How can your school
celebrate International Languages Week?
Celebrate
the language skills already in your school community
- Involve international
students and exchange students in
International Languages Week as guest speakers in language classes or at
assembly. They could talk about their language learning experiences or
schooling in their countrs(ies), or become language tutors for the day.
- Have
an international assembly
with greetings, prayers, songs, etc in other languages.
- Make
a chart of all the languages spoken
in your class / school and display it prominently.
- National
costume day – Students wear national costumes for assembly or for the whole day.
- Display
flags from countries whose languages are represented at your school – have the
students create them on paper.
- Make
badges with the message “I speak (language(s)) ” for staff and students.
- Create
a school map of the world,
where the students highlight those countries, which either they themselves
or their parents come from or have visited. If a country's official
language is not English it could be highlighted in another colour.
- Encourage
research into the cultures and languages represented in your school – graph the results and display them.
Involving
Parents & Community
- School
newsletter – focus on language-learning stories from school
and local community
- Send
out a Languages Department newsletter
- Create
a class newsletter in the target language – take home, publish for other classes or display as poster around the
school
- Collect
information about local language-learning opportunities (school night classes, Polytech, University Continuing Education, Alliance
Française etc) and send home in a newsletter
- International
cooking classes –one evening for staff and parents (PTA involvement
perhaps?)
- Contact
local newspapers, libraries, radio stations, local TV stations
to ask them to focus on International Languages Week and make sure to let
them know what your students will be doing.
- Create
a school treasury of languages: draw up a list of all languages spoken at school and in the wider school
community, including the languages taught at school, the languages spoken
at home (e.g. in bicultural families), the languages known by the parents,
the staff, frequent visitors to the school either learnt at school or
learnt for another reason
- Create
a multilingual welcome poster for the school foyer: get
the school community to contribute by writing “Hello” and/or
“Welcome” in their language(s). Base your poster on the list above.
- Find out what language skills your school parents
have and invite them into the school as guest speakers – to speak to assembly or
individual classes, to teach students a song, poem, recipe, etc in another
language or from another culture.
Within school
Say
“hello” in the language of the day
| Monday |
Chinese |
Nĭ hăo |
| Tuesday |
French |
Bonjour |
| Wednesday |
German |
Guten
Tag |
| Thrusday |
Japanese |
Konnichiwa |
| Friday |
Spanish |
Buenos días |
- Run
a Haiku competition
- Students
write a haiku about languages in English or in any international language.
-
- Create
a languages poster
- Combine
art and language(s) to create posters for display in the classroom,
library or foyer.
Make
bookmarks to promote International Languages Week and language
learning in general.
Make
bumper stickers or labels for car rear windows as above.
- Multilingual
teddy bears’ picnic
- Cover
the school with posters / notices for this event in every language
represented in your school, the ones you teach and any others spoken by
staff and students
-
- Hold a languages concert
- During a lunch hour or evening
Multilingual
karaoke
-
Passport
lunchtime activity
- One
day during the week or all week.
- Set up
school hall or language classrooms with language/country stations.
Students
have to use a greeting and do a task at each place to get a stamp in their
passport. For example:
German – song –Mein Hut, der
hat drei Ecken
Japanese – fold an origami crane
French – pétanque challenge
Spanish – play castanets
Pacific Languages – join in a dance
|
- Daily
notices
- Focus on greetings or include a quiz question
about another language or culture
Hold
a Languages Assembly
- classes present songs,
skits etc.
- present any language awards and certificates
this week
- have a guest speaker with language experience
- past pupil, someone from the communitytilingual labelsrs to show
off their language skillsnational
Food
- Staff morning tea or lunch featuring
international food (PTA involvement perhaps?)
- International Food fund-raisers – make and
sell crêpes, sushi, spring rolls, etc
- Eat out – senior classes, staff groups
- Eat in;
- distribute recipes and have students/staff
bring food for a shared international lunch
- order in from a local restaurant
- International
film festival
- Show
videos in lunch hour or after school
Senior
students can share their language skills with junior classes
by giving short lessons or performances.
Languages
Quiz – for staff or lunchtime activity for students.
Include one in the parents’ newsletter with a small prize.
- Songs
- In
class or at assembly. (For
primary schools there are two songs which feature multilingual greetings, The Wheel and Aotearoa on
Mary Chetty’s tape “I love my
red socks”. )
-
- Story
time in the library at lunchtime
- Senior
students read simple stories in the target language or stories from
another culture.
Art
and craft activities from other countries
- Classroom
display of the languages around us
- Use
examples of multilingual food packaging, tourist information, advertising,
etc
Field
trip
·
Visit local food outlets, manufacturer
·
Scavenger hunt
·
Tourism survey
·
Auckland Zoo (Japanese)
|
