We’re delighted to announce the return of our ever-popular French and Spanish flash fiction competitions for school students. 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…
What is Flash Fiction?
We’re looking for a complete story, written in French or Spanish, using NO MORE THAN 100 WORDS.
What are the judges looking for?
We’ll be looking for imagination and narrative flair, as well as your ability to write in French or Spanish. 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?
There are two categories: Years 7-11 and Years 12-13. A first prize of £100 will be awarded to the winning entry in each category, with runner-up prizes of £25. The winning entries will be published on this blog, if you give us permission to do so.
How do I enter?
The deadline for submissions is noon on Thursday 31st March 2022. If you would like to submit a story in French please do so via our online submission portal here. If you would like to submit a story in Spanish please do so here.
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 would like to. Your submission should be uploaded as a Word document or PDF.
Please note that, because of GDPR, teachers cannot enter on their students’ behalf: students must submit their entries themselves.
If you have any questions, please email us at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
Modern Languages admissions interviews are happening next week, and for the second year in a row they’ll all be happening online via Microsoft Teams. Here is an outline of the general format of Modern Languages interviews but you should be aware that practice can vary a little between colleges. It is worth bearing in mind that the interview is not designed to trick you or make you stumble: it aims to stretch you intellectually and give the tutors an insight into the way you think and your motivation for applying for the degree.
The Format
You will have at least two interviews, possibly more, each lasting around twenty minutes. This is so that you have ‘two bites of the apple’, as it were. We know that candidates commonly get nervous during interviews and may not always feel they have performed at their best. Having two interviews gives you two chances to demonstrate what you can do and optimises your chance of showing us your best side.
Your initial interviews will be with the college that is hosting you or, occasionally, they might be conducted centrally by the Modern Languages department itself.
However, you might also find that other colleges want to interview you. This means that all the languages tutors across all the colleges can view your application and can request to see you. You shouldn’t read anything into this. It does not mean that your first college has rejected you. It simply means that colleges are keeping lots of options open to them. Again, it is another chance for you to show us your best.
There will be at least two interviewers on the call. They may split the questioning 50/50 or one may take the lead while another takes notes. Don’t let this faze you – it’s just policy. They will start by introducing themselves and explaining the format of the interview.
The interview is likely to be split into two or three parts, depending on whether you are applying for the language from scratch or post-A Level (or equivalent).
If you are studying the language at A Level or equivalent, there will be some conversation in the target language. This is likely to be just three or four minutes and is another chance for us to assess your linguistic skills. We’re not looking for perfection or fluency. We are simply expecting an ability to speak in the target language at the standard expected of a candidate who is predicted a grade A at A Level. We will be assessing your language skills alongside your written work submission and your performance in the MLAT, so this is not the be all and end all.
If you are applying for a beginners’ language don’t worry, we will not ask you to hold a conversation in that language!
Regardless of whether you are applying for a language from scratch or post-A Level, you will probably be asked to do an exercise in close reading. The interviewer will share their screen with a short text on it. This may be a poem or an extract of prose. Practice does vary a little between colleges as to whether this text will be in the target language: some may give you a text in English; some may give you a text in the target language with an English translation; some may give you a text in the target language and also provide a dictionary or vocab. list, or invite you to ask about any words you don’t understand at the start of the interview. If you are applying for a language from scratch you will be given a version of the text in English.
Read the text fully, and draw some initial conclusions from the text. Ask yourself not only ‘what are my first impressions?’ but, more importantly, ‘why and how are those impressions created?’
The tutors will ask you about the text for around ten minutes.
There will also be some general conversation as part of the interview. During this portion of the interview you might be asked to talk about: academic work you have completed in the last year or two; any relevant wider reading or work experience you might have done; subject-related issues that are very readily visible in the wider world (you will NOT be expected to have an intricate knowledge of current affairs); things you have mentioned in your personal statement.
Top Tips
The first thing to remember is that the interview simulates a tutorial. Tutorial-style teaching is really the USP of Oxford and Cambridge: it is a method of teaching that focuses on discussion in very small groups (usually a tutor and two or three students) on a more-or-less weekly basis. The interview is a way for us to see how you would fare in this type of teaching environment.
As such, we are interested in seeing your ability to contribute to an academically challenging discussion: this will partly be a matter of forming, expressing and, at times, defending your opinions on a particular topic, but we will also want to see your ability to think analytically, to read perceptively, and to be flexible in your thinking.
Try not to be too rigid in your approach. Be open to receiving new information and to changing your opinion based on that information if appropriate.
Go back and re-read your personal statement – there is a good chance you will be asked about it. Make sure you can talk about any books or films you have mentioned, or explain your interests further.
Decisions are not based on your manners, appearance, or background, but on your ability to think independently and to engage with new ideas beyond what you have learnt in school.
The questions will be focused and challenging but this is not a trap and it is not a vocabulary test. If there is anything you are unsure about, whether that’s the questions you are being asked or a particular word you might not understand, it is absolutely fine to ask the tutors to repeat or clarify their question.
So that’s a rundown of Modern Languages interviews at Oxford. It’s a lot to think about and we understand you may justifiably be feeling a little nervous. Of course, not everyone who is interviewed can be offered a place, and we know that this can be disheartening. But remember, you have already done incredibly well to reach interview stage. Whatever the outcome of your application, you should be proud of what you have achieved simply by getting into the room. Above all, try to enjoy the process – it’s not every day you will have the undivided attention of world-leading experts in your subject who are interested in what YOU have to say.
Check out our other interview related posts on this blog by clicking the ‘interviews’ tag. All that remains to be said is good luck!
A reminder that the Prismatic Jane Eyre translation competition for schools is still open for entries:
The Prismatic Jane Eyre School Project is a nationwide creative translation competition for school learners run by the University of Oxford and the Stephen Spender Trust. The competition is a celebration of all languages taught in schools and spoken in homes across the UK.
Entrants are asked to produce a poem in another language inspired by a selected passage from Jane Eyre. The competition accepts submissions in any language from learners in Key Stages 3-5 / S1-6, and all entries need to be accompanied by a literal translation into English. Pupils will be rewarded for their creativity. Up to 100 entries to the competition will be published in a printed anthology, which will also be available online.
Support materials are available on our resources page. Additional activity packs are provided in four languages (Arabic, French, Polish, and Spanish). These materials give learners and teachers the chance to take part in creative translation activities related to Jane Eyre at home or in the classroom.
The competition guidelines and selected passages are available on this webpage. The competition deadline is 1 March 2022.
Interested teachers and prospective entrants can receive regular updates about the competition (or the project more generally) by registering their interest using this form.
Good luck to all those taking the Modern Languages Admissions Test today to become an Oxford undergraduate next October. If you’re thinking of applying to us in the future, here’s a video about how the admissions tests work:
And you’ll find all the information about how to go about applying to study with us here:
Choose one of the tasks appropriate for your age group. All tasks to be completed in German, unless indicated otherwise.
Years 5 and 6 (age 9-11):
Draw a picture of a barge on the Rhine. Label the 12 most important items.
You are attending the “Basler Fasnacht” (carnival of Basel) or “Kölner Karneval” (carnival of Cologne). Design your costume and give your drawing or painting 10 labels.
Draw a comic strip of the Rhine and the places it flows through.
Years 7 to 9 (age 11-14):
Draw or paint a picture of creatures that live in and by the Rhine, and write a short text describing them.
Write about a day in your life on Lake Constance (der Bodensee) in a prehistoric stilt house (Pfahlbau) – “Ein Tag am Bodensee in der Bronzezeit”.
Draw a scene from Heinrich Heine’s poem „Die Loreley“ and describe what is happening.
Years 10 and 11 (age 14-16):
“Rheingold”. Write a story or create a video inspired by the Nibelung treasure.
Create an online exhibition about the famous castles along the Rhine.
Give a video presentation about the historical importance of the Rhine.
Years 12 and 13 (age 16-18):
“Wie sichern wir die nachhaltige Zukunft des Rheins?”. Plan a conference for 16-18 year olds including the advertisement and programme with keynote lectures and topics for roundtable discussion.
Write an essay, give a video presentation OR create a website on one of the following topics associated with places on the Rhine: “Hildegard von Bingen”, “Die Geschichte des Zeppelins” OR “Der Kölner Dom”.
Write an essay or video yourself giving a lecture on the following topic: „Schlagader Europas: Die Geschichte des Rheins”.
Open Competition for Groups or Classes (4+ participants):
Create a website for a Rhine river cruise.
Write and illustrate a children’s book about acat living on a Rheinschiff (Rhine barge).
Create a graphic novel or a video featuring characters or storylines from the “Nibelungenlied”.
Discover German – Taster Competition (1-3 participants with no prior experience of studying German):
Years 5 and 6: Find out what the following German words mean and draw a picture including all these items, each with a label: der Fluss, das Ufer, die Brücke, das Haus, das Schiff, der Hügel, die Burg, die Fahne, der Fisch, die Nixe.
Years 7 to 9: Draw or paint a picture of the whole Rhine and label the countries (in German), 10 cities and 10 things you would be likely to find in or along the river.
Years 10 and 11:Create a crossword puzzle or game that includes the names of 15 places on the Rhine or words associated with the Rhine.
Years 12 and 13: Research words formed with (a) Fluss, (b) fließen and (c) flüssig. Give one or more translations for each word (the translation may consist of more than one word).
Reluctant as we are to blow our own trumpet on this blog, we hope you’ll forgive us for drawing attention to this year’s university rankings in the Guardian. As in previous years, the Guardian university ranking 2021 confirms the faculty as the best Modern Language department in the UK. We are delighted that this recognises the strength and depth of our provision for students.
Professor Geraldine Hazbun (Director of Undergraduate Studies says: “This is excellent news in a year when colleagues and students have worked hard in difficult and changing conditions. It underlines our energy, expertise, and unwavering commitment to the study of languages and their cultures, as well as the horizons our courses can open up.”
Professor Simon Kemp (Director of Outreach and Schools Liaison) noted: “We are very pleased to see that our success rests in part on the very high employability of the linguists graduating from our courses. We’ll continue to work hard to inspire a new generation of students to be at ease in other languages and at home in other cultures.“
This week we have our third (and, for the moment, last) short film in which a modern languages graduate talks about their career since finishing their degree. This week, Georgia Trapp, who studied Spanish and Italian at Oxford, tells us about her career with Proctor and Gamble managing supply chains in fast-moving consumer goods.
Continuing from last week, here’s another catch-up with one of our former modern languages students to hear about the career they’ve chosen, and how their modern languages degree took them there. This week, Senior Business Analyst Hugo Leatt talks about his career in management consultancy and the skills he’s taken from his modern languages degree into the workplace:
In an occasional series, we’ll be dropping in on our former Modern Languages students to see what they are doing now, and how the skills they’ve learned in their degree course have led them to their chosen career. This week, Daniel Abu, who studied French and Italian for his undergraduate degree at Oxford, talks about how his studies have led to a career in Marketing at a Brand Strategy Consultancy.
One of the challenges facing modern languages today is justifying the subject to students in terms of its employability and transferable skills, particularly in competition with STEM subjects. A new report funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and carried out by Oxford University will help make that case.
The narrative skillset comprises: ■ Narrative Communication ■ Empathy and Perspective Taking ■ Critical Analysis, Synthesis, and Managing Complex Data ■ Creativity and Imagination ■ Digital Skills
And the study found that Arts and Humanities degrees like Modern Languages are seen by business leaders as specialising in a range of skills that foster this area, such as essay writing, critical thinking, creative thinking, rhetoric and persuasion, storytelling, cross-cultural studies, social analysis, and dealing with ambiguities.
Some of the key findings of the research study are that: ■ Narrative is a fundamental and indispensable set of skills in business in the twenty-first century. The ability to devise, craft, and deliver a successful narrative is not only a pre-requisite for any CEO or senior executive, but is also increasingly becoming necessary for employees in any organisation. ■ Narrative is about persuading another person to embrace an idea and act on it. Narrative exists in action rather than as a static message. ■ Narrative is necessary for a business to communicate its purpose and values. This reflects dramatic societal and economic changes this century by which society as a whole and employees, especially younger ones, expect businesses to live and operate by positive values. The old corporate objective of focusing on maximising shareholder financial returns is no longer sufficient. ■ A successful narrative must be authentic and based on facts and truth. ■ Audiences for business narratives are becoming increasingly numerous and diverse. Previously, businesses would focus external communications on core audiences such as customers, suppliers, investors, and regulators. Now businesses must engage with a wider variety of stakeholders and a diverse workforce, actively taking a position on key social issues including the environment, social well-being and the community. ■ Writing is a critical part of narrative, but it is as much a performative as it is a written form of communication. Body language, facial expressions, staging and engaging an audience are as important as the written word when it comes to disseminating a business narrative. ■ Diversity is integral to narrative on two levels. First, in a multicultural society like the UK even an internal narrative for domestic employees must appeal to people from different cultural, ethnic, gender, linguistic, religious, and educational backgrounds. For businesses with offshore operations those narratives must cross geographic, social and cultural borders. Second, the devising and crafting of a business narrative must be done by a diverse group of people, reflecting the differences in background among audiences as highlighted above. ■ Arts and Humanities university degrees are better placed than others to train graduates with narrative skills, but narrative should also be taught across STEM (Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics) disciplines as well and the Arts and Humanities should not be seen as having a monopoly on narrative skills. The consensus among business leaders interviewed for this project is that the education system in England – at secondary and tertiary levels – is too siloed for the needs of the economy in the twenty-first century, forcing students to choose between either the Arts and Humanities or STEM-related subjects too early. Instead, they argue that the education system should encourage and support students to undertake multidisciplinary courses of study, because business problems require multidisciplinary solutions.
A blog for students and teachers of Years 11 to 13, and anyone else with an interest in Modern Foreign Languages and Cultures, written by the staff and students of Oxford University. Updated every Wednesday!
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