End of teaching already

It seems like the European Day of Languages was only yesterday and yet here we are, with our undergraduate teaching just having finished and our students and staff involved in oral assessments and final pieces of coursework. Many of our Year 3 students are getting themselves ready for a semester on Study Abroad in the spring and, for everyone else, it’ll be back to Stirling where we’ve got new modules launching and lots of exciting outreach work being undertaken by our Language Ambassadors.

There’s plenty to update you on and we’ll hopefully get a few blog posts up over the coming days. However, one thing we’ve been particularly pleased about this semester is that we’ve seen the return of former students who have decided to come back to Stirling, in one guise or another, and whose experiences give a great sense of the range of routes that studying a language opens up.

To start off the updates, we were really glad to hear from Erin, who graduated in June with a BA Hons in French and, in September, started our MSc programme in International Conflict and Cooperation, building on the dissertation she wrote on Islamophobia in contemporary French society: “In the beginning it was quite daunting and just a lot of work, almost everyone else came from a politics background and I was having a bit of an identity crisis thinking ‘well, I can speak another language’. After a couple of weeks, I relaxed into being an International Relations student and managed to impress one of my tutors by being able to speak French in order to analyse a speech by President Macron (that we happened to have studied in our French classes…). Despite the mountain of readings I am buried under now, I am enjoying myself.

As part of this Masters I have signed up to go on a study trip to Geneva in May 2024, the aim of which is to secure work opportunities and connections in UN organisations in Switzerland. I have already volunteered to act as translator for the class because I’m the only francophone in our class. Hopefully, it will provide an opportunity to practice my French – I have been reassured by Brigitte that the Swiss sometimes speak slower, which is a relief since I haven’t been able to practice all that much since graduation.

While it is sometimes strange to be back at Stirling in a new department, and not see the faces I became used to, it is nice to catch up every once in a while with the members of the French department in the corridors of Cottrell building which I am convinced is a maze. This is my fifth year here and I still get lost!”

We’re delighted to see Erin back on campus and grateful that she made the time to send us through this update. We’ll look forward to hearing how the Geneva trip goes in the spring, too. More news about other Stirling returnees, and other assorted updates, to follow…

Language Ambassadors: Opportunities and Inspiration

We mentioned back in October that our Language Ambassador scheme was up and running again, and that we were very pleased to be working with colleagues and students at Strathclyde University and SCILT this year. Well, following on from the very successful European Day of Languages visit to Wallace High, our Ambassador Emma has been talking to pupils at Park Mains High and Queen Margaret Academy about her experiences studying languages and both visits have been a real hit with all concerned.

For Emma, the visit to Park Mains meant getting to spend a really lovely morning with the teachers and pupils:  “I spoke to a range of age groups, from first year to Higher language classes, and the pupils were really engaging with my presentation and what I had to say. I even had quite a lot of questions! I spoke about the importance of learning languages, the transferable skills you gain and my personal experience with languages, including living abroad in France, to hopefully interest the kids in studying a language. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly, so thank you for the opportunity!” And for Jeanette McKeown, Principal Teacher of Modern Languages at Park Mains who helped to organise Emma’s visit, it was particularly helpful to give her pupils a chance to hear about how language learning aligns with other studies and careers, including business and management. The pupils also really appreciated the opportunity to see photos and hear anecdotes about Emma’s time spent living and working abroad.

The Queen Margaret Academy visit was online, rather than in-person (we’re offering both approaches this year, depending on schools’ preferences) and was also a huge success. As Susan Doyle, the teacher who organised the event, explains: “S3-S6 French and Spanish pupils had a virtual visit from Emma, a 4^th year languages student from Stirling Uni. Emma spoke to the pupils about her experience of studying languages at school and went on to speak to the pupils about studying business with languages at university. She told many stories about her 3^rd year of university which she spent in Rouen in France as a language assistant. Pupils were fascinated and asked many interesting questions. The feedback from pupils from S3 to S6 was very positive and we hope that it has given them an insight into the importance of languages to their future career prospects.” Emma was also impressed by the number and range of questions the pupils asked: “I was really surprised at how many questions I received; it was really encouraging! I hope I managed to inspire some of the pupils!”

More Ambassador visits are in the process of being finalised for the weeks ahead and we look forward to reporting back on them in due course. In the meantime, though, thanks to staff and pupils at Park Mains High and Queen Margaret Academy for the warm welcome and excellent questions, and thanks to Emma for taking the time to talk to the pupils at both schools.

Working with schools

Alongside all the usual activities happening in our classrooms and across our programmes (including our Year 3 students making plans for their upcoming Semester Abroad…), our outreach work centred on language learning in schools has also started up again.

On the European Day of Languages, a team of our Language Ambassadors were invited along to Wallace High to talk to the pupils there about the benefits of language learning. For Patrick, who is in his 2^nd year studying French and Spanish with us, this was his first in-person school visit and a really positive experience: ‘The afternoon was a great success, pupils were engaging with the activities we had set out for them and have asked to be included in the future planning of similar events. From my point of view, it was an invaluable piece of my time used to hopefully persuade young pupils to continue to study languages.’ Feedback from the S3 pupils at the school was equally positive and huge thanks to Modern Languages teacher, Michelle McCaffery, for inviting us. We’re delighted our Ambassadors helped to convey the fact that, in the words of one pupil, ‘languages can take you places you would not expect!’

Despite some pretty atrocious weather, many of the Ambassadors got together at the end of that week, too, for a training and information session about the Ambassador scheme over the coming year. And while we were talking about that on campus at Stirling, some of the Ambassadors from our Strathclyde partners were out at St John Ogilvie High School, meeting with pupils and teachers there, including our own graduate Sam Evans! We’ll be joining forces for more school visits over the weeks ahead, working with Cédric Moreau from Strathclyde and Emma McLean from SCILT so watch this space…

And on Saturday 1^st October, Cristina Johnston, Pete Baker, Fiona Noble and Elizabeth Ezra ran an online workshop for senior phase secondary school pupils, focusing on the multiple benefits that can come from using films as part of the ways we study languages. The event was part of a series of workshops organised by SCILT and was supported on the day by Sheena Bell, Suzanne Ritchie and Alice Lister. We were also really pleased that three of our current students, Dagmara, Alex and Helena, were able to join us on the day to talk about their experiences learning languages and, in particular, the ways in which film and visual culture have formed part of their own language learning. And we’re especially grateful, of course, to all the pupils who attended, from across Scotland, students of French, Spanish, German and Italian. They asked brilliant questions and worked hard on listening exercises involving songs from Encanto, as well as thinking about the wide range of topics that might emerge through the study of that kind of film.

Thank you, merci, Danke, grazie, gracias… to all the pupils at our SCILT workshop and to everyone who has been involved with our outreach activities so far.

Rentrée 2022

And we’re off! Undergraduate teaching begins this week at Stirling, our postgraduates will be coming back over the coming weeks, and we’re all looking forward to being back on campus once again. Lots of new students to welcome to our Year 1 Advanced and Beginners’ streams, returning students to catch-up with, including all those coming back from English Language Assistantships and Semesters Abroad, and news to share from colleagues, old and new (welcome and congratulations to Ashley Harris and, in Spanish and Latin American Studies, Rebecca de Souza and Jacky Collins).

As well as teaching starting up again, plans are also afoot for a whole range of other activities. Our Language Ambassador programme has continued to run online over the past two years but we’re delighted to be working towards a return to in-person visits in the coming academic year. We’re also really pleased to be working with colleagues at the University of Strathclyde and at SCILT on the Language Ambassador programme this time round, with students from both universities going out to schools together over the coming months. And with our colleagues in Spanish and Latin American Studies, we’re also working with SCILT to run a workshop for senior phase secondary pupils in early October that’ll focus on language and film.

The shift back to much, much more happening in-person also means we are able to organise our traditional annual Study Abroad get-together. As in previous years, all our Year 3 and 4 students, as well as all visiting Francophone and Hispanophone exchange students have been invited along to share their plans, experiences and hopes. Most of our Year 4 students spent the spring on Study Abroad and most of our Year 3 students are in the planning stages for their own time abroad which will happen in spring 2023 so this always gives them a really useful opportunity to share tips and questions. And inviting along our Francophone and Hispanophone exchange students from across the whole campus means there are plenty of opportunities for new friendships and building connections across Stirling’s international community. And, of course, colleagues from French and Spanish will be there, too!

A busy few weeks, then, as the semester gets fully underway and we’ll be sharing news from staff, students and graduates as regularly as we can. In the meantime, bonne rentrée!

Thoughts of a future teacher: “Le français, l’éducation et moi”

Following on from Emma’s tales of life as an English Language Assistant in Rouen yesterday, we’re really pleased to be able to post more language teaching-related thoughts, this time from Michael who is in Year 3 of a degree in Primary Education and Modern Languages at Stirling:

“With my fourth and final year drawing ever closer, I’m grateful for this unexpected opportunity to reflect on my time at the University of Stirling and the time I have spent on my French studies.

As per the demands of my particular degree combination (Primary Education with a specialism in French as a modern language), I have already completed my last French module and will no longer be actively studying Francophone topics at the university. Yet it would not be an overstatement to say that, over the course of three years, I have learned an awful lot more than I had maybe expected in 2018!

From the very early days of the first République française and the values that went on to shape modern French society… to France’s position in the turbulent Twentieth Century and its global influence on people and politics… and on to discussions of memory and remembering in the present day – especially regarding the ongoing impact of European colonialism. And not to mention learning how to speak and write in fluent French!

(Sometimes I still get tied up in knots when it comes to grammar.)

In this extended exploration of French language and culture, a few events have been particularly memorable. In 2019, during my second year, I attended a languages evening held by the French and Spanish departments, where I had the pleasure of being introduced to the then-Senegalese Ambassador to the UK, Cheikh Ahmadou Dieng and his wife, Nabou. The Ambassador spoke of his time in the UK and abroad, and the importance of language in his official capacity and to him, personally. While we all had the opportunity to speak a bit ourselves, they were most definitely the guests of honour!

I was also part of a group of Stirling’s Language Ambassadors who visited third years at Williamwood High School in Glasgow to talk about studying languages at Stirling and the pathways languages graduates can follow. This stands out in my memory given its continuing relevance to me as a student teacher.

In 2020, despite the obstacles posed by the coronavirus, I had the amazing opportunity to spend six months working as a language assistant in a primary school in a town called Saint Quentin in the Picardy region of northern France. Due to the wave of new cases at the time, there were unfortunately strict limitations on how much I could do and how far I could travel – I only left the town four times in the whole six months! On the other hand, I was able to get a real taste of the culture and heritage of the town and its environs. It was a uniquely unforgettable experience and, looking back, I think I grew up a lot. I also gained six months of invaluable classroom experience and my French came on by leaps and bounds as well!

As a 21^st-Century teacher in an increasingly globalised world, I have to foster a love of languages and learning languages in my pupils and encourage them to see the value that knowing multiple languages can have. The Scottish Government’s 1 + 2 Languages policy has now been implemented in all Scottish schools, emulating a similar policy in the EU. Through this scheme, all children have the opportunity to learn a modern language from Primary 1 onwards, and an additional modern language starting from P5, until the end of broad general education in S3. It is thus essential that teachers themselves – especially in primary schools – can confidently teach at least one modern language and motivate children to learn additional languages and to learn about other cultures.

As one such future teacher, I hope that I can draw on my own passion and experiences to inspire a love of French and language-learning in my pupils. Perhaps one day they will be part of the next generation of modern languages students at the University of Stirling!”

Many, many thanks to Michael for this brilliant post and for the fantastic accompanying illustrations! We wish you all the best for the rest of your degree and for your future as a 21st-century teacher promoting the value of languages for everyone, from primary school onwards.

Language Ambassadors (Virtually) Out and About

Back in November we posted about our fantastic Language Ambassadors who, despite Covid restrictions, were finding ways to engage with our great network of contacts across Scottish secondary schools. Well, as the new semester gets underway, they’re off again! Still online, for the moment, but working with a range of pupils across different schools to develop their interest in language learning and its many, many benefits!

Towards the end of last year, this had involved, for example, Ambassadors answering questions from S2 pupils at Dalziel High School via a series of online Q&A sessions. It also saw our Year 2 student, Cerys, who studies Psychology and French, recording a video about her experiences learning a language for pupils at Elgin Academy. As Elgin’s Principal Teacher in Modern Languages, Jérôme Lestienne explained, the impact of this kind of contact with our Language Ambassadors is crucial for young language learners because it gives them a chance to show examples of people using their language skills beyond school: ‘I usually invite local business leaders and/or former pupils to speak to our S3s about the importance of language learning. However, this year, we were not allowed to have guests so I put together a series of videos including Cerys’, former pupils’, current senior pupils’ and other videos from SCILT. All our pupils were very attentive as they seemed to be taken by the reality and opportunities linked with language learning. I now hope this results in a higher uptake into S4.’

And now, as we start our Spring semester, we’re working with many of the Language Ambassadors who had already volunteered in the Autumn, as well as having recruited new Ambassadors from across French and Spanish, from all years of our degrees, representing lots of different subject combinations. Next week, they’ll be helping out with Glastonbury Goes Global, a day-long event being organised for languages pupils at Dunblane High School, working with the English-based social enterprise Business Language Champions. The aim of the day is to enable pupils to combine language and communication skills with the organisational and management skills required to get a (virtual) festival off the ground. The event is part of Dunblane’s activities for Languages Week Scotland which is being celebrated across the country (and about which there will be more on the blog next week…). We’re also finalising arrangements for our Ambassadors to talk to pupils at different stages of their language learning over the coming weeks and are excited to see what new partnerships with schools will emerge.

We’ll post more about these events as they take place but, in the first instance, huge thanks to our Ambassadors for their hard work and enthusiasm, and to our school partners for their hard work and for making us feel so welcome!

Language Ambassador Update

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for our Language Ambassadors and we wanted to just give you a little update on what’s going on before the week ends. As regular blog readers know, we started our virtual Language Ambassador activities last week with some Q&A sessions with S2 pupils at Dalziel High School in Motherwell. These will come to an end this week so huge thanks to Jennifer Tait, the PT in Modern Languages there, and to Eilidh, Morgan, Iain, Louise, Kirsten, Vasiliki, Ben and Sebastian for having given up time over the past fortnight to talk to the pupils.

As Jennifer says: ‘Our S2 pupils have thoroughly enjoyed meeting the Stirling Language Ambassadors virtually and listening to their stories of time spent abroad and at university. It has brought home to our pupils that this is something they could also do in the future and has really inspired them to continue learning languages. It was a quick and easy way to open our pupils’ eyes to the benefits of learning languages and we want to roll this out to other year groups in the New Year.’

At the same time as our Ambassadors have been talking to S2 pupils at Dalziel, they’ve also started meeting virtually with S2 Languages pupils at Holy Cross High School in Hamilton where we’re working with the Acting Principal Teacher of Modern Languages, Dorothy Stevenson, to set up these sessions. We’re looking forward to passing on feedback from them next week and hope the Holy Cross pupils are also enjoying getting to chat to our students.

We’re also currently finalising arrangements for outreach activities which will see our Language Ambassadors talking to pupils at Braes High School in Falkirk and, we hope, Wallace High in Stirling over the next couple of weeks. As the pace picks up even more for our students with assessment deadlines and exams coming up, we’re really grateful to the Ambassadors for taking the time to do this. Merci and gracias one and all!

Virtual Language Ambassadors

For a number of years now, we have regularly sent small groups of our students out into (usually local) secondary schools to act as Language Ambassadors. The activities they are involved with vary from school to school but they have usually met with groups of pupils in Q&A sessions or giving presentations, talking about the benefits of studying a language. The focus of the conversations covers everything from time abroad as part of a degree to subject combinations via languages and employability, depending on the experiences of our Ambassadors and the questions they get from the school pupils.

This year, for obvious reasons, we can’t send our Ambassadors out into schools but we’re delighted to report that, as of this week, we’ve just started our first ‘virtual’ outreach work in schools with Language Ambassadors beaming into classrooms to talk to groups of school pupils. Our very first event took place yesterday with S2 pupils at Dalziel High School in Motherwell so thanks, first and foremost, to Jennifer Tait at Dalziel for setting things up, to our Ambassadors, Morgan, Eilidh, Sebastian and Iain for taking the time to get involved, and to the S2 pupils for their fantastic questions.

More events will be taking place over the rest of this week and then pretty much every week until we break up for the Winter break, resuming again in January. Given the particularly challenging circumstances we’re all dealing with this term/semester, we really are very grateful to everyone who has been involved so far and to all those who will be involved over the weeks and months ahead. And we’re looking forward to being able to post some tales from the Ambassadors and, hopefully, from the schools, too!

Language Ambassadors: Encouraging Pupils to Learn Languages

Over the course of this Autumn/Winter semester at Stirling, we’ve continued to develop our work with secondary schools, sometimes focusing primarily on French, sometimes working in collaboration with our colleagues in Spanish, always underlining the advantages that come through studying languages. We’re hoping to post a few more updates about these activities over the coming weeks and, to start with, we’re pleased to be able to post the following article, co-written by Laura, who is in the final year of a BA Hons in English Studies and French, and Michael, who is in Year 2 of his BA Hons programme in Professional Education (Primary) with a specialism in Modern Languages. Laura and Michael’s day saw them representing French at Stirling as Language Ambassadors at Williamwood High School in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire.

For Michael: ‘When I was asked to be a part of the group of students going to Williamwood High School I was keen to accept the invitation. I thought that it would be a worthwhile opportunity to speak to high school pupils just beginning to think about their futures, about the possibility of going to university, and hopefully to encourage them to study a modern language. On the day of our visit, we represented the University of Stirling at a careers fair organised by the school’s modern languages department and got to speak to three groups of fourth year pupils who attended the fair. We started off each group with a presentation about the modern language courses offered at Stirling and the different pathways they could follow. Specifically, we covered the standard four-year degree structure; the possibility of a year or semester abroad; popular joint degrees with a modern language; and how a joint degree with Primary or Secondary Education differs from other courses. We were able to go into some depth about the differences caused by Education as a few of us, including myself, are doing a joint degree with Education.

At the end of the presentation, we had time to take some questions from the pupils. Most questions were centred on the countries and places you could go on a semester or year abroad, and what it was like to live in a foreign country. Other questions focused on the student experience and campus life. Our group from Stirling was comprised of second, third and fourth year students so we were able to give the pupils a number of perspectives.

All the pupils listened well and told us they found our presentation interesting. I myself enjoyed hearing about the experiences of the older students in our group. I was also glad that I could make studying languages at university something for the pupils to consider when thinking about their plans for after school.’

As for Laura: ‘As well as thinking about the content of what we presented it is also relevant to emphasise the reason why we did it. In my opinion, when we are young, we tend to think that our future is still very far away, and that we have got time to think about our future jobs; but when it comes to learning languages, it is never too early to start, and schools should always encourage students to study languages and show them the  different pathways they can follow after their high school. This is basically what we did at Williamwood High School.

From another perspective, I am a Catalan student in Stirling doing English and French and I found the idea of going to a school to talk about the language degrees opportunities, the importance of speaking more than one or two languages and the life in university all very important. Not only were the themes in our presentation important, but also the fact that we are students and we explained to them this information from our point of view and from our own experiences helped the pupils to think that they can also accomplish their career goals if we are also doing it.

When I was in high school, I was already doing English and French as foreign languages alongside Catalan and Spanish. Everyone kept telling us, study languages is always very important in life and for your future, but we were never told why it was important and what pathways we could take if we wanted to focus on languages. In order to motivate students to do and to accomplish something, I think it is important to show them examples and to have people explaining their own experiences as a way of motivating and encouraging students to follow similar pathways. Besides, schools should promote the idea that learning languages opens many doors in life and especially in terms of employability; in this way, they see that learning languages is not pointless and they can set their goals easily with examples.

Although I already had my future ideas very clear, unfortunately, my own school teachers did not prepare me for this, and this is why I accepted the invitation straight away so as to show students that what they are doing right now really matters for their future by illustrating my experiences as an example for them. It was important to present them the wide range of choices they have in terms of languages courses and degree combinations but also the opportunities the university gave us such as the mandatory semester abroad specially in the French case, it gives the chance to students to discover the real francophone culture that was represented in the textbooks and the news.

All in all, I think our message is clear: we want to encourage students of all ages to learn languages, to take advantage of all the opportunities that the French department (and Languages more broadly) in Stirling offers and to never stop learning languages.’

Many, many thanks to Laura and Michael for having taken the time to put together this blog and to them and all our Language Ambassadors for the great work they continue to do. And thanks to the pupils and staff at Williamwood for the warm welcome!

 

Languages at University: Travel, Opportunities, Employability!

As regular blog readers will know, we have a great network of school-based contacts and our students often go out into local schools to act as Language Ambassadors. On occasions, we also welcome groups of students here to Stirling and we were delighted to get a chance for a group of our students to meet with pupils from a local secondary school back in November when they came to campus as part of the MacRobert’s French Film Festival screenings. The visit went really well and we’re grateful to Alex (one of our Year 4 students who met with the pupils) for taking the time to send us this post on what happened:

‘On Tuesday 27 November, a group of 23 pupils from Queen Victoria School in Dunblane visited the University of Stirling for the afternoon. Their day consisted of a French Film Festival screening followed by a discussion session with students currently at the university.

There were 6 of us there to give the pupils an insight into what it was like to study French and Languages in general at university, and in certain areas specific to Stirling. The presenting group of students was made up of 3^rd and 4^th years, studying a range of different degree programmes including French with Spanish, Mathematics and Business Studies.

Across the board, there were some key reasons we gave as to why you should study languages (including French) at university to the school pupils in question, and more broadly for anyone thinking of studying languages at university:

Firstly, studying a language is hugely important for communication skills regardless of whether you are speaking in your native or in a foreign language. The ability to communicate with all types of people in a variety of ways is a great attribute to put on your CV. It is also a very social subject, meaning you are likely to make more friends studying French than a subject that is much more lecture-based and less interactive.

Secondly, the opportunity to study or live abroad! Arguably languages bring more benefits than any other degree in terms of time abroad, especially when it comes to improving your level of language. All but one of the students presenting had already been on an experience abroad, either to study in a partner institution or to teach English in Francophone countries, as part of their degree. All of us agreed that those experiences had positively contributed towards our degree as well as our future post university. The other student was about to head off on study abroad and was very excited at the prospect of the opportunity.

Finally, studying languages gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture. Despite France being one of our closest neighbours geographically, the cultural experience is quite different to that in the UK. From our perspective as students, getting into a routine of listening to and reading French regularly has such a positive impact when immersing into this new experience. And in particular, when you are abroad, students will find it so much easier to communicate with the locals on their semester away.

On behalf of the 6 presenting students and the Languages department, we’d like to thank Queen Victoria School for coming to the university and wish the best of luck to the pupils with all their exams in the near future. In the next few years, you may even be studying here!’

And I’d just echo Alex’s thanks here, both to the pupils from QVS (and their teacher, Laura Bairner) and to our 6 Stirling students for answering their questions!