Last update: 27/05/2012

The conference was held on Sat.18th September 2004 at the Archbishop Lanfranc school in Mitcham Road, Croydon, Surrey. There were four speakers, the first being Mr Naresh Chandla - head of community languages and multicultural education for Wolverhampton LEA. He delivered a very interesting talk focusing on" Raising pupil attainment in community languages through differentiated listening and reading activities." He gave practical hints on holding a pupil's attention on a task which the delegates found very useful. Naresh had also brought his handouts in four different languages (Urdu, Punjabi, Gujurati & English). This was appreciated by the participants.

The second speaker was Ms Emily Daly, a French and German teacher and director of "Talking Dice", a company producing dice with a colourful and exciting range of pictures for language teaching with primary, secondary and special needs children. Emily presented a stimulating workshop using the dice, greatly enjoyed by everyone.

Dr Sonia Slattery - Dept. of educational studies, Manchester presented next on "The place of community languages in modern foreign language depts-their provision and perception in secondary schools". It was very interesting to hear about the extensive research she has carried out in this field.

Finally Mr Siva Pillai, Computer officer at Goldsmiths College and ICT lecturer at Southwark College, focused on "The use of ICT in Story Telling to Develop Language Skills". Among his materials were some Tamil films and video animation. He demonstrated that learning language with new technology is very exciting and is a powerful educational tool. Following his talk many delegates expressed a wish to learn more about using ICT in teaching.

The participants particularly liked the lunch, which was cooked by the community language teachers at The Archbishop Lanfranc School. It consisted of a cooked Asian main course and traditional dessert.

The day proved to be a success and was enjoyed by all.

SPECIAL THANKS

My sincere thanks to the London Branch Committee members for their support  for me as I prepared for this event,  and in particular to Claire Jones for coming all the way to attend the conference (as she did last year) in spite of her many official and personal commitments. She performed her duty well; ALL London Regional Branch, you are fortunate to have her as your secretary!

Kausar Ali