Ages Secondary

Grouping Mixed
ability

Celebration of Languages – Lesson plan Date

Duration
--/--/----
1 hour

Subjects

ESDGC
• Identity and culture

PSE
• Active citizenship
• Sustainable development and global citizenship

Guiding question
Why is it important to be aware of other countries’ languages and culture?

Key Teaching Points

About the Concept

Language is a system that people use to communicate or share information. Language includes speaking,
writing, and making gestures, or body movements. Early human ancestors began using spoken language
several million years ago. Humans began writing about 5,000 years ago. Language made it possible for human
societies to develop. There are roughly 6,500 languages spoken across the globe! Some are spoken by millions
of people.

Learning Outcomes:
1. research and understand the origins of another language
2. identify the advantages of speaking more than one language
3. recognise the importance of being aware of other countries’ languages and culture.

Differentiation: through peer support and mixed-ability groupings, varied questioning

techniques

• For SEN or generally less confident learners, encourage them to work in pairs during research tasks for
extra support.
• For more able, allow them to ‘teach it’ back to their peers after research activity.
• Give students certain languages to focus on when creating their poster depending on ability rather than
them choosing.

Materials
• Books, pens and pencils
• Lesson slides
• ‘Languages’ worksheet
Progression of Learning and Teaching
Introduction: Slide 1 and 2 (5 minutes)
Introduce the title/topic and learning objects for the lesson.

Discussion: Slide 3 (5 minutes)

To start, ask students to discuss the following question to introduce the topic:

How many different languages do you think are spoken across the globe?

Information: Slide 4 (5 minutes)

Introduce the topic of ‘language’ to the pupils with information on the slide.

Teaching suggestions: Take this time to ask students why they may be learning about this and why
acknowledging different languages is important.

Lesson Starter: Slide 5 (5 minutes)

Read the information on the slide.

Ask pupils to make a list of all the different languages that they can think of to get them starting to think about
different languages and cultures.

Research Task: Slide 6 (10 minutes)

Using there ‘Languages’ worksheet, students have two research tasks to carry out independently about
languages:

1. Find five languages that they did not know existed before this lesson and where they are spoken.

2. Complete research on any chosen topic, finding out:

• where it is spoken;
• the history of it;
• any other facts and statistics about it.

Teaching suggestions: For support, perhaps have two or three languages ready to give students who need the
guidance and that it may be easier to find information for. Students could also complete this in pairs if needed.

Teach It: Slide 7 (10 minutes)

In groups of four, the students must now teach this language to their peers so they can complete the worksheet
and learn about four different languages.

Teaching suggestions: To support students and challenge MAT, you could choose three More Able partners to
present their findings back to the class about the language of their choice.

Discussion: Slide 8 (5 minutes)

Introduce the word ‘bilingual’ with the definition on the slide and ask the pupils:

Why do you think it would be useful to be able to speak more than one language?
Creative Task: Slide 9 (15 minutes)
Reflecting on what they have learnt, ask pupils to create a poster persuading their peers to start learning a new
language.

Think about:

• the different languages they can choose from;

• the advantage of being bilingual;
• persuasive techniques.

Teaching suggestions: Students can be split into groups of for this activity for extra support. You can give
students a language to specifically focus on depending on ability.

Give time for students to peer-assess their work, looking at the three bullet-points above an highlighting any
persuasive techniques.

Summary: Slide 10 and 11

Recap the learning objectives with the learners and show them where they could develop their knowledge
further.

For additional activities for classroom or home learning, please see slides 13-15.

Assessment Methods
➢ Think - pair - share
➢ Feedback from discussions
➢ Questioning
➢ Poster
➢ ‘Teach It’ activity
➢ Summary (additional activities)
➢ Presentation (additional activities)