Switched On: Multilingual Projects

Heike CraigDaramalan College, Canberra

At Daramalan:

What challenges do we face?Student engagement and interest (especially Year 8 at

the end of semester)

Student retention in higher years

• 4 languages (French, German, Japanese, Indonesian)

• compulsory at Year 7 and 8, elective in Years 9-12

What do we do?2 multilingual projects (Masterchef and Breakfast TV)

Projects at the end of Semester 1 and 2

Each language follows the same format.

Students are given language help.

Students prepare and film their work in groups. The best films of each language class are shown at a

special Languages Day.

MasterchefWelcome to Masterchef and introduction of judges and contestants

(include: name, profession, age, why competing in Masterchef etc.Opening of mystery box: state what food items are inside Each candidate says what they intend to cook with the items in the box.Announcement: “You have 2 hours. Start cooking now.” Judges might walk around asking the contestants questions, e.g. “What

are you cooking?” The contestants might answer with: “My mother’s good at cooking.”

Countdown 10…9...8……1 - while camera moves to judges, they sit at a table and the first plate is being served

They comment on each dish, e.g. very green broccoli, beautiful presentation, great flavour/smell etc. and give compliments/criticism to the chefs, e.g. “You’re good at cooking.”

Then they announce the winner.

Breakfast TV Students are running Breakfast TV for young people in Australia and most of the program is in German/French/Japanese/IndonesianCreate a TV program of 10 minutes using at least 4 of the following segments. 

Introduce the people involved in the show and the name of the TV program. Introduce and play two songs (maximum one minute each) Interview with a celebrity (include name, age, birthday, siblings, hobbies,

pets, favourite food/colour etc) 2 jokes News with interesting news and sport including a short weather forecast Short English lesson   Interview with a teacher about his/her experience in Germany /France/

Indonesia/Japan speaking the language. Can be done as a report in English. Ending the showYou also need to design a logo for your show, have pictures of

the people you are interviewing, illustrate your joke, make weather symbols etc.

Breakfast TV

Assessment task for Semester 2 as it incorporated all the topics of the year.

Even though this is a group assignment each student is being assessed individually on how well they work in the group and on their contributions.

Warning: Production phase of both programs is noisy!

OutcomesRaising subject profileStudent enjoyment and engagement Talk about language outside the classroomStudents are proud of their outcomesStudents enjoy seeing their peers

heike.craig@daramalan.act.edu.au