International Translation Day resource packs

It's well known in the languages community that 26th September is European Day of Languages, but did you know that 30th September is also an important day for languages?

30th September each year is International Translation Day.   30th September is also the feast day of St Jerome, who in 405 AD completed a translation of the Bible into Latin from Hebrew.  For this reason, St Jerome is the patron saint of translators.

International Translation Day honours language professionals worldwide for breaking down barriers, enhancing global dialogue and connecting countries and cultures.  It was adopted by the United Nations, where it is used to highlight global diplomacy, peace and development.

Each year, there is a theme, and for 2026 it is "The power of being understood".

These resource packs aim to introduce students to different aspects of translation and interpreting, and also to practise translation in the run-up to the GCSE examination. All the French and Spanish used is from the Edexcel vocabulary lists for Foundation Tier, unless otherwise specified. Vocabulary that is not in the Foundation Tier lists is glossed on the resources. 

Each of the 10 resources in each pack also has a page of notes, information and an answer key for the teacher. These resources will be most suitable for higher ability Key Stage 3 students (age 11- 14) and for Key Stage 4 students (age 14- 16). They can be used in class as part of a lesson, but would also be ideal for enrichment activities and language clubs.

You will find the French resource pack here, and the Spanish resource pack here.

European Day of Languages Resource Pack

 

I've written a few times about European Day of Languages and language days before, giving ideas and links to help with celebrating those days in school.

After teaching my last ever lesson as a classroom teacher on July 22nd, I have finished my first "retirement" project which is a resource pack for European Day of Languages.

It contains 40 resources, which you will be able to print off and use straightaway.  There will be something to suit all learners, from Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) to Key Stage 4 (age 14-16).  You know your learners best, and will be able to choose something to suit them.  There are some resources in French and Spanish, but the majority are in English about languages from all over the world, so will suit learners of any language other than English.

Here are screenshots of the introduction and contents, to give you an idea of what's in the resource pack.  I hope you like it, and that it helps you in your preparation and planning for European Day of Languages and other language days.

Ideas for a French or Spanish Day

 

It's the time of year when primary schools are planning French Days, Spanish Days, days for other languages or indeed international days.  Schools are also starting to think about European Day of Languages in September.  Posts looking for advice and ideas for these sorts of days are common on the primary social media groups.

I've pulled together lots of ideas, mainly from the Languages in Primary Schools Facebook group (LiPS), so many thanks to everyone there who has posted ideas in the past.  I thought that having everything in one place would be helpful.

The main thing that I think should be borne in mind when planning a French Day or Spanish Day is that 'French' is not just France, and 'Spanish' is not just Spain.  It is advisable to incorporate as many  as possible of the countries where the language is spoken.  It is also advisable to steer clear of stereotypes such as berets and onions for French and a Mexican sombrero for Spanish.

If it's a French day you're organising, you must read this blogpost by Jane Birtwistle.  It's full of great ideas and pictures.  These activities I have listed have French and Spanish (the languages that I teach) in mind, but they can be adapted for other languages or for international days.

Francophone and Hispanophone countries around the world

• Each class is allocated a country where the language is spoken, and the children 'travel' to each classroom to do a different activity.  The children have a passport, which they could design and make (a minibook would work really well), and they can be given a stamp or sticker in their passport to show they have been to that country.
• Each class is allocated a country where the language is spoken.  The children dress up in the colours of that country's flag.  They could also dress up as a famous person from that country.
• Each class is allocated a country where the language is spoken, and prepares a presentation about it.  They could find out where it is, label its cities, find out about famous people from there and its traditional music.  They could write about it in English, creating postcards, tourist brochures, poems or descriptive writing.

Food

• Have a café serving typical foods.  Older pupils can be waiters and children can design the menus.  Invite parents, governors and other people from the school community.
• Ask the school catering staff if they can make a special dinner menu for the day.
• Ask supermarkets to donate food.  They like to have community links.
• Taste some foods from the countries where the language is spoken.

Cities and Landmarks

• Have an Eiffel Tower building competition.  Children can use all sorts of materials, such as spaghetti and marshmallows, Lego, rolled up paper and masking tape.
• Recreate the Pont des Arts in Paris and its padlocks.  Children could write a message on their padlock.

Cultural events

• Learn about the French Fête Nationale on 14th July (Bastille Day) and its celebrations.
• Learn about celebrations in Spain such as San Fermín and La Tomatina.  If you are feeling brave you could recreate these in some way!

Theatre

• Pay for a visiting theatre company such as Théâtre sans Frontières, Onatti or Big Wheel Theatre Company.

Films

• Show an appropriate film that is set in a country where the language is spoken, or a familiar film in the foreign language with or without subtitles in English.

Literacy

• Read a story book in the language
• Learn a poem
• Create calligrams using some foreign-language words.

Music

• Learn a song
• Have a mini Eurovision-style song contest, where each class learns a song in the foreign language and performs it for the rest of the school.

Art and design

• Create artworks in the style of an artist from a target-language speaking country.  For French try Matisse, Monet, Seurat, Rodin or Dégas.  For Spanish try Miró, Gaudí, Picasso or Frida Kahlo.
• Create a whole-school artwork, where each child contributes a small tile.

Sport, outdoor activities and physical activity

• Play traditional sports from the target-language countries, such as pétanque and boules for French.  Handball is popular in many European countries but almost unheard of here.
• Have a team competition where each team has the name of one of the countries where the language is spoken.  Have an opening ceremony like the Olympics.
• Play playground games from the target-language countries.
• Have a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt.
• Hold a mini Tour de France or Vuelta a España with bikes, trikes or scooters.
• Learn a traditional dance.

Language Challenges

• Have a go at some of the activities from the Lumen Language Challenges.

Here is an infographic that ClaudeAI created:

More Suno songs

 

Since my last post about the songs I have created using Suno, I have added more to my YouTube playlists for French and Spanish.

FRENCH:

SPANISH:

Advent colouring books

 

The latest additions to the resources in my Sellfy store are Advent colouring books for French and Spanish.

The colouring books are good for you!  They contain no chocolate, and the colouring in will promote mindfulness and lower stress levels.  You will also learn about 24 ways in which the Christmas period is marked and celebrated in France and in Spanish-speaking countries.

Find the French one here and the Spanish one here.

Have a look at my other Sellfy Christmas resources here, and there are lots of free Christmas resources on Light Bulb Languages.

Suno songs

 

A couple of weekends ago I attended the Association for Language Learning Online Conference and was reminded of Suno, the AI app which will create songs for you.

Suno has the potential to be a game changer for language teachers.  We know how well songs can work to fix language in students' memory in a fun way, but it's often hard to find a suitable song that practises the language that we want to practise.

With Suno, all you have to do is to type in your lyrics, decide on the genre of song that you would like it to create, and click on the Create button.  Each time it will create two different songs.  You are given 50 credits each day, and each pair of songs costs 10 credits.

I have tried creating lyrics in ChatGPT, with some success.  It's difficult to get lyrics that are simple enough for primary learners.  In the Spanish planets song, for example, ChatGPT created the lists of planets and their descriptions, but I created the chorus myself.  Also as a chorister/musician myself, I am quite picky about the songs that I eventually choose!

I have downloaded the songs as mp3s, and then converted them to mp4s in Canva, using an image file with the lyrics as the background.  I have uploaded them to my YouTube channel, where they are in the playlists Spanish songs and French songs.

The children at my schools have enjoyed the songs so far.  Year 6, usually too cool to sing in hymn practice, loved the Spanish planets song!

If you'd like to create your own songs, I'd recommend using a small pot of vocabulary and making them repetitive.  Putting question forms in is also a good opportunity to practise those.

You might also be interested in reading about Music and Languages.

Nouns, opinions and descriptions with a PSHE/RSE twist

I first got to know the work of Elise Gravel when I came across Monstres en vrac in Montréal ten years ago.  When I was in California last week, I popped into a branch of Barnes & Noble to have a look at their Spanish section.  Considering how bilingual California is, it was a smaller section than I expected.  I purchased one book: El rosa, el azul y tú by Elise Gravel.  It's also available in French as Le rose, le bleu et toi !

The book offers us opportunities to discuss self, relationships and gender stereotypes with children, while also covering areas of language such as nouns and their gender, opinions, and adjectives and adjectival agreement.

For examples, here are some nouns which we could show to children without the images.  They could investigate the phonics and use their dictionaries to find the meanings.  They could also work out the grammatical gender of each noun.  Then, as is suggested at the top of the page, we could ask the children to sort them into "Things for girls", "Things for boys" and "Things for everyone".  The resulting discussions will have strong links to the PSHE/RSE curricula.

Another example is opinions, which can be approached as a true/false activity as suggested on the page.

Elise Gravel also offers some free posters on her website.  Among them there are two useful Spanish ones:

They show examples in practice of adjectival agreement and could be a starting point for discussions about gender stereotypes.

This book and these resources give an interesting twist to commonly taught grammar, and would give Key Stage 3 teachers a way of doing the usual in an unusual way for their new Year 7 students who have different experiences of language learning.

I would recommend speaking to your headteacher and/or PSHE coordinator before using these ideas in your lessons.

Dictation across the key stages #LW2024

 

On Saturday I attended day 2 of this year's Language World conference.  I gave a presentation about dictation, giving lots of ideas to use from Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) all the way up to Key Stage 4 (age 14-16) and beyond.

It was much easier to make a video for you in order to share it than to paste all the slides into this blogpost!  Here is the video:

Other links:

Point à la ligne: dictation in primary languages - blogpost

Dictados: resources to introduce, support and practise dictation in Spanish

First experiments with ChatGPT

 

If you use social media, or in fact if you have been looking at any kind of media recently, you won't have failed to notice all the talk about AI - Artifical Intelligence.   ChatGPT in particular has captured the imaginations of education professionals, who have been experimenting with its use in their work.

Over the past few months I have been keeping an eye on the various social media and blogposts about it, but, during what has been a very busy school year for me, I haven't had time to have a closer look at it.  I decided that it would be one of the things that I would have a play with during the school summer holidays.  In other words, now!

So I'm here to report on what I have been doing with it so far.  

I started off by thinking about the kinds of resources that I make often both for my own use in the classroom and for Light Bulb Languages more generally.  I often make worksheets for drilling vocabulary and structures, practising a specific language sets in various different ways.  With this in mind, I had a look at the Key Stage 2 units that I will be teaching new Year 4 and new Year 5 in September.  The examples that I'm going to show you here focus on the unit Les fruits and also Quel temps fait-il ?  

I quickly learned that it takes a fair bit of practice to get the instructions for ChatGPT right, so that it will actually give you what you are thinking of.

After a few false starts, I began with:

Write 16 simple sentences in French using the opinion phrases j'adore, j'aime, je n'aime pas and je déteste as well as the fruits les abricots, les kiwis, les bananes, les cerises, les fraises, les oranges, les pêches, les, poires, les pommes, les prunes. You can also use the conjunctions et and mais. The sentences need to be understood by 8 year old beginner learners of French. Don't include any other words in the sentences.

Here are the sentences it generated:

1.    J'adore les fraises et les cerises.

2.    J'aime les bananes et les pommes.

3.    Je n'aime pas les kiwis, mais j'aime les poires.

4.    Je déteste les prunes, mais j'aime les abricots.

5.    J'adore les oranges et les pêches.

6.    J'aime les fraises, mais je n'aime pas les cerises.

7.    Je n'aime pas les pommes, mais j'aime les bananes.

8.    Je déteste les kiwis et les poires.

9.    J'aime les abricots et les oranges.

10.    Je n'aime pas les pêches, mais j'aime les fraises.

11.    J'adore les cerises et les prunes.

12.    J'aime les bananes, mais je n'aime pas les kiwis.

13.    Je déteste les pommes et les poires.

14.    J'aime les abricots, mais je n'aime pas les oranges.

15.    Je n'aime pas les fraises, mais j'aime les cerises.

16.    J'adore les pêches et les prunes.

Normally it would take me quite a long time to come up with these sentences, keeping a tally on a scrap piece of paper to make sure I use all the fruits and all the opinions equally and so on.  It's interesting that it has used j'aime and je n'aime pas together in sentences, but not j'adore or je déteste.  I would more than likely edit some sentences for this reason, or have a go at getting ChatGPT to do it!

Next I decided to try creating a list of simpler sentences using the same vocabulary but not the conjunctions:

Write 20 different simple sentences in French using the verbs j'adore, j'aime, je n'aime pas and je déteste as well as the fruits les abricots, les kiwis, les bananes, les cerises, les fraises, les oranges, les pêches, les, poires, les pommes, les prunes. The sentences need to be understood by 8 year old beginner learners of French. Don't include any other words in the sentences. The sentences must only have an opinion and a fruit.

And here's what I got:

1.    J'adore les fraises.

2.    J'aime les cerises.

3.    Je n'aime pas les kiwis.

4.    Je déteste les prunes.

5.    J'adore les pommes.

6.    J'aime les bananes.

7.    Je n'aime pas les poires.

8.    Je déteste les abricots.

9.    J'adore les oranges.

10.    J'aime les pêches.

11.    Je n'aime pas les fraises.

12.    Je déteste les cerises.

13.    J'adore les kiwis.

14.    J'aime les poires.

15.    Je n'aime pas les pommes.

16.    Je déteste les bananes.

17.    J'adore les pêches.

18.    J'aime les abricots.

19.    Je n'aime pas les oranges.

20.    Je déteste les fraises.

The first attempt contained some identical sentences, so I had to ask it to make sure all the sentences were different.

Next I wanted it to generate a list of these sentences with the vowels missing, so that children would have to rewrite the sentences, filling in the missing letters and focussing on the spelling.  I found out that if you ask ChatGPT to create a didactic activity, it will give you a mini lesson plan, something which might be useful for teachers looking for ideas for classroom activities.

Create a didactic activity using these 16 French sentences. Rewrite the sentences with the vowels missing and put a _ in their place. J'adore les fraises. J'aime les cerises. Je n'aime pas les kiwis. Je déteste les prunes. J'adore les pommes. J'aime les bananes. Je n'aime pas les poires. Je déteste les abricots. J'adore les oranges. J'aime les pêches. Je n'aime pas les fraises. Je déteste les cerises. J'adore les kiwis. J'aime les poires. Je n'aime pas les pommes. Je déteste les bananes. J'adore les pêches. J'aime les abricots. Je n'aime pas les oranges. Je déteste les fraises.

Title: French Fruit Sentences Missing Vowels Activity

Objective: Practice reading and comprehension of French fruit-related sentences by filling in missing vowels.

Materials:

• Printed activity sheets with the 16 sentences (original sentences with missing vowels)
• Pencils or pens

·    Instructions:

1.     1.  Distribute the activity sheets to the participants.

2.     2.  Explain the purpose of the activity: to practice reading and comprehension of fruit-related sentences in French.

3.    3.   Instruct the participants to read each sentence carefully and fill in the missing vowels by writing the correct vowel in the place of the "_".

4.     4.  Encourage participants to take their time and try to sound out the words to determine which vowel is missing in each sentence.

5.   5.    Walk around the room to provide assistance and answer any questions.

6.   6.    Once participants have completed the activity, review the correct answers together as a group.

Activity Sheet: French Fruit Sentences Missing Vowels

1        J'd_r l_s fr__s_s.

2.       J'm l_s c_r_s_s.

3.       J_ n'm p_s l_s k_w_s.

4.       J_ d_t_st_ l_s pr_n_s.

5.       J'd_r l_s p_mm_s.

6.       J'm l_s b_n_n_s.

7.       J_ n'm p_s l_s p__r_s.

8.       J_ d_t_st_ l_s _br_c_ts.

9.       J'd_r l_s _r_ng_s.

10.   J'm l_s p_ ch_s.

11.   J_ n'm p_s l_s fr__s_s.

12.   J_ d_t_st_ l_s c_r_s_s.

13.   J'd_r l_s k_w_s.

14.   J'm l_s p__r_s.

15.   J_ n'm p_s l_s p_mm_s.

16.   J_ d_t_st_ l_s b_n_n_s.

17.   J'd_r l_s p_ ch_s.

18.   J'm l_s _br_c_ts.

19.   J_ n'm p_s l_s _r_ng_s.

20.   J_ d_t_st_ l_s fr__s_s.

Discussion and Review:

•  Go through the sentences one by one, inviting participants to share their completed sentences.
•  Discuss the correct vowels for each sentence, helping participants correct any mistakes they made.
•  Encourage participants to ask questions about sentence structures or vocabulary if they have any.
• Emphasize the importance of practicing pronunciation while reading.

Extension: For an extra challenge, you can ask participants to create their own sentences about their favorite fruits or other foods, leaving out vowels for their peers to fill in. This can encourage creativity and reinforce vocabulary.

I also asked it to take away all the vowels, this time not replacing them with a dash:

Rewrite these French sentences with no vowels. J'adore les fraises. J'aime les cerises. Je n'aime pas les kiwis. Je déteste les prunes. J'adore les pommes. J'aime les bananes. Je n'aime pas les poires. Je déteste les abricots. J'adore les oranges. J'aime les pêches. Je n'aime pas les fraises. Je déteste les cerises. J'adore les kiwis. J'aime les poires. Je n'aime pas les pommes. Je déteste les bananes. J'adore les pêches. J'aime les abricots. Je n'aime pas les oranges. Je déteste les fraises.

J'dr ls frss.

J'm ls crss.

J n'm ps ls kw s.

J dtst ls prns.

J'dr ls pmm s.

J'm ls bnn s.

J n'm ps ls prs.

J dtst ls brcts.

J'dr ls rngs.

J'm ls pchs.

J n'm ps ls frss.

J dtst ls crss.

J'dr ls kw s.

J'm ls prs.

J n'm ps ls pmm s.

J dtst ls bnn s.

J'dr ls pchs.

J'm ls brcts.

J n'm ps ls rngs.

J dtst ls frss.

After that I also asked ChatGPT to change the order of the sentences.  It took a few goes to get the sentences with no vowels at all.

Next I had a go at some weather sentences.

Write 7 short imaginary weather reports in French using only these French words. Don't use any other words. et aussi mais en plus après finalement il pleut il neige il fait beau il fait mauvais il fait froid il fait chaud il y a du soleil il y a du vent il y a un orage lundi mardi mercredi jeudi vendredi samedi dimanche dans le nord le sud le centre l’est l’ouest de la France.

1.    Lundi : Il pleut dans le nord et il fait froid. Mais dans le sud, il y a du soleil.

2.    Mardi : Il neige dans l'est. En plus, il y a du vent. Après, il y a un orage.

3.    Mercredi : Il fait beau dans le centre, mais il fait chaud dans le sud. Finalement, il y a du soleil dans l'ouest.

4.    Jeudi : Il fait mauvais dans le nord. Cependant, il fait froid dans le sud. Dans l'est, il y a du vent.

5.    Vendredi : Il pleut dans le centre et il fait mauvais. En plus, il y a du vent dans l'ouest.

6.    Samedi : Il fait chaud dans le sud et il y a du soleil. Mais dans le nord, il fait froid.

7.    Dimanche : Il y a un orage dans l'est. Après, il fait beau dans le nord. Finalement, il y a du vent dans le sud.

I have kept ChatGPT's layout and formatting here.  I also did a second generation of sentences, this time not using the conjunctions, so that they are simpler.

Write 10 weather sentences in French using only these French words. Don't use any other words. Don't change the tense. et aussi mais en plus après finalement il pleut il neige il fait beau il fait mauvais il fait froid il fait chaud il y a du soleil il y a du vent il y a un orage lundi mardi mercredi jeudi vendredi samedi dimanche dans le nord le sud le centre l’est l’ouest de la France

1. Lundi, il fait chaud dans le sud.
2. Mardi, il pleut dans le nord.
3. Mercredi, il fait froid dans l'est.
4. Jeudi, il neige dans le centre.
5. Vendredi, il y a un orage dans l'ouest.
6. Samedi, il fait mauvais dans le nord.
7. Dimanche, il y a du soleil dans le sud.
8. Lundi, il fait chaud dans le centre.
9. Samedi, en plus, il y a du vent dans l'est.
10. Dimanche, finalement, il pleut dans le nord.

I wondered if it would make me one of the activities where you have to put the words in the right order.  

Rewrite these sentences with the words in each one mixed in a random order. Put " / " between each word. Make sure that all the words including le are in the sentences

Le / sud / dans / fait / chaud / il / lundi.

Dans / nord / il / pleut / mardi / le.

Mercredi / il / fait / l'est / dans / froid / le.

Jeudi / dans / centre / il / neige / le.

Vendredi / il / y / a / l'ouest / un / orage / dans.

Il / nord / samedi / mauvais / le / dans / fait.

Du / dans / sud / il / y / dimanche / soleil / a.

Le / dans / il / chaud / lundi / centre / fait.

Est / samedi / plus / il / y / vent / en / dans / a / du.

Il / nord / dimanche / pleut / en / finalement / le / dans / y.

This will take a bit of fine-tuning, as some words are missing and others are extra, such as the y in the last one.

This is how far I have got with ChatGPT so far.  I have been trying to get it to create a spelling exercise with animal words, where I have asked it to change two of the letters in each word.  I haven't got it to do it so far - it's happy to change one letter but not two.  All suggestions of how to phrase the instructions welcome!

I can see that using ChatGPT in this way to generate sentences from a specified word list will save time for me.  I'm still in the process of fine-tuning the instructions to get the result that I am after quickly.  Watch out for these sentences in Light Bulb Languages resources soon!

If you would like to look in more detail at using ChatGPT in language teaching, then I recommend that you seek out Joe Dale, who is leading the way.

I would love to hear how you have been using AI in your language teaching.