It is not about fluency it’s about giving children the self-belief that they can learn how to speak and understand any language. It works for English and non-English speakers alike because it automatically defaults to whatever language is set on a user’s device. ![]() The JLC supports schools by helping pupils learn independently or as a class, with the app projected on a whiteboard. But with 22,000 primary schools in the UK and limited budgets, recruiting enough modern foreign language (MFL) teachers is hugely challenging. ![]() It is widely believed that the younger the child, the more receptive they are to learning a new language. In round one, schools now choose which of uTalk’s 140 languages their pupils learn in round two, everyone will learn French in 2020, and we have lowered the entry bar so more children can benefit. We are always listening to advice on how to improve the format and one key change has been to the range of languages. There is now an online leaderboard, so they can see their ranking whenever they log in. It also means we can give the children more words and phrases to learn. The app has been a huge improvement because it syncs children’s scores between devices and allows them to learn offline if they download the content first. This year things have moved up a gear again and entrants are now able to learn using the uTalk app, which works on all mainstream smartphones, tablets and computers. We moved from CD-Roms to online learning, first on computers and later on tablets. The atmosphere was electric!Īs technology has improved, so has the competition. To give pupils the fun of face-to-face competition, we held regional and national finals, with their rapidly changing scores displayed on a giant leaderboard. We decided to focus on primary-age children, where the need and opportunities seemed greatest, devising a competition of three rounds with a different language in each round. The competition was born and, following Hayle Academy’s example, we were keen to challenge children to learn more than one language in order to develop the ability to ‘learn how to learn languages’. We had a choice of 100+ languages and a way to get children hooked on learning independently, either at home or at school. We realised we were onto something special. In fact, she said, having teachers learn alongside the children was incredibly motivating for the whole class. She found it particularly useful that teachers did not necessarily have to be experts in the language being taught. “Cornish was the lure and your CD-Rom the hook! The children at Hayle School are still avidly competing against each other for points each week,” teacher Deborah Grigg told me. Games-based learning, it seemed, was a winning strategy. Although girls tend to do better at languages than boys at this age, boys were well represented among the top scorers. We launched it at Hayle Academy, along with a live Cornish language competition for pupils, and it was a huge success. We were only too happy to help and produced a ‘Learn Cornish’ CD-Rom with local Cornish translators and speakers. ![]() Hayle Academy had a policy of introducing students to a range of languages in their first year and they wanted to include Cornish. In 2003, a secondary school in Hayle, Cornwall asked if we could add Cornish to our range of products, which were mainly CD-Roms at the time. Others tell us that entering the competition has inspired them to go on to study languages at a higher level.įor the team at uTalk, a language-learning company based in London, the JLC is a reminder of the power of languages to change lives. Many of them tell us that entering the JLC has made them realise for the first time how easy and fun learning languages can be. Since it began in 2004, more than 27,000 children in 500 schools across the UK have taken part in the competition. ![]() “Making it to the final twice now has proven to her that she can achieve anything she puts her mind to.” Amber’s quiet achievement is one of the many heart-warming stories that have made our annual language-learning contest for primary school students such a joy to run. Eleven-year-old pupil Amber Turner used to feel she “couldn’t achieve many things”, but taking part in the uTalk Junior Language Challenge (JLC) changed all that, says her dad Alan.
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