@CIOL_Linguists
SPRING 2024 The Linguist 15
FEATURES
Oxford was so rewarding – an experience
they will never forget."
The teacher from Holy Family Roman
Catholic and Church of England College
agreed that the project had helped students
to see themselves not only as linguists but as
future university students: "It was great to
see students from different backgrounds in
our area see that they are not restricted when
it comes to choosing a place to study in the
future, and that institutions such as Oxford
and Cambridge are not beyond their reach.
This idea was also brought back into school
by the five students that participated in the
project and so reached a much wider
audience. It was also exciting for our students
to think about how languages work and the
future of languages."
The graduation event
The first graduation event took place at the
University of Oxford as the students were
starting Year 9. Jam-packed with educational
activities, the day began with lunch and a tour
of the college, including the historic library
(set in a graveyard!), chapel and common
room. Dr Alex Lloyd led a session on 'how
words can change the world', focusing on the
history of the White Rose resistance circle (a
group of university students who
campaigned against the Nazis). Students
discovered the importance of translation in
bringing the story of this group to an
Anglophone audience. They also tried out
Portuguese in a beginners' language session
led by Dr Georgia Nasseh, showing that any
language is possible for them.
During the graduation ceremony at The
Queen's College, students shared what they
had learnt from the project: their favourite
cross-cultural facts, how translation will
continue to affect the use of technology,
and even a mini-speech in Portuguese! They
were each presented with a certificate of
their achievements.
The TLAL partners believe that this
collaborative approach, which puts the
schools and their local area at the heart of
the programme, can make a significant
difference to the decline in the numbers
studying languages across the UK. The
project is driven by the belief that we need to
show young people what it means to be a
linguist and how much it will enrich their lives,
rather than simply telling them. It is designed
to make these benefits palpable and we are
already seeing its impact in the enthusiastic
and perceptive responses from the first
cohort. Following this successful pilot, Think
Like a Linguist will expand to other areas of
the UK in 2024.
Article by Holly Langstaff, Nicola Brown,
Chris Dobbs and Rebecca Smithson.
Notes
1 Think Like a Linguist (https://cutt.ly/FwCpasiV)
was conceived by Charlotte Ryland at the
Translation Exchange (Oxford), Jon Datta at
Widening Participation (Cambridge) and Chris
Dobbs at Hollingworth Academy (Rochdale). We
are grateful to all who have become involved
and look forward to bringing TLAL to new
communities in the years to come.
EXPANDING OPTIONS
Think Like a Linguist participants at the
graduation ceremony in Oxford
