Schools urged to bring serious message to language day celebrations

Teachers and careers advisors are being urged to use the European Day of Languages on 26 September to highlight to teenagers the benefits of languages and the range of careers where language skills are an advantage. CILT’s Celebrate, Educate, Appreciate campaign seeks to give them the information and resources needed to convey positive messages about languages: www.cilt.org.uk/edl/cea.htm

CILT, the National Centre for Languages wants this year’s activities for teenagers to draw on the three strands of the campaign:

· Celebrate – a time to celebrate achievement and have fun with languages

· Educate – raise awareness of the benefits of languages in the workplace

· Appreciate – value of all languages at all levels

CILT’s free Languages Work resources include posters, activity postcards and factsheets with details of career options as well as case studies of people using languages at work. The website www.languageswork.org.uk offers even more case studies and information as well as links to short video clips showing why languages are important, made by young people as entries to the LAFTAs competition.

Geoff Swinn, Acting Chief Executive of CILT said:

‘Engaging young people in enjoyable language learning activities is essential if we are to convince them of the benefits of language skills to their chosen career path. Celebrate, Educate, Appreciate gives educators – not just language teachers – the tools they need to kickstart this understanding on 26 September.’

CILT has also produced a range of resources to celebrate the European Day of Languages including: posters, sheets of stickers with ‘hello’ in different languages, balloon, pens, badges and t-shirts. Further information and a variety of free downloads is available at www.cilt.org.uk/edl

ENDS