8 minute read
Modern Foreign Languages
FRENCH DEPARTMENT
The French department has been lucky this year to be involved in some of the Alliance Française activities in which staff and Sixth Form pupils were invited to watch a film in French Abrahadabra and participate in a Q&A session with the film’s director, Yannick Ruault. It was a delicate and emotional independent film about the life of a young girl, whose life is turned upside down by the death of her father in a terrorist attack, plunging her into a waking dream. We enjoyed seeing aspects of the French countryside alongside beautiful prose which helped create a true sense of ‘dreaming.’ The following discussion, all in French, with the director allowed the audience to practise their questioning technique, express their ideas and hear from a native speaker, discussing his ideas and decisions in the making of the film. A very interesting and enjoyable evening was had by all, with lots of opportunities of exposure to French and to speak French with fellow Francophiles.
Studying classic French literature is one of the perks of the Pre U French course, and it’s even better when the play we study, Cyrano de Bergerac first performed in 1897, is still being performed to this day and is used to inspire new productions. Our Sixth Form pupils and l met at the Grand Opera House in York and little did we know what treat would be in store for us when we saw Edmond de Bergerac starring Freddie Fox and Josie Lawrence.
It certainly was a comedy and told the story of Edmond Rostand’s quest to write a play in three weeks, beginning only with the title Cyrano de Bergerac. The play, written by French director Alexis Mikhalik, shows Rostand’s quest to find the plot for his play and by doing so told us as an audience, the heroic comedy of Cyrano de Bergerac. It taught us a lot about the classic play, making us laugh and cry!
GERMAN THEATRE VISIT
On Tuesday 5 March 50 Third and Fourth Form pupils attended a production of So eine Nervensäge (What a pain in the neck!) by the theatre company Onatti Productions at Queen Margaret’s School, York. The scene was set with an older sister getting ready to go on a date whilst her younger sister did everything she could to scupper it. It was a highly entertaining afternoon and St Peter’s pupils were involved in the action on stage with Finlay Recchia impressing us with his stage presence and German skills. It was as ever a wonderful opportunity for pupils to be absorbed in the language for the afternoon and it was great to see how much of the unfamiliar language pupils were able to understand through the use of props, gesture and emphasis. It has become an annual tradition now and one which we look forward to again next year.
Mrs Jenny Houghton
OSNABRÜCK VISIT
On Wednesday 21 November, we once again welcomed a group of 15 pupils from a school in Osnabrück, Germany, who were on a language course at Melton College in York. As part of their studies they were looking at British sport and, in return for the opportunity to watch some rugby in the afternoon, they joined us in some German lessons in the morning where they spoke to small groups of Third Form pupils about such topics as their school, their families and their free time. Our pupils were able to ask and answer questions too. The German pupils were fascinated to see some written work and to see which areas of their language caused problems for pupils learning German. The Fourth Formers were tasked with explaining the rules of rugby with the help of some video clips, so that the German pupils had at least some idea of what was going on in the game they watched later in the afternoon. It was a great opportunity not only to meet “real” Germans and use German for real life communication but also to showcase our fantastic new Pascal building. This is a long-standing link which both schools are keen to maintain.
Mrs Jenny Houghton
CPD WITH GIANFRANCO CONTI
On 28 March 2019 the MFL department hosted a course for language teachers from across the North of England in the newly built Pascal building. Dr. Gianfranco Conti who is an applied linguistics PhD graduate and a former Head of Languages in a number of schools led the course. Dr Conti delivered an engaging and practical workshop entitled The Road to Proficiency, demonstrating his methodological approach to extensive processing instruction. The five-hour session provided local teachers with an invaluable networking opportunity to get together and share ideas and they were able to take away a wealth of easy-to-implement ideas and theory to use in their classrooms the next day.
Feedback from attendees was hugely positive and should pave the way to many similar professional development events for local teachers from independent and maintained schools in the future.
AN EVENING OF SPANISH CULTURE
At the end of a long day, the Fourth Form Spanish pupils made their way to the Memorial Hall with a spring in their step. They were heading for the Spanish evening but certainly spurred on by the thought of warm churros and chocolate.
Once the churros had disappeared (and very rapidly) the evening began with a short talk given by our PGCE student Vhairi Shilton, who shared her experience of studying Spanish at university and working in Spanish speaking countries. She talked about her year abroad and other travels to South America. She also talked about the advantages of carrying out a residential study course in Spain and the cultural and linguistic insight that all these opportunities had given her. We also touched on the importance of languages in the current climate and the growing popularity of combining university degrees such as science or humanities with a language.
It was then time for a taster lesson in salsa dancing given by
Laucinda from Encuentro Latino. It was a very relaxed environment and pupils were encouraged to give it a go, which they certainly did and with some style!
The evening finished with yet more delights from the Catering Department, this time a range of tapas such as tortilla, gazpacho, chorizo, aceitunas, jamón serrano and queso
Manchego.
This was a fun and educational evening, which allowed our pupils to savour a little of the Hispanic culture. The Fourth Form were superb in their approach to the dancing. Thank you to MFL staff and pupils who contributed to making the evening such a success.
NORTH EASTERN SCHOOLS’ MFL DEBATING COMPETITION
St Peter’s School Wednesday 13 February, 2019
This was the fifth year of the North Eastern Schools’ Debating Competition initiated by St Peter’s in 2015 and it is encouraging to see how the popularity of this competition continues to grow year upon year. St Peter’s hosted the competition this time and the excellent design of the new Pascal building not only allowed the debates to run smoothly but also gave generous space for the teams to practise while waiting for their debates to take place. There were debates in three languages, French, Spanish and German to give more pupils the opportunity to participate in their chosen language.
Ten teams attended for the German competition and fourteen for both Spanish and French. The standard of debating was excellent despite the difficulty of some of the motions: “Mobile phones should be banned in school”, “MFL should be compulsory until the age of 18 “and “Immigration brings more benefits than problems”. The unseen motion for the final was that “Life is easier for young people now than in the past”
The debates offers pupils a brilliant opportunity to practise their languages in an intense but supportive atmosphere, excellent training for those who must sit Advanced Level oral exams each summer. We entered five teams this year. The French teams of James Hanson / Anna Williams and Freddy Dorling / Sarah Sullivan debated well with the latter pair narrowly losing out to All Saints in the final. The St Peter’s German team of Ilya Rzheznikov / Josh Harrison were also narrowly beaten in the final by a strong Ripon team. The Spanish teams of Barney Baker / Paddy Livings and Ksenia Trubacheva / Amanda Paul also debated very effectively with Ksenia and Amanda eventually holding on to beat GSAL in a tense final.
The greatest satisfaction from a teacher’s point of view is not only seeing the development in confidence of these young learners during the day of competition but also the excitement that is generated for languages. They usually arrive full of nerves but they soon start surprising themselves and impressing their teachers with the language and the arguments that they are able to produce. We would like to thank all pupils who participated on the day and their teachers who helped them prepare for the debates. We look forward to next year’s competition at GSAL.
Mr Mike Duffy
