Cambridge given key role in language learning scheme

Under an agreement signed earlier this month, the University will become a major partner in a two-year programme to design and develop an online language-learning resource, called the Open School for Languages.

The project was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families following Lord Dearing’s 2007 report which suggested that there had been a decline in language learning at Key Stage 4 (ages 14 to 16) and recommended that all children should learn a language from the age of seven.

The Open School will create an online learning facility for secondary school pupils aged 11 to 16, covering a range of different languages. Pupils will be able to learn in their own time, free from the peer pressure they sometimes experience in the classroom.

The content will be specially designed to motivate and engage users, appealing to the interests of young people and allowing them to explore and learn languages on their own terms. The Open School will also offer resources for teachers, equipping them with varied, flexible, compelling and innovative content that can be used both inside and outside the classroom.

The project is being led by the educational software and services developer Research Machines. Cambridge’s role will be to lend expertise from its own Language Centre, which has won awards for similar programmes.

In particular the Centre developed the Cambridge University Language Programme (CULP) and later Junior CULP, which combines face-to-face teaching with online learning. Aimed at 14-year-olds and above, particularly those who are less motivated to study languages at Key Stage 4, the programme was praised by Lord Dearing in his 2007 report.

Anny King, Director of the Centre, said: “The Cambridge Team will be working with Research Machines, the best educational partner in the UK, and putting its expertise in online development at the service of schools in England. We are committed to developing the most exciting and innovative online service we can; one that will have secondary pupils hooked and convince them to learn languages.”