Languages Day at the University of Surrey
Friday 11 July 2008
On Thursday 30 June, the Department of Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Surrey welcomed over 100 students from local schools and colleges to join a language taster day at the University campus in Guildford.
The day included a range of activities, lectures, quizzes and games aimed at raising awareness of different cultures and the value of learning languages. In the afternoon, groups were given the opportunity to attend language tasters in a range of languages including, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese.
The event took place as part of a two-year widening participation project, in which the Department developed a range of e-learning materials in French, German and Spanish for use in Years 8 and 9 (ages 12-14) in three local schools. The idea was to make languages more accessible and relevant to pupils and to encourage them to take them up for GCSE study.
The Department is active in a number of projects to encourage the uptake of languages at GCSE, A level and beyond. They have recently updated the well received Spanish video ¡Toma la Palabra! into DVD format for free distribution nationwide to secondary schools and colleges offering Spanish at A level. The accompanying workbook has also been made available without charge.
