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Thursday 25 September 2014

English as an Additional Language and MTOT

Two EAL teachers in Glasgow City Council have developed an exciting programme of Mother Tongue Other Tongue poetry activities for their learners.

Kirsten Barret and Claire Stevenson have created a group plan for the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition, mapping a variety of creative writing activities against Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes in Literacy and English, and Health and Well-being: 



MTOT Group Plan developed by K Barret and Claire Stevenson


Follow Kirsten and Claire on Twitter to see more! #MTOT

Tuesday 16 September 2014

The Creative Bag of Tricks #3 - Calligrams

Celebrate European Day of Languages (26th of September) and World Animal Day (4th of October) with calligrams!


Conceptualise key themes and ideas in an imaginative and visual way.


Esto es mi pez dorado
Silencio, silencio
Es tranquilo
Nada y piensa
Se llama Estrella

Why calligrams?
  • An accessible form of poetry focusing on imagination with fewer worries about accuracy
  • Allows learners to transform familiar language in a new and interesting way
  • Ask learners to conceptualise key ideas
  • Is adaptable to different ages and stages


L'Afrique, c'est exotique
L'Afrique est exotique et étrangère
...est exotique, étrangère et pittoresque
...exotique, étrangère, pittoresque, immense
Mes souvenirs d'Afrique



Creating calligrams:
  • For younger learners, start by making visual images of key words before moving on to sentences.
  • Ask advanced learners to think about objects associated with a character from a book, film or play you are studying. Using the form of the object, make calligrams based on the character's personality traits or key quotes.
  • Read and discuss a selection of calligrams in the target language.

C'est mon chat, Shah,
Miaou, miaou,
Miaou, miaou,
Noir et blanc,
miaou, miaou,
Il saute,
Miaou, miaou,
Il dort,
Miaou, miaou, miaou.

Other Ideas:
  • Create a classroom display of your calligrams and share with us!

Friday 12 September 2014

SCILT wants to hear from you!

Tell us how your learners are taking part in Mother Tongue Other Tongue.



Have you experimented with ideas from our Creative Bag of Tricks yet? We would like to hear feedback, tips and other comments from you and your learners about their experiences. Leave these in the "Post a Comment" box under each post. 

We also welcome articles, lesson ideas or any other MTOT stories that we can share and celebrate on our blog. Please send these to victoria.henry@strath.ac.uk

Are you on Twitter? Follow @scottishcilt and use the hashtag #MTOT to tag any news you tweet about your school’s MTOT activities.

Wednesday 10 September 2014

The Creative Bag of Tricks #2 - Metaphor


“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” 


Using images or a selection of objects, encourage learners to create metaphors by brainstorming and seeing things in different ways.



What is this? 
Snow on grass? 
A bed of nails? 
Frosty stick men dancing?
Microscopic hairs on a snowman's arm?







And, what is this? 
A sunflower in a field? 
A tall man in a crowd? 
An excited fan sitting on someone's shoulders in the audience at a music festival?



Before creating metaphors in the target language:


  • Work on some examples. Ask learners to select the relevant plain speech description of an image from a mixed selection - including some red herrings - written in the target language:


  • Next, give learners a choice of possible metaphors for the image written in the target language. Ask them to decode the metaphors. Discuss the associations that are made and the effectiveness of these:
    • To which characteristics does it relate? 
    • Does it remind you of anything? 
    • Is it obvious or obscure? 
    • How does it taste, look, smell, sound, feel? 
    • Which do you prefer and why? 

When creating metaphors in the target language:
  • Free-associate: Ask learners to note all the things that they associate with the image or object including things with similar qualities.
  • Think outside of the box: the less obvious the association, the more interesting the metaphor!
  • This activity could lead on to writing "Ezra Pound Couplets" in the target language where the plain speech statement is followed by a metaphor.