World of Languages, Languages of the World
The WoLLoW resources and lesson content have been created to encourage children to be curious about languages, to understand the links and see the patterns between languages, and to help them to think about how a language works. We want pupils on the WoLLoW programme to love words and love how their own language works. The goal is for WoLLoW pupils to be filled with the wonder of how languages intermingle, how they have built on each other and how they enhance our lives.
WoLLoW is a fully developed languages curriculum for pupils in pupils aged between 7 and 15. Created by experienced language teachers, and available free to all schools, the project aims to bind together all elements of a pupils’ experience in school and beyond and to prepare pupils not only for future study, but future life.
Our mission is to bring the study of languages, all languages, into the centre of education at a time when our schools have much greater linguistic diversity than ever, and our increasingly diverse society has an urgent need to generate understanding, communication and respect between all people.
Why use WoLLoW
WoLLoW aims to inspire, encourage and excite pupils in junior schools and the first years of secondary school to:
- be curious about language and languages, their history and their diversity
- understand the links and see the patterns between languages
- think about how a language works
- develop skills in learning, reading, writing and hearing both in English and other languages
- see how languages relate to other topics of study, for example history, geography and science.
Suitable for all abilities, and using a range of lively and appealing resources, created by teachers, the WoLLoW curriculum addresses the following themes:
- curiosity, exploration and enjoyment – and not only for the pupils;
- an understanding of languages and thereby a development of literacy in a wider sense;
- communication, sharing, dialogue and oracy;
- a regard for all languages, modern, classical, heritage and, in particular, a celebration of multilingualism;
- a desire to preserve, value and study familial languages;
- an eagerness to study languages into the future;
- respect for each other’s history and culture;
- a sense of self-awareness and identity for pupils;
- a bridge between a pupil’s experience at school and their home life, and a bridge between parents and the school;
- an awareness of the relevance of languages not only to all school subjects but also to wider issues, such as migration.
What is WoLLoW?
WoLLoW is a curriculum package for primary and secondary schools, which teaches children the history, culture and development of all languages and how they have shaped our lives. WoLLoW uses ideas and activities from a range of different subjects and helps pupils to understand patterns of grammar, uses of script and how learning through language can help shape their understanding of the world.
The primary and secondary courses run for a year and are aimed at one lesson per week. Resources are free to download, are flexible and can be adapted to suit the skills of your teachers and the needs of your learners.
What inspired WoLLoW?
The teaching of ancient and modern languages in this country – whether European or Asian – is, at best, problematic and, at worst, declining towards extinction.
There is no question that the English language is remarkable – the product of conquest, migration and empire, combining words – and grammar – from Celtic, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman French, Latin (again), ancient Greek and the languages of the British Empire. However, the result is that the teaching of English can become mired in technical, and wearying, language.
WoLLoW challenges this. The curriculum draws on the rich diversity of our multi-cultural and multi-lingual society here in Britain to help inspire a love of language and address the following key issues:
- The decline in the number of pupils learning languages nationally.
- The fragmented and disjointed way in which languages are taught in junior and senior schools, both in the independent and state sector.
- The lack of co-ordination between departments in schools which are teaching languages, English, Modern Foreign Languages and Classics.
- The failure of our schools to see and use the remarkable linguistic diversity of our pupils, many of whom are bilingual, if not trilingual: EAL is seen as a problem whereas it could be a remarkable opportunity.
How is WoLLoW taught?
WoLLoW has been developed through the partnership and collaboration of language teachers and experts in their field from a range of state and independent junior and secondary schools, to create a dedicated curriculum for pupils in KS2 and KS3, with the following aims:
- to encourage a curiosity about language and languages, where they came from, how they developed and are developing, and how they are related.
- to help pupils to understand how languages work in terms of grammar and thereby to provide a foundation for the study of specific languages at secondary level.
- to develop the capacity to learn languages, including English, by encouraging thought about etymology, the similarities between languages etc.
to link the teaching of languages with other aspects of the curriculum. - to enable pupils who have a rich linguistic history to bring that history into the classroom.
WoLLoW offers a comprehensive range of resources, lesson content and schemes of work, both for pupils and teachers, which explore:
- The history of the English language and the history and etymology of English words.
- The relation of English to other languages, in particular Germanic languages, Romance languages and Indo-European languages.
- The ways in which different languages work in terms of grammar, syntax, idiom.
- The creation and decipherment of codes and artificial languages.