame that you have to “know the right people” to be able to access all these stories in other languages but better than nothing!

La vida sana. on Storybird

I’ve received notification of what looks to be a very interesting event to be held at Coventry University London Campus on 24th October. Text messaging and Language Development.

I quote from the email I received –

Researchers from Coventry University, led by Professor Clare Wood, will present the results of their ongoing research into the effects of text messaging on children’s written language development.

In particular they will report on their most recent longitudinal project which has examined the relationships between texting, grammatical understanding and spelling ability in children and young adults.

The event will give delegates the opportunity to discuss and benefit from hearing the implications of these findings for their own areas of interest and activity as well as others and reflect on the broader implications of the work for children’s development.

All interested parties are encouraged and welcome to attend this free event. Refreshments and lunch will be provided.

Although you have to register before you receive further details on the Coventry University events page, they have kindly sent me the agenda so I can share it with you. It’s a half day event followed by lunch and an informal discussion with the presenters! And if you go to the Nuffield Foundation site , there is an outline of the research.

Whilst I can’t go, my interest is now piqued and I’ll be reading the research with interest!

Happy European Day of Languages.

Here’s an idea of what you might do if you hadn’t planned anything and want to do something!

This map was published on the Oxford Dictionaries blog last week for World Gratitude Day and features over 20 ways to say thank you from around the world.

Why not try out a few different ways to be grateful today.

And if that’s not enough,this site has more words, and even tells you if it’s formal or informal!

And here’s a video to help too!

httpv://youtu.be/xP_A_9A4NUw

An interesting report on Teaching Languages in schools across Europe was published a few days ago.

Key Data on Teaching Languages at School in Europe 2012 is a joint Eurydice/Eurostat publication, produced in close cooperation with the European Commission. The report is based on four main data sources: Eurydice, Eurostat, the European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC), and the OECD’s PISA 2009 international survey. Eurydice data covers 32 countries (27 Member States, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey) and takes the reference year 2010/11. [The report] contains 61 indicators and qualitative information describing the context and organisation of foreign language teaching, student participation levels as well as the initial and continuing education of foreign language teachers. In addition to giving a snapshot of the situation today, the report also presents several time series which are helpful in identifying trends in language teaching over recent years and past decades.

You can see the highlights of the report in the document below, or read the full version by clicking on the image on the left.

Some of the key points however are –

1. Students start learning foreign languages from an increasingly early age. It makes me really sad to see the UK block at 11 years old after all the hard work done to make it 7. And you can see that we’re far behind many other countries in Europe.

2. More students learn two foreign languages. Not in the UK though it seems.

3. English by far is the dominating foreign language in Europe. 

4. Very few students learn languages other than English, French, Spanish, German or Russian.

5. Students’ perceptions of the usefulness of a language is a motivating factor for learning – and English is by far seen as the most useful.  Perhaps this, and point 3, explain some of the UK’s language “apathy”? Trips are also pointed out as a motivating factor.

6. Teaching guidelines for foreign languages place equal emphasis on all communication skills – and yet both teachers and students make infrequent use of the target language in the classroom. Interestingly, the UK is not on the graphic for this section – I wonder why?

7. The Common European Reference Framework (CEFR) is becoming a main tool for defining student attainment levels. Also interesting to note that the UK is one of the few countries in Europe (along with Spain, Netherlands, French speaking Belgium and a few others) without an expected level of proficiency in a second language by school leaving age.

8. School reports difficulties filling vacancies for language teachers. I know a few great language teachers who would love a job!!

9. Few countries require teachers to spend an immersion period in the target language country. The UK does have recommendations about this, and also about the content of ITT. However, I think they could go further. You should have to visit regularly as well to keep ‘up to date’. Why not have funded sabbatical periods – even a week would be good – to revitalise your skills every two or three years? And I don’t mean a trip on which you’re supervising children, nor do I mean a week of sunbathing on the Italian riviera. Perhaps shadowing a colleague, or investigating something that interests you. And immersing yourself in a language and culture that you love.

I wonder if anyone who makes decisions about languages has read this report properly? Or have they just seen the ‘English is the most useful’ and thought ‘That’s Ok then’?

So the Olympics are finally here. The Opening Ceremony is tonight (although the action has already started with football!) so why not have a look at the Spanish page on London2012 and start identifying the Spanish participants in the Games.

Just for fun –

Who are these people?

In which sports do they compete?

And which one of them is carrying the Spanish flag in the opening ceremony?

You can also access information about the team on the Comite Olímpico Español (Spanish Olympic Committee) website.

And if you are (by any chance!) teaching Spanish at the moment, why not check out these resources to help you!

TES Olympics set scroll to Spanish

MFL Sunderland Olympic resources

Linked In project on using Olympics French and Spanish

MFLHampshire wiki has lots of ideas too!

And of course, let’s not forget that Spanish is spoken by many countries other than Spain! Check out Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Venezuela and many others!

¡Que comiencen los Juegos!

Fasten your bug-belts for some exciting news!

Starting on Monday 12th every weekday on CBeebies at 09.35 and repeated at 13.35 is…..

You may have already discovered Lingo and his multi-lingual bug friends on the CBeebies website – I know that he has been a hit with more than one family that I know! Lingo ‘the ultimate show bug’ is putting on a show and  and his performing bug friends help him prepare, teaching him some words in their language on the way, ready  for the ‘Big Bug Show’.

Well, after lots of planning, and auditioning of bugs, Wei the Chinese bug, Jargonaise the French bug and Queso the Spanish bug will all be starring in their own week of programmes on CBeebies.

The schedule is as follows –

Week 1: Chinese
Mon 12th – Ep 1: “Chop Chop”
Tues 13th – Ep 2: “Wei’s Giant Jump”
Wed 14th – Ep 3: “Cannonbug”
Thur 15th – Ep 4: “Wei Up High”
Fri 16th     – Ep 5: “Wei’s Buggy Best 3”

Week 2: French
Mon 19th – Ep 6: “Can-Can’t”
Tues 20th – Ep 7: “Trapeasy Rider”
Weds 21st – Ep 8: “Balancing Bug”
Thurs 22nd – Ep 9: “The Limbo Show”
Fri 23rd       – Ep 10: “Jargonaise’s Buggy Best 3”

Week 3: Spanish
Mon 26th – Ep 11: “Questanets”
Tues 27th – Ep 12: “Queso The Clown”
Weds 28th – Ep 13 “Ice Cream Queso”
Thurs 29th – Ep 14: “Strong Bug”
Fri 30th      – Ep 15: “Queso’s Buggy Best 3”

I’m especially excited as I have been involved with Lingo since the beginning of the process, firstly with the website and then with the programmes and, whilst my contribution was one of many and possibly quite small, it’s good to see the fruits of one’s efforts!

Make sure you tune in for fun, laughter and language learning at 09.35 on Monday. And if you can’t watch it then, record it or find it on iPlayer.