Category Archives: Events and Competitions

Applying to study modern languages, Czech, Events and Competitions, German, Italian, Open Days, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slavonic Languages, Student life, Studying at Oxford

New Year, New event!

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The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages is delighted to announce a brand new event for the 2023/24 academic year – a Beginners’ Languages Taster Day!

Alongside our usual Modern Languages Open Day (which will take place on Saturday 11th May), this year we will be running an event dedicated to our beginners’ languages courses. This new event offers students from UK secondary schools in Year 12 or equivalent an opportunity to gain greater insight into our beginners’ languages degree programmes at Oxford. Students in Year 11 who are starting to consider their options for university are also welcome to attend.

The Taster Day will take place on Saturday 2nd March in our main Faculty teaching spaces – the Taylor Institution Library and 47 Wellington Square. After an information and Q&A session in the morning, students will have the chance to attend taster sessions in two of our beginners’ languages.

Photo taken from our Modern Languages Open Day 2022
photo (c) John Cairns

The following languages will be represented at the Taster Day, with academics and current undergraduates present to provide further information about the course(s) and to answer students’ questions:

  • German
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Russian
  • Czech (with Slovak)
  • Modern Greek
  • Polish

The provisional event programme can be found here.

To register for the Taster Day, students should fill out this form by 10am on Friday 23rd February so we know who to expect at the event. Please note that spaces will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and the form will close once our maximum capacity has been reached.

We are also pleased to be able to help students who are in need of additional financial support with reasonable expenses such as travelling to and from Oxford for the event. There is a space to include this information in the registration form.

Photo taken from our Modern Languages Open Day 2022
photo (c) John Cairns

Our beginners’ languages courses offer an exciting and rare opportunity for students to engage with a new language and culture for the first time, or to pick up languages they studied at GCSE. The courses are challenging yet rewarding, with many designed to bring students up to A-level standard within the first year. Therefore, we would love to welcome students who are strong linguists and/or who are looking for a new challenge at University to this event.

As well as alongside a post-A-level language, most of our beginners’ languages can be studied in conjunction with subjects from the Humanities such as English, History, Linguistics, or Philosophy, for which applicants do not need to be studying a language to A-level or equivalent. With this in mind, we would also welcome students of Humanities subjects who are interested in picking up a language at University.

For further inspiration and information, below are some links to content from our tutors and undergraduates about why taking a language from scratch is so worthwhile:

  • Blog post – Why study Czech?
  • Video – Branching Out: Picking up a language from scratch
  • Video – Studying German for Beginners at Oxford:

We look forward to seeing you on 2nd March!

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, French, German, Spanish, Student life, Studying at Oxford

UNIQ Applications still open

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Every year UNIQ helps change the lives of young people, helping them to get into Oxford and other highly-selective universities. Apply now to take part!

What is UNIQ?

UNIQ is the University of Oxford’s access programme for UK state school students. It prioritises places for students with good grades from backgrounds that are under-represented at Oxford and other universities. Every year more students from diverse backgrounds get offered places at Oxford with help from UNIQ.

In terms of Modern Languages, we will be offering courses for French, Spanish and German again this year, all of which include the opportunity to taste two beginners’ languages.

UNIQ offers:

  • online support through the application process
  • a residential at an Oxford college for most participants
  • a trip to an Oxford open day for another 250 participants

UNIQ is completely free: accommodation, meals, academic courses, social activities, and travel are all included.

Every year students use their experiences on UNIQ to help inform their university choices and to make successful applications. UNIQ students who apply to Oxford have a higher rate of success than other applicants.

How to apply

UNIQ prioritises state school students with good grades from backgrounds that are under-represented at Oxford and other highly selective universities. UNIQ welcomes applications from:

  • Year 12 students from England and Wales in the first year of A level studies or equivalent
  • Year 13 students from Northern Ireland in the first year of A level studies or equivalent
  • S5 students from Scotland studying Highers or equivalent

We use criteria such as experience of being in care, eligibility for Free School Meals, and information associated with the area that you live in to prioritise who comes on UNIQ.

Find out more and apply here! Applications close at noon on 23rd January 2024.

Events and Competitions, French, Spanish

FRENCH AND SPANISH FLASH FICTION COMPETITIONS NOW OPEN!

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We’re delighted to announce the return of our ever-popular French and Spanish Flash Fiction competitions for UK secondary school pupils. If you are learning French and/or Spanish in Years 7-13, you are invited to send us a *very* short story to be in with a chance of winning up to £100! Read on to find out more…

Credit: Aaron Burden via Unsplash

What is Flash Fiction?

We’re looking for a complete story, written in French or Spanish, using no more than 100 words.

Did you know that the shortest story in Spanish is only seven words long?

Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.
(When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there.)

– Augusto Monterroso Bonilla (1921-2003)

What are the judges looking for?

Our judging panel of academics will be looking for imagination and narrative flair, as well as linguistic ability and accuracy. Your use of French or Spanish will be considered in the context of your age and year group: in other words, we will not expect younger pupils to compete against older pupils linguistically. For inspiration, you can read last year’s winning entries for French here, and for Spanish here.

What do I win?

The judges will award a top prize of £100, as well as prizes of £25 to a maximum of two runners up, in each age category. Certificates will also be awarded to pupils who have been highly commended by our judges. Results as well as the winning, runner up, and highly commended stories will be published on this blog, if entrants give us permission to do so.

How do I enter?

You can submit your story via our online forms at the links below.

FrenchSpanish
Years 7-9 Years 7-9
Years 10-11 Years 10-11
Years 12-13 Years 12-13
Click on the links to be taken to the correct submission form for your age/year group.

You may only submit one story per language but you are welcome to submit one story in French AND one story in Spanish if you learn or study both languages. Your submission should be uploaded as a Word document or PDF.

The deadline for submissions is 12 noon on Wednesday 27th March 2024.

Due to GDPR, teachers cannot enter on their students’ behalf: students must submit their entries themselves.

Please note that the competition has changed slightly this year. We are now only accepting entries from UK secondary school pupils.

If you have any questions, please check our FAQs here. If these still don’t answer your question(s), please email us at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

Bonne chance à tous! ¡Buena suerte a todos!

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, Student life, Studying at Oxford

Exeter Plus

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Exeter College’s flagship outreach programme, Exeter Plus, is now accepting applications!

Exeter Plus is a sustained contact programme for Year 12 students from non-selective UK state schools who want to find out more about the University of Oxford.

Exeter College

The programme combines in-person visits and with online sessions that run from March to September. The sessions start off as an introduction to Oxford and Exeter College, including tours and workshops. Later sessions delve into more detail about the Oxford application process and give the students the opportunity to explore topics related to the degree subject(s) they are interested in studying, including Modern Languages.

Throughout the programme, participants have the opportunity to speak with Student Ambassadors and Tutors of Exeter College, and to take part in mock tutorials enabling them to discuss the subject they would like to study at University with experts in that field.

Exeter College covers the travel costs upfront and offers free lunch to all participants. They also run in-person visits on Saturdays and virtual sessions out of school time.

Participants on the 2023 Exeter Plus programme

Previous participants in the programme have said:

Thank you for running such an insightful programme, the in person visits really do make a very good experience.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime and allow me to meet some brilliant people who I intend to cherish for life.

If this programme is of interest to you or to any of your students, the application form can be found and completed here. The deadline for applications is Monday 8th January 2024 at 11am. 

If you have any questions, please get in touch: outreach@exeter.ox.ac.uk.

Applying to study modern languages, Events and Competitions, Open Days, Studying at Oxford

Save the Date! Modern Languages Open Day

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We’re delighted to announce that our annual Modern Languages Open Day will be taking place on Saturday 11th May, once again in the Examination Schools in Oxford city centre. Save the date! Mark it in your calendars!

The Examination Schools, Oxford
Modern Languages Open Day 2022
photo (c) John Cairns

Bookings are not yet open but you will be able to reserve your place soon via our open days webpage.

This event, which runs from 10.30am-4pm, is a fantastic opportunity for students who are interested in learning more about our language courses, or who are still considering their options, as this Open Day will cover ALL of our languages: French, German*, Spanish, Italian*, Russian*, Portuguese*, Modern Greek*, Czech*, and Polish*. Most of our Joint School degree subjects will also be represented at the event.

*All of these languages can be studied here at Oxford from beginners’ level. 

Modern Languages Open Day 2022
photo (c) John Cairns

Our Modern Languages Open Day is aimed primarily at Year 12 students and their parents/ guardians/ teachers, but Year 11 students who are starting to think about university study are equally welcome to attend. The Open Day will offer an overview of our Modern Languages courses and a general Q&A for prospective students in the morning, with individual language sessions and a parents’/guardians’/teachers’ Q&A session occurring in the afternoon.

You can view the provisional event programme here.

Events and Competitions, German, Resources for language study

OXFORD GERMAN OLYMPIAD 2024

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The Oxford German Network have launched the 12th edition of its annual Olympiad Competition! The competition will run between now and March 2024 with winners being announced in June.

2024 theme: Kafkaesque Kreatures

This year’s competition is all about animals – but from perspectives with a difference. The tasks take inspiration from the animal stories by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who gave the German and English languages the word kafkaesk / Kafkaesque to describe a weird, disturbing experience. Imagine waking up one morning and finding you’ve turned into a beetle. Or that you’re an animal living in a burrow, worrying about your animal enemies up above. But the animal perspectives aren’t all about weirdness – Kafka was a vegetarian. And his story about the ape Rotpeter shows deep concerns about how humans treat animals.

Image by Piyapong Saydaung on Pixabay

The Competition Tasks

There are a variety of different challenges aimed at pupils in Years 5 and 6 all the way to Years 12 and 13. Some are for individuals to enter, others are aimed at groups. There is even a taster competition for pupils who have never studied German before! From drawing and painting to writing stories and planning conferences, there’s something for everyone! Take a look at the Olympiad website for more details.

You should:

Please note:

  • All entries must be submitted via the online entry form. 
  • Each participant may only enter for one task within their age group as an individual entrant. We will only accept group entries (2-4 participants) for the “Open Competition for Groups” category. 
  • We require a consent form for under-13 participants. Click here to download the form.

Note to teachers: Teachers will be able to submit their students´ entries in bulk. Please contact olympiad@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk for instructions.

Further resources & information

Click here for some thoughts and ideas about this year’s tasks. You can also find the Kafka texts and creatures mentioned in the tasks here.

The closing date for all entries is Thursday, 7 March 2024 at 12 noon.

Results will be announced on the Oxford German Network website in June 2024. Winners will be contacted by e-mail.

Any questions? Please email the OGN Coordinator.

Events and Competitions

Report on our 2023 Teachers’ Conference

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On Friday 29th September, the MML Schools Liaison team welcomed 53 MFL teachers from across the independent (33) and state (20) sectors to St Anne’s College for the Faculty’s annual two-day Language Teachers’ Conference. Although numbers were slightly lower than last year, our geographical reach was just as wide, with teachers joining us from all the way from Maidstone to Belfast! The event was also just as lively thanks to a newly re-jigged conference programme and some very enthusiastic delegates, who included academics and staff from across the Faculty.

Building Bridges Roundtable: Schools and Universities Working Together

After a welcome lunch, the main event kicked off with an impassioned and wide-ranging round-table discussion about the challenges and opportunities that currently exist in the world of language learning and teaching. This set the scene well, allowing us to focus the rest of the afternoon on the more positive developments and accounts surrounding language study at Oxford. Through various sessions, we highlighted the success of our beginners’ languages courses, heard from Lindsay Johns – successful writer and broadcaster – about how his French and Italian degree at Oxford had bolstered his personal and professional life, and indulged in a taster lecture on Spanish Golden Age theatre from Prof. Jonathan Thacker, Chair of the Faculty. This was all followed by a drinks reception and formal dinner, offering delegates the chance to network informally and socialise together.

Keynote speaker, writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns, discussing his experiences of studying Modern Languages at Oxford and how his degree and language learning have shaped his personal and professional life.

Saturday’s programme focused on the practical with our annual A-level Literature Circus and Admissions sessions, both designed to support MFL teaching practices and enhance teachers’ specialist knowledge. The former invites academics in French, German, and Spanish to discuss the ways in which an area of language teaching can be used as a starting point for literary analysis in a selection of texts on the A Level syllabus. The latter provides an introduction to the Oxford application process as well as a mock interview with a current undergraduate.

A mock interview between Prof. Helen Swift and current French & Linguistics student, Amelie, for our Admissions 101 session.
Led by Dr Charlotte Ryland, our closing session “In the spotlight: Oxford outreach for Key Stage 3 learners” provided an insight into outreach projects occurring across the university which are supporting KS3 MFL
pupils.

The conference closed, very appropriately, with a presentation from Dr Charlotte Ryland which highlighted the exciting MFL outreach work that is currently occurring across Oxford for Key Stage 3 language learners; from the Queen’s Translation Exchange, to the Oxford German Network, to our very own schools liaison work here in the Faculty.

The feedback we have received about the conference organisation and content has been overwhelmingly positive. So far, 100% of respondents to our feedback form would recommend the conference to a colleague. One teacher from a non-selective state school in Hounslow commented:

I really enjoyed the conference – the programme was excellent and will provide invaluable material and ideas for lesson planning and promoting languages at school.

We are looking forward to acquiring more feedback over the coming weeks and collating any suggestions for next year’s event.

If you’re an MFL teacher who would be interested in attending next year’s conference, please send Nicola an email at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk to be added to our mailing list.

Events and Competitions, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Translation

Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators

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The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators is a creative translation competition for students aged 11-18 studying French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish. The competition also runs from French into Welsh. The Prize is free to enter and open to all schools across the UK. 

The 2023-24 prize launches today (20 September), when creative translation teaching packs will be shared with teachers in time for European Day of Languages on 26 September and International Translation Day on 30 September. These teaching packs are designed to help teachers bring creative translation into the MFL classroom as well as to help students prepare for the competition task.

Don’t worry if you have not yet registered! There is still plenty of time for teachers to do so as the competition itself will run over several weeks from 5 February to 28 March 2024. Area and national winners will be announced in May or June 2023. They will receive certificates and national winners will receive book prizes.

Over 15,000 students participated in the competition in 2023: see the list of winners and commendations in 2023.  For those registered, teaching packs for poetry translation will be circulated today, fiction will follow after October half term, and non-fiction will be released in early January.  Register to receive these resources and for updates about the competition task, click here. 

There are a number of related activities run by the Queen’s Translation Exchange that teachers and pupils can participate in, details of which can be found here.

If you have any queries regarding the competition, please contact the Translation Exchange team at translation.exchange@queens.ox.ac.uk.

Events and Competitions

GCHQ’s National Language Competition

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GCHQ, one of the UK’s intelligence agencies, is running a National Language Competition in November aimed at pupils in Year 9 in England and Wales, Year 10 in Northern Ireland, and S3 in Scotland. After the success of the first NLC in 2022, GCHQ is running a second iteration of the competition this year, with the aim of promoting language learning in schools and encouraging the uptake of languages at GCSE/N5.

The competition will be a week-long event from 6th-10th November 2023. Schools will be able to sign up to the event beforehand and enter teams of up to four Year 9 (and equivalents) pupils to take part. A school will be able to submit as many teams of four as they wish. Teams will then be able to log in to the platform during that week (at lunchtimes under teacher supervision or in their own time in the evening) to have a go at the puzzles on the platform.

Pupils will tackle a range of language-related puzzles, ranging from easy to difficult, including European languages and others from around the world, and even made-up languages. Over a period of five days, they will capture flags to earn points on their language journey which will total up at the end of the week and affect their ranking on a national leaderboard. The team with the most points at the end of the week wins!

All pupils will be able to take part, no prior knowledge is required, only a keenness for languages. The winning team with the most points at the end of the competition will be invited to GCHQ’s Headquarters in Cheltenham and will be presented with their trophy!

To take part, schools can email nlc@gchq.gov.uk. We will add you to our mailing list and bring you more news of the competition over the coming months, including information on how to sign up in September!

Events and Competitions

2023 Teachers’ Conference – Places Still Available

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MFL Teachers – there’s still time to sign up for our Language Teachers’ Conference!

This year’s Conference will be held at St Anne’s College, Oxford on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th September and will welcome teachers from across the country for an exciting couple of days involving roundtable discussions, learning on all sides, and networking opportunities!

Since our last post about the Conference, we have been liaising with speakers from within and outside of the University and firming up the event programme, the updated version of which can be found here.

We are delighted to welcome Lindsay Johns, writer and broadcaster (and Oxford MML alumnus), who will be joining us as our keynote speaker to talk about his experiences of studying languages at Oxford and how language learning has shaped his personal and professional life. Likewise, we look forward to an exciting taster lecture from Prof. Jonathan Thacker, King Alfonso XIII Professor of Spanish Studies, as well as hearing from a range of wonderful academics from the Faculty across the two-day event.

Online bookings are still open until Wednesday 13th September, and can be found here.

Photo taken at last year’s Conference, during our fascinating keynote speech from Major-General John Moore-Bick

Please don’t hesitate to contact Nicola at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk with any questions. We look forward to meeting you at the end of the month!