Dear Reader,

If I could summarise this week in a word, that word would probably be... ennui.

Not familiar? Ennui is a word describing a mixture of boredom, dissatisfaction and tiredness. In other words: a delight.

I think the reason is twofold: summer is properly ending, and I've been marking almost non-stop this week. Indeed, September is marking season in the glittering world of precarious academics: dissertation after dissertation, you plough along.

Which wouldn't even be a problem because I normally learn a lot from dissertations about topics I might not have otherwise connected with, but there's a but: the impact of AI on academic work has filled me with a sense of, well, ennui. Maybe you've also marked student work clearly written by AI and you can feel my pain?

But the silver lining is this made me look into AI and its impact on learning (spoiler: they'll tell you it's good, but many would beg to differ), and then I used this knowledge to update one of the Speak Better Teach Better sessions (course starting in 2 weeks, much excitement brewing!)

Fortunately enough, I had planned this month in advance on the topic of looking ahead, and that's perfect to get over my ennui ⭐

What do I have for you today, you ask?

Well, looking ahead, next week, on 26 September, it's European Day of Languages, so today, I'm here to help you prepare! Featuring:

• A few myths about bilingualism (and why my kid saying "askato" is perfectly fine)
• 5 awesome games to celebrate this day and raise your students' awareness of foreign languages

In the spirit of the day: pronti, steady, vamos ✈️

​

Being multilingual: friend or foe?

Now, for this newsletter, I could hit you with all sorts of cheesy inspirational quotes about foreign languages and how they open up doors and how to know another language is to have another soul (Charlemagne apparently said this).

However, not only is there no shortage of these quotes online, but I also don't think I need to tell you, a language teacher, that being multilingual is an intrinsic added value.

But... does everybody know this? Because as it turns out, lots of people don't actually think it's a value - or rather, they're afraid children will not benefit from being multilingual.

Now, I didn't grow up multilingual¹. But my child is. And our conversations are 70% Italian, 10% English, 15% Itanglish and a good 5% whining thrown in for good measure.

Of course, this mix has prompted various unwanted playground conversations along the lines of "oh, you shouldn't speak Italian so they can learn English!"

And, dear reader, there was no ennui on those occasions, only burning rage. But burning rage aside, I know that's wrong, but not everyone has this knowledge, so: here are a few facts about multilingualism. You can use these:

• as lesson materials: can your students guess which ones are right and correct the ones that are wrong?
• as informational materials for your multilingual students' parents: policies that (try to) ban heritage language use are rife even in schools, so you might like to point parents in the right direction.
• as dinner table materials: I don't know many things in life but I do know that people are pretty much always interested in languages - whether they're trying to learn one, have never quite managed to learn one, and of course, loads of parents are obsessed with kids growing up multilingual.

So, here's my list of facts for you: can you tell what is true and what is false?

1. There are approximately 3,000 languages in the world
2. Speaking 2 or more language at home gives children a disadvantage when they go to school
3. Multilingual children should try to speak languages separately, one at a time
4. Multilingual children know fewer words than monolingual children
5. Multilingual children sometimes reject the home language(s) in favour of the language spoken outside of the home
6. Parents of multilingual children can/should speak their own languages at home

OK, so now for a few seconds of thinking time!

Ready?

Here are the answers!

1. There are approximately 3,000 languages in the world: FALSE. There are well over 7,000 languages documented worldwide: we're literally spoilt for choice when it comes to language learning.
2. Speaking 2 or more language as home gives children a disadvantage when they go to school: FALSE. In fact, multilingual children can sometimes fare better than their monolingual friends.
3. Multilingual children should try to speak languages separately, one at a time: FALSE. Multilingual people, children included, jump from one language to the other in a very natural process called code-switching. Yesterday, I was asked if I could "please portare a cerchietto, a green hairdryer and an ossetto" (it was a roleplaying game, don't ask), and I understood perfectly.
4. Multilingual children know fewer words than monolingual children: TRUE. Some research suggests that the vocabulary size of multilingual children is smaller than monolingual children, i.e. they know fewer words in each language than their monolingual counterparts know in the one language they speak. However, when you put together the words a multilingual child knows in all their languages, the results are comparable to monolingual children.
5. Multilingual children sometimes reject the home language(s) in favour of the language spoken outside of the home: TRUE. Because it's the language of socialisation to a large extent. Which can make it exhausting sometimes - because, don't forget, 2 year olds don't have perfect diction, do they? So when you're constantly trying to figure out what they're saying in your L1, you really don't need the L2 to make matters worse. But alas, the language of socialisation is important: rather than rejecting their rejection of the heritage language, you can focus on using the heritage language consistently and lovingly.
6. Parents of multilingual children can/should speak their own languages at home: COULDN'T BE MORE TRUE IF IT TRIED. Recent research backs this up big time: there's no point trying to force families to speak in languages that they don't feel comfortable with. So, if you have a parent concerned that multilingualism is going to mess up their child, feel free to share this with them from the good folks at Oxford Brookes.

How many did you get right? Let me know if you like!

​

5 cool activities for European Day of Languages (26 September)

If you're keen on celebrating European Day of Languages next week, I'm happy to tell you that the European Council have put together a lovely activity kit for all of us.

Since it's quite long, I've done the work of looking through it for you and selected what I think are the 5 coolest activities:

​

1. Linguine - the board game

I absolutely adore board games for the classroom. You put that together with one of my favourite kinds of pasta and you've won me over. It will take a bit of printing, but once it's set up, I think you're in for a lovely hour of playing in small groups and learning all about languages in an organic way.

2. Language detectives

​40 quotes in different languages: can your students match the quote to the language? Plus the history of the Rosetta Stone, which is just about the coolest stone of all time.

3. Sign language game

If you've had a look at the new CEFR, you'll know that sign languages have finally gained the recognition they deserve. Why not get your learners acquainted with the basics of sign languages around Europe? They can learn the country names in different sign languages and then test themselves!

4. Which language is it?

A slightly harder version than the language detectives game: you listen to short extracts and try to guess the language spoken. Because I can't be the only one who focuses so much on guessing the languages people speak on the bus that I almost miss my stop.

5. Trivia poster

​A poster with 20 cool facts about languages - what's not to love? Your learners can identify the ones they already knew, the ones that surprised them the most, the ones they don't understand, and vote for their favourite one. And then, how about they make their own posters with 5 more fun facts about their own languages?
​

And that's that for today! I wish you a lovely, ennui-free Sunday and European Day of Languages. I would love it if you let me know how it went and what activities you used.

Take care, dear teacher ✨

¹ Unless you count being exposed to multiple dialects as being multilingual? Some linguists would, and I'd be inclined to agree.

P.S.: My weekly suggestion for things to listen to/watch/read to improve your English while relaxing: A very gentle song that got me out of my funk this week: Spring to come by John Butler Trio. I'm aware spring is most certainly not coming, but I like listening to the whole song, getting to the end and hearing that "after the darkness, only light can come / after a lonely, long night comes the sun". Plus, the animated video is really cool and soothing.

✨Cool things I heard this week

Thank you for your guidance. Sometimes I need someone to guide me because I don't feel so confident and you've done that for me. I appreciated the kindness.

What did you think of today's newsletter?

❤️ I loved it: well, thank you so much! Hit "reply" to let me know (it makes my day) or hit "forward" and send it to a friend

👉 I'm new, a friend sent me this: great to have you here! To receive this newsletter every Sunday (ish), for free, subscribe here​

🚀 I want more: no problem - check out all my previous newsletters with tips, lesson plans and ramblings here or join our YouTube channel​

👎🏻 Meh, I'm not sure: that's absolutely fine: you can Unsubscribe from the Sunday newsletter.

Quick links

​Preparation course for the written exam​

​Preparation programme for oral exam​

​Log onto your course​

​Our free resources​
​

​

​