¡Toma la Palabra! Making languages fun
Monday 3 March 2008
The University of Surrey’s Department of Languages and Translation Studies is at the forefront of promoting the teaching of languages to all and has recently been overwhelmed by the response to a Spanish language teaching aid ¡Toma la Palabra! which consists of a booklet and a DVD showing real life conversations filmed on location in Madrid, has been requested by over 500 schools nationwide and has proven to be a hit with teachers and pupils alike.
Antonella Bosco-Reid, Head of Spanish at Guildford County School comments: "An inspirational resource, very much needed - there's nothing else on the market like it! Appreciated by both teachers and students. A big thank you to the University of Surrey for coming up with such worthwhile material."
Professor Andrea Dlaska, Head of Surrey’s Department of Languages and Translation Studies adds: "It is crucial to support schools in getting the message across to pupils that learning languages gives them greater choice later in life when they attend university or enter the job market. UK employers are increasingly looking for graduates with an in-depth knowledge of Modern Foreign Languages and the ability to communicate successfully in culturally diverse settings. These skills are increasingly seen as an integral part of being an ‘international graduate’, even in the local setting of the UK. City employers sometimes now by-pass some British applicants in favour of their more multi-lingual Continental peers. Our own language graduates, who have spent a placement year abroad as part of their studies, do not have much difficulty in finding employment in multinational companies both at home and abroad. In their second year at Surrey, they may have worked with local schools as ‘undergraduate ambassadors’ and have shared their expertise and their enthusiasm for languages as part of their course-work"
There are many reasons to study languages, in fact one website, http://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk lists 700 of them. It is clear that learning a language can help in an individual’s career but languages can be useful in other ways. For example, research in 2004 showed that learning and using a second language helps to protect the brain from the effects of ageing. Research found that bilingual people are far better at retaining their mental abilities into old age than the majority, who speak only one language.
Yet, in the same year the Government made languages non compulsory at GCSE level leading to a drop in the numbers of students taking these important subjects. In 1997 around 80% of students studied a language whereas last year the figure was only 48%.