On Tuesday 10th November researchers from Bilingualism Matters joined teachers, parents and policy makers to celebrate the School and Family Together project, which aims to facilitate social integration through collaborative language learning.
The project, which has been running since December 2012, will come to an end on 30th November 2015. During that time, project coordinator Dr Martha Robinson has visited 6 schools and early years centres around Edinburgh, reaching over 500 children. Dr. Robinson says “SOFT is a really innovative project that involves bringing children together through learning. The children tell a story together in the target language to get them used to sounds, words and phrases – no translations allowed! Then we follow up with related activities to cement their learning – for example, singing songs together in the language or making a puppet theatre based on the characters. It’s been fantastic to see the progress the children have made – whether it be classes learning French or Spanish as part of the 1+2 languages policy, or groups of recently arrived children doing the activities in English.”
Delegates gathered at the Scottish Story-telling Centre to hear about the project’s impact, with first-hand accounts from teachers involved in the project as well as some preliminary research results. A message was read from Dr. Alasdair Allan MSP, Minster of Learning, Science and Scotland’s languages, who saw the project in action at St. David’s RC primary in Pilton, in September 2015:
“An early start to their language learning journey will deepen and strengthen our young people’s language skills, and create more enthusiasm towards further language learning. The work of Bilingualism Matters, and the S.O.F.T. project, provide an important contribution to the implementation of our ambitious 1+2 language policy, so it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the children taking part in the S.O.F.T. project on my recent visit to St David’s Primary in Edinburgh. Thank you for this extremely positive, contribution to language learning in Scotland.”
