3855 Accent No 11 Oct 02 - Ashcombe School

Language Classes ... for Parents“Why shouldsecondary school childrenbe the only ones to profitfrom the wonderfullearning opportunitiesavailable at TheAshcombe?”This was the thinking behind theoffer to parents this Spring termof a ten-week course of Frenchimprovement classes, making fulluse of the School’s state-of-the-artICT facilities. (‘ICT’, by the way,stands for ‘Information &Communication Technology’). Thelessons were structured by RogerBeck, a recently semi-retiredlanguage teacher, and more than 20adults enrolled for the courselistening, reading, speaking andwriting were all given plenty ofpractice, and, each week, time wasdedicated to some aspect of Frenchculture, e.g. a children’s book,popular songs, and the awardwinningfilm ‘Le fabuleux destind’Amélie Poulain’.All in all, this course proved to be asuccessful and enjoyable venturewhich, hopefully, served to increasethe cultural interest and linguisticcompetence of those involved,leaving them yearning for more!Vive la France, et vive lesordinateurs!...and for Children(though weekly attendance settledat around a dozen regulars).Participants rapidly becameproficient at using the computers toaccess the full range of languagelearningprograms on offer. As thiswas, by its very nature, a mixedabilitygroup, using the variousstored CD-Roms proved to be anideal approach, as it allowed all thelearners to progress at their ownpace, and consequently there wassomething to challenge and interesteveryone in each session. Theadults also responded favourably tothe ‘privacy’ of this learning style:at no stage did anyone ever need tofeel self-conscious or worried about‘showing themselves up’ in public!The four language skills ofA very successful series of afterschoollanguage lessons took placein our multi-media suite in theSpring and Summer Terms.Ten weeks of French, followedby ten of Spanish and then eight ofGerman enabled Mums, Dads andtheir children to get to grips withthe basics using a variety of CDRoms. We hope to repeat this afterChristmas.13