A group of five schools delivering the Language Futures approach have recently been awarded a grant of £1,225 from The Japan Foundation to purchase teaching resources to help establish the teaching of Japanese in their schools.
The Japan Foundation promotes international cultural exchange between Japan and the rest of the world. It provides free training for teachers and Japanese learning resources for both teachers and learners and also offers free Japanese taster sessions for schools along with grants for schools that are interested in introducing Japanese languages classes.
Siobhan Judge from Linton Village College, one of the five schools involved, said: ”Linton Village College is delighted with the generous funding grant from The Japan Foundation. This will enable us to buy valuable resources such as flashcards, apps & dictionaries for our students who will be studying Japanese for the first time in September. Super! すばらしい!”
The Language Futures approach aims to broaden language provision and promote linguistic diversity. Motivation and engagement are key to the approach with learners not only choosing the language they wish to learn, but also exercising choice in elements of what and how to learn. The class teacher acts as a facilitator of language learning rather than a teacher of a specific language by creating the conditions for students to manage their own learning processes and supporting them to learn collaboratively with their peers. For this reason, being able to access a range of varied teaching materials is crucial to the Language Futures approach as these resources support students to lead and manage their own learning.
For further information on the Language Futures approach, please visit the website.