Success for Language Mentoring Project

A partnership which brings university students into school classrooms to encourage pupils to learn a modern foreign language is being celebrated for its innovative approach to education. Launched in 2015, the Modern Foreign Language Student Mentoring Project delivers face to face mentoring in secondary schools to support the Welsh Government's Global Futures strategy which aims to increase the number of young people choosing to study a modern foreign language at GCSE, A level and beyond. It has been adopted internationally and was adapted in England to promote the benefits of language learning to thousands of pupils in two English regions in 2018-20. Professor Claire Gorrara and colleagues from Cardiff University's School of Modern Languages teamed up with the four Welsh education consortia, including the Central South Consortium (CSC) - a Joint Education Service for five local authorities: Bridgend, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf and the Vale of Glamorgan - to deliver the mentoring project. It places undergraduates from Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor and Aberystwyth universities into local schools in Wales to mentor pupils and encourage them to consider choosing modern foreign languages at GCSE. Professor Gorrara said: "We are delighted that our partnership model has been recognised for helping pupils explore their place in a globalising world and introducing them to the professional and interpersonal benefits of learning languages, as well as aspiration to go to University." "A digital iteration of the project was developed and delivered in 2017-18," added Professor Gorrara.