Monday 24 August 2009

The LAFTAs: Promoting Languages through Competitions


What is it?
The competition is organised by CILT, the National Centre for Languages as part of its work to promote languages in the UK. The LAFTAs aims to create a bank of video clips that can be used to encourage teenagers to value language learning.

What do you have to do?
You have to make a two-minute video showing why languages are important. Online application forms and clips must be sent in before February 2010.The clips will be put on a dedicated YouTube page and passed on to regional judges and, finally, to the LAFTA’s celebrity judging panel.

Video clips can be in any style but students must be aged 13-21, must be living in the UK and can be entered in one or more categories. There are individual and group categories for the most commonly taught languages as well as a "London 2012" and "World of Languages" category to celebrate all the world languages spoken in the UK.

What are they looking for?
*Originality and creativity: Clips are not be judged on technical excellence, the idea is the most important criteria.
*Clips should have a strong message about the benefits of learning a language as illustrated on the LAFTA YouTube page.
*Clips should be designed to appeal to young people rather than adults.
*Clips should be no longer than two minutes in length.

Hints and tips are aso provided here and it is also interesting to have a look at a similar competition organised in the US by the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, great contest! It looks a lot like our podcast contast that we are conducting in the U.S. We have had great success with it for the past two years and I wish you luck with yours!
Bret Lovejoy
Executive Director
ACTFL
www.actfl.org
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
blovejoy@actfl.org

Isabelle Jones said...

Dear Bret
Thank you very much for your comment. I would love to find out more about your podcast contest. It is always great to get inspiration from colleagues worldwide...
Isabelle