24 FEBRUARY 2014
MOE LEARNING LANGUAGES NEWSLETTER
VOL. 1
CHINESE LANGUAGE NEWS TASK-BASED IMMERSION PROGRAMME IN BEIJING "THE BEST PD"
FRENCH LANGUAGE NEWS LATEST ON SHARED HISTORIES PROJECT AND YOUNG AMBASSADORS PROGRAMME
GERMAN LANGUAGE NEWS SHORTFILMFEST PRIZE-GIVING FEATURES OUTSTANDING ENTRIES
JAPANESE LANGUAGE NEWS KANSAI IMMERSION PROGRAMME A HUGE SUCCESS
SPANISH LANGUAGE NEWS APPLICATIONS FOR SALAMANCA SCHOLARSHIPS CLOSING SOON
MOE LANGUAGE IMMERSION AWARDS APPLICATION INFORMATION FOR 2015 AWARDS. FEEDBACK FROM TEACHERS
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Chinese News “It was such an amazing trip! I believe from speaking to a few teachers, we agree that this trip is the best PD.” Emilymei Hemstapat from Auckland Normal Intermediate comments on the Chinese Scholarship Programme she just attended, which is a three-week immersion programme in Beijing (Dec 28, 2013-Jan 20, 2014), hosted by Hanban through Capital Normal University. A task-based course, developed by the ILEP management team and the National Chinese Adviser Yu Wang, it consists of eight major tasks: orientation of campus, using transportation, a school visit, the home stay experience, the Capital Museum, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the final project. Each of these tasks has three integral parts: language preparation (inside the classroom), task implementation (outside the classroom) and post-task debrief (inside the classroom). This task-based structure allows non-native speakers to work with native speakers and “different levels are able to work together on tasks”. “Using video evidence of language used in tasks is excellent and encourages everyone to take part equally”. Some participants even commented that “the idea of using video recording and activities outside of the classroom in real contexts will revolutionise (their) teaching style". The debrief session not only allows for reflection on what they have done and how that can be used in the classroom, but also for c r i t i c a l reflection on their teaching and editing teaching materials. A short home stay and school visit were definitely the highlights of this program. Participants had the precious opportunity to observe daily activities and language teaching in the high school they visited, and to do interviews with students and teachers. Three weeks seemed hardly enough for participants. Even though most of them felt there were plenty of opportunities, in addition to the tasks, for them to improve their language and cultural knowledge, they wished they had had even more time to visit and appreciate the culture.
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French News Shared histories Mémoires héritées, histories partagées
Young Ambassadors
Shared Histories is a France - New Zealand education programme for schools to commemorate the First World War, in collaboration with the French Embassy in New Zealand, ILEP and NZAFT (New Zealand Association of French Teachers). Twenty four New Zealand schools are currently signed up for the first year of the World War 1 Commemoration Programme to begin in 2014. They will be working together with their partner French schools from the Amiens region in North Eastern France on a project that they co-construct to create a legacy of remembrance for New Zealand youth and schools. The first call for projects resulted in two workshops (in Wellington and Auckland) and schools being partnered with their French counterparts via video conference. Titles that were submitted in December for collaborative projects include: ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
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The role of women during the Great War Our families' involvement in WW1 (our sons, our families) Memories rediscovered, responses shared Perspectives in parallel / Perspectives en parallèle Albany to Gaillac: honouring legacies, creating friendships A school during the war / un lycée dans la Grand Guerre Disobedience of soldiers and the treatment of conscientious objectors during World War 1 in France and New Zealand - a comparative historical study Au cœur de la mêlée / In the heart of the scrum World War 1: understanding, sharing and transmitting a common heritage Horses during the Great War in the Somme 5 projects: Celebrating ANZAC - An interactive map of New Zealand and French soldiers - Exchange of fictitious letters War memorials - A World War 1 recipe book Research on grandfathers who fought in the war
Support A series of workshops organised by ILEP will be organised in May and September this year to support the pedagogical aspect of the collaborative projects. Connections to the curriculum and content advice will be provided along with ICT support via our website (under construction) – managed by Pascale Hyboud Peron.
Ten New Zealand students of French, have been selected to travel to France to represent New Zealand youth in the Champs Elysées Ceremony on July 14 2014 and to participate in the launch of the World War 1 commemoration period, 2014 to 2018. They will visit World War 1 monuments and attend events in North Eastern France. These students represent all areas of New Zealand and aim to involve their wider community in their voyage of discovery , inquiry and the French language. This voyage will launch our Shared Histories projects to the rest of New Zealand and France.
A second call for projects will occur mid-year which will result in another twenty four schools from both France and New Zealand connecting and collaborating on a new set of exciting World War 1 commemoration work. PAGE 3
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MOE LEARNING LANGUAGES NEWSLETTER
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German News On Friday, December 6, 2013 more than 60 students, parents, teachers and guests from all parts of New Zealand gathered at the Film Archive in Wellington for the 2013 "ShortFilmFest" prizegiving ceremony. There was an atmosphere of great excitement. The trophies and prizes were awarded by Laura Matten of the German Embassy, Bettina Senff and Judith Geare from the Goethe-Institut and Heike Papenthin, German National Adviser. The "ShortFilmFest" is a competition for NZ students of German - ranging from intermediate schools to university - and has been held for seven years. Each year there is a different topic and students are invited to use their language skills, creativity and teamwork to make a film of about three minutes in length, all in German. In accordance with the 60th anniversary of German-New Zealand diplomatic relations, the topic in 2013 was "Beziehungen" and open for interpretation by the students of German. The range of topics was impressive: from the relationship between man and dog to difficulties a cat and a dog experience in getting along, to trouble between family members and peers. Judging from the number of entries devoted to problems between classmates, the audience understood that "mobbing" is of great concern to students. One film - outstanding for the effective use of time-related props - dealt in a moving waý with the difficulties of a young girl and her Jewish boyfriend in WW II. At the ceremony all prizewinning films were shown, some displaying impressive technical effects, evoking many "ahs"and "ohs" from the audience. The whole event was a huge success. Before students and teachers returned to their hometowns (many of them had flown to Wellington), they enjoyed a tasty buffet, sponsored by ILEP, and shared their impressions of the films as well as their experiences in filmmaking.
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Japanese News The Kansai Immersion Programme 2013 was a huge success. Six participants had a fantastic two-week experience in Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan, close to the famous ancient capital, Kyoto. They stayed at the Kansai Centre of the Japan Foundation, and did a lot of cultural activities including their home-stay. Throughout the course, teachers improved both their linguistic knowledge and intercultural knowledge of Japanese. They collected many cultural resources and made fantastic teaching materials for their students. The programme was taught completely in Japanese and was of great benefit to their listening skills. They also received feedback on their written and oral presentations, explaining their language errors. Here are some comments from the participants: ‣ "Lots of the photos and videos taken will give the students exposure to an extended range of settings and situations and thus allow them to communicate in these." ‣ "It was a great experience to be able to focus more intensively on trying to become more aware of intercultural differences and the impact it has on language learning. The explanations in class of the correct ways to use the common greetings were extremely interesting." ‣ "The interview sessions at school with students and the staff were very valuable because we could communicate for an extended period of time. Re-interviewing different people on the same topic made intercultural differences more obvious and also consolidated the vocabulary learning which was happening throughout the interview.” ‣ "During this course we were introduced to numerous websites and I am looking forward to searching these in more depth. Also we had an opportunity to collect a range of photographs demonstrating everyday Japanese things, which will trigger students to compare and contrast life in Japan with life in NZ." The next Kansai Immersion Programme 2014 will take place in the September/October break. Don’t miss the chance to participate in this unique experience. We can give you more information in early April.
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Spanish News A new academic year has just started and we are looking forward to supporting you more than ever. We do hope you get excited about the programmes and opportunities that ILEP and the Office of Education of the Embassy of Spain are going to offer you throughout the year. We have selected the most successful PD activities we organised last year and we are going to organise them again in new locations: Spanish and cinema and Cooking in Spanish will definitely be offered again, both in South and North islands. Make sure you don´t miss them. In the case of the Cooking workshop, we can offer it anywhere in New Zealand. So, just let us know you are interested and we will take care of everything. We are working with several New Zealand universities to offer Spanish teachers new customised courses and workshops. As usual, all our activities will be advertised through the ILEP web page (www.ilep.ac.nz) and ELENZA, our list-serve. If you are not an ELENZA member yet, just send us an e-mail at spanish@ilep.ac.nz. Remember this is a free service that over 400 teachers of Spanish in New Zealand are already enjoying. If you are looking for a sister-school in Spain to start an exchange programme, please do let us know. We will be very happy to help you. Spanish and Football. For those schools interested in having a visit by the Spanish-speaking players from Wellington Phoenix and Auckland City FC, we will be delighted to arrange that for you. Finally don´t forget to visit the Spanish resource centre at ILEP where we lend for free all kinds of materials for teaching and learning Spanish: www.ilep.ac.nz/spanish-library If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at spanish@ilep.ac.nz.
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Ministry of Education Language Immersion Awards AFS New Zealand is contracted by the Ministry of Education to deliver the Language Immersion Awards. Award applications are now open to language teachers currently teaching a second language within the New Zealand curriculum; French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Cook Island Maori, Samoan, Korean, Gagana Tokelau, Tongan and Vagahau Niue. Brochures are available by contacting lia.info@afs.orgfor sharing with colleagues, language groups and your language students who can apply for one of the 15 Awards available for students to spend a semester immersed in the language they are studying. The purpose of the immersion experience is to provide a professional development experience for teachers of languages that will build quality language teaching to enhance language learning opportunities and provisions for students. The professional development begins prior to departure, with goal setting processes and orientation, and continues throughout the immersion itself and on return, via the required reporting processes and follow up engagement. While the Awards are an investment in building individual language teacher capability, they are also an investment in the school‘s capacity to provide quality language learning opportunities for their students. For this reason we seek the support of your school principal/BOT, and their agreement to, an application. Applications will be accepted up until Tuesday 13 May for students and Monday 14 July 2014 for teachers (for Awards departing in 2015). Teachers and students can experience total immersion with this unique fully-funded programme through AFS Intercultural Programmes. Viki Runnerstrum, 2013: "I am bang in the middle of my 10 month LIA here in France. The thing that really has crystallised into clarity for me is the tolerance, patience and empathy needed for intercultural understanding. It is so cool to experience a different culture through engaging in experiences, language acquisition and lots of opportunity to deeply reflect on cultural differences and similarities. I have had many learning experiences both positive and up lifting; and other experiences that have been quite difficult. No experience is wasted and I have grown so much over the last 5 months. The first three months in France was a washing-machine-crazy variety of experiences and seized opportunities. I began to settle into a seemingly stable routine after that. Now that my French is improving, my friendships are deepening and the possibilities spread before me over the next 5 months, I am filled with positivity, excitement and a steadily deepening understanding of intercultural awareness." The Award covers both the participants teaching salary and the relief costs through AFS from funding by the Ministry of Education. Airfares, insurance and all programme-related costs that are integral to the programme. Options for course fees for language study are payable to an agreed, pre-approved amount. Application packs are available now. For more information contact us below. If you would like to talk to a past participant about their LIA let us know as there are teachers eager to share their experiences and help those considering an application: ✦ Facebook link: www.facebook.com/LanguageImmersionAward ✦ Website: www.afs.org.nz/lia ✦ Email: lia.info@afs.org or prue.elwood@afs.org ✦ DDI phone: 04 903 2275 PAGE 7
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Before departure you will be required to attend an orientation in November 2014 in Wellington, to meet the other participants, meet the AFS staff who manage the contract, learn more about the goal setting and reporting processes and prepare for the Award. Immediately after the orientation you will begin working with the Contract Language Advisor to define and confirm personal and professional goals (language, culture and pedagogy) to ensure that you are able to focus on achieving specific language and cultural outcomes while you are away. During the immersion you will have the opportunity to experience immersion in three contexts via the learning institution you are placed in; the accommodation; and the community/language tuition experience. How these elements work varies for every programme. You will be placed in a country where the language spoken is the language you teach in New Zealand. The learning institution may be a secondary or primary school, a tertiary institution or a language school. You will spend time in a classroom observing a range of language classes and a cross-section of teaching practice. Jess Mowat, Edgewater College, Auckland, currently on a long term programme in France: "Had an amazing week away on a school camp at the Baie de Somme. We left early in the dark Monday morning and travelled by bus. The kids were humming with excitement. The group was made up of two classes similar to Year 7 and Year 9 in New Zealand. They were the “difficulty classes” so an interesting bunch of students, full of personality, very warm, friendly and intrigued by NZ. I felt excited and nervous as I wasn’t exactly sure of what the week would hold. We stayed at the Naturotel, a sort of holiday park with a bunch of chalets. It was interesting to notice that cultural differences are even evident in the everyday running and organisation of a school camp. French people start their day later and stay up late. Eating after 8pm was the norm and bed time for the kids was after 10.30/11pm. Breakfast was fresh baguette and Nutella every day, with a glass of hot chocolate milk, chocolate snacks with their cheese or ham baguette for lunch and a chocolate bar for an afternoon snack AND after dinner. The kids ate A LOT of chocolate. To be honest I was really challenged as I found it hard to find the words to discipline or manage the girls, and if you make mistakes you lose a bit of authority! It got easier but was definitely a challenge. To be immersed in an experience like a school camp is pretty unique. I was feeling pretty chuffed with how ‘I thought’ my comprehension was improving; however I was a tad discouraged many times during the week. It was busy and onthe-go the whole time, and I would often not capture ALL of the details in the explanations or instructions, which made certain activities that little bit scarier. I.e. I didn’t completely understand how to STOP the wind Kart, or exactly what was ‘forbidden’ while on the horse trek. I heard important words such as “never”, and “forbidden” but not knowing what followed made it a bit tricky haha. Nothing too major happened so all is well." PAGE 8