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On 11 November and , Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, held a successful support day for all Foreign Language Assistants currently based in Scotland. The aims of the day were to develop the teaching skills of the language assistants, to deepen their knowledge of the Scottish education system and to provide support for the FLA Schools Project Initiative. The day was also the launch of a campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of having language assistants in Scottish schools following a drop of 80% in the numbers of FLAs teaching in Scotland over the last 6 years.
41 out of 59 FLAs attended the event, which was held at the MacDonald Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh. Between them they represented four languages (French, German, Italian, and Spanish) and seven nationalities: Chile, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. The five Chinese assistants attended a national training day in London at the same time.
The assistants were welcomed by the Director of British Council in Scotland, Lloyd Anderson, who stressed the importance of languages in the Curriculum for Excellence. The Minister for Learning and Skills, Dr Alasdair Allan, reiterated that message, highlighting Scotland’s commitment to language learning and pointing to the “key role” of FLAs in that learning, saying “we value the fact that people from many different countries and cultures are coming to meet with our young people and indeed to inspire our young people.”
Since this was the first time all assistants were together, they were given the opportunity to find out more about each other and exchange their experiences in a short speed networking session. This was followed by a lively ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ style quiz on Curriculum for Excellence, led jointly by SCILT Director Sarah Breslin and Brian Templeton from the University of Glasgow.
Assistants then split into smaller workshop groups led by SCILT and where they learnt about how to present their culture to young language learners in Scotland and how to support pupils in upcoming speaking examinations. They also got a taster session in Mandarin Chinese, to remind them what it is like to learn a new language.
Throughout the day, at the various break points in the morning and afternoon there was an open ‘surgery’ where FLAs could ask questions, or post queries for later consideration. Each assistant was also given a pack of teaching materials from the office in Scotland.
The afternoon session was devoted to the , concentrating on the project proposals that had been submitted by some of the assistants. Each group focussed on a different area of the project management process. There were two objectives to this particular activity; to help those assistants running a school project but also to support the wider group in the planning of their lessons and teaching time. The groups then presented back to a panel of educational professionals and their peers in a style reminiscent of the ‘Dragons’ Den’ TV series.
During the final session FLAs had the opportunity to raise questions of concern to them, which were again addressed by a panel of experts, this time including representatives from the Cultural Organisations as well staff from British Council and SCILT.
The evaluations for the day were overwhelmingly positive with over 80% of the assistants rating the sessions during the day as excellent or good. One assistant commented, "It was a great day and I appreciate the work you all put in. I enjoyed myself and experienced and learned a lot!"
Despite having put in a lot of effort during the day most FLAs accepted the invitation from British Council staff to join them for an informal networking event in the evening. Here they had the chance to meet former English Language Assistants just back from their years abroad as well as Edinburgh based Comenius assistants, and to practice some well-known Scottish Country dances.
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