Volunteers introduce pupils to foreign languages
Transcript of Sinead Faherty, Jen Chester and Frances Oke discussing Project Babylon, March 2009
Sinead Faherty: Jen and I do French and German and we went abroad last year, we went to France and Germany, and it really hit us how good they all were at speaking English and other foreign languages. We realised that the younger you start learning languages the better and there’s a certain age where learning languages gets that much more difficult and right now when we start learning languages in England we hit that barrier quite early so we though it’s better for them to start learning younger. And so by doing something like Babylon we’re encouraging kids to start learning the languages younger which makes it easier for them. So when it comes to the classroom they have more confidence and it’s just a lot easier for them than if they start later.
Jen Chester: It was really exciting actually because we had this little idea and we didn’t know whether it was going to take off or not. It turned out that the University was really really supportive about it and the council as well and all the schools that we’ve seen were really enthusiastic to welcome us in so recruiting students after we had done all that wasn’t too difficult. Quite a few of the language students wanted to get involved because by teaching the language it helps them and they get to put their language skills to use as well. And then there are some other people who have just done an A-level but want to carry on so it’s really beneficial to, to everyone involved and it’s just been really exciting starting it all up really.
Frances Oke: It’s been really good. I’ve done about six lessons now and there are normally three of us who do it and we started off with just basic vocabulary, numbers, colours that kind of thing but it’s gone really well. They’re picking it up well, they’ve got great accents just because they’re that bit younger they’re not afraid of trying. They’re not afraid of having a go and potentially making a mistake which is really great so they’ve been really enthusiastic and really good at participating. It’s definitely been a good was for me to practice my French. I’m considering teaching later on so this is great experience for me.
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