International Newcastle is delighted to be working with uTalk to promote the Language Games initiative, which schools or home education groups can sign up for and get access to a whole range of fun language learning materials on their devices. It is for learners at Key Stage 2 and is easy to get involved with. Schools can choose three languages from 144 on offer and be part of a national language games programme.
uTalk Language Games
This is an award-winning competition that has helped more than 25,000 students discover how easy it can be to learn a new language.
Run by education company uTalk, students learn by playing language games on their devices, scoring points, and competing for ranking on an online leaderboard.
With prizes to win and a choice of over 140 languages to learn, these games are a fun way of boosting speaking and listening skills in another language.
The Games were launched in 2004 (under the name Junior Language Challenge) to help motivate children to learn languages.
Now open to students of all ages, entrants are able to learn a new language while having fun competing against others in their class, school or region.
They are ideal for teachers or home education groups looking to entertain as well as educate and help encourage individual learners.
The Games run from September 2020 to July 2021. Schools can get involved at any point. It costs just £5 per person.
This gives you:
- Up to three languages to learn on the games-based uTalk language learning app.
- An online leaderboard for students, which keeps track of their scores and ranking.
- An online dashboard for teachers, which records students’ scores and achievements.
- The chance to earn certificates and win prizes!
A fun way of learning languages
“We are offering the opportunity to learn up to 3 languages over the course of the school year, with content that is suitable for learners at Key Stage 2.
It’s a fun way of helping get students to grips with a language they would otherwise maybe not learn and enthusing them about languages.
We focus on speaking, so there is no grammar or writing – the App focuses on the communicative side of learning.
It does not require much time on the part of the teacher, or language knowledge and schools can pick any two languages from the 144 available; we choose the third one (which we make sure no one else has picked).
Steve Eatock, Education Manager, uTalk
An opportunity for Newcastle’s schools and home education groups
Newcastle University has a longstanding partnership with uTalk for students and staff using uTalk language learning apps and now International Newcastle is working with them on a range of ideas to promote language learning in a fun way – both for schools and communities.
The Language Games are just one of the opportunities we are exploring as part of our work with partners on Newcastle City of Languages.
We are delighted to be able to share this offer for schools to get involved in the Language Games.
So many schools now have multiple languages spoken by pupils, this is a great way to explore some of them or try entirely new languages and help pupils see just how much fun it can be.
Declan Baharini, Director, International Newcastle