South West Success at the European Award for Languages 2009

The South West had two successful projects in this year’s European Award for Languages, which involved schools, colleges, adult education and community projects across Europe. A panel of expert judges visited a shortlist of projects and compiled a list of the UK’s most innovative language projects. The Languages Bridge project, from the international Learning and Research Centre in South Gloucestershire was one of the successful entries. The project aimed to develop an online programme for improving listening, reading and comprehension skills among children aged 7 to 14. The project successfully proved that by raising curiosity and developing a deeper understanding about how languages work, confidence and motivation for language learning will increase among pupils. The other winner from the South West was MFL Adult Volunteers, from Dorset Adult Learning, who used an innovative, web-based programme of multilingual materials designed to teach how languages work. Researched and trialed in fourteen schools, it uses examples from six European languages.

The winners received their Awards from broadcaster Henry Bonsu and languages advocate Baroness Coussins at a prize-giving ceremony in Bristol on the 30 June 2009. Since 1999, the Award has recognised over 1,000 language projects across Europe, including 134 projects in the UK. More information on the European Award for Languages is available here.