A project led by MMU’s Languages Department and set up to provide specialist training to teachers of community languages in the North West has been awarded a prestigious European Award for Languages, after having had such a positive impact on language teaching and community cohesion in the area. The award, which is co-ordinated by CILT, the National Centre for Languages, recognises innovation in language learning. The Community and lesser-taught languages project (COLT) was set up by Routes into Languages North West, to address the issue that many community languages teachers in the area had never had any access to formal training or professional development. Routes North West worked with partner universities to deliver courses that teachers could attend around family commitment, and the result was the creation of a supportive and more confident group of Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Urdu language teachers who could directly influence language learning across the region. Dr Sharon Handley, Director of Routes into Languages North West and Head of Languages here at MMU, said: ‘We are absolutely delighted to have won a European Award for Languages as this provides external recognition of the innovation and quality of the work we have been doing. We believe that this project provides an important building block in the development of a strategy for teaching a wider portfolio of world languages in the UK by providing a framework for training native speakers of world languages to teach their own language.’ To find out more about this year’s winning project, visitwww.cilt.org.uk/eal or visit www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/northwest

November 2nd, 2010 - 10:56am