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We are happy to announce that registration is now open for the OU/SCILT primary languages course, which will be running again from October 2019. In light of positive feedback and popularity of the first year of the course, we are now also delighted to offer a second year, post-beginners’ course. The latter would be suitable for those who have successfully completed year 1 and wish to continue their studies, or for those who are looking to begin studying at a more advanced level.

• The courses will run from October 2019 to July 2020, and will develop language and pedagogy skills; language learning is provided by the Open University and pedagogy is provided by SCILT.  The courses are aligned to the Scottish curriculum and support the 1+2 languages approach.
• Both courses are delivered online with two opportunities to attend face-to-face day schools. 
• Learning is very flexible and participants can study at a time and place of their choosing.
• Each course carries a fee of £252, reflecting the input and student support for the language and pedagogy strands from both organisations.

Funding may be sponsored through your school or Local Authority who can register on your behalf.   Initial registration information must be submitted to the OU by Monday 17 June 2019 and LAs should contact Scotland-Languages@open.ac.uk.  
Students also have the option to fund the fee themselves. In this case, an interested teacher should contact the OU directly at Scotland-Languages@open.ac.uk.

Here is some further information:

Beginners level

• will be offered in a choice of four languages - French, German, Spanish and Mandarin plus study of primary pedagogy with direct application in the classroom.
• takes students to the end of the equivalent to level A1 of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages.
• allows students to gain 15 university credits for the language study.
• also gives students the option to gain GTCS recognition for the pedagogy study; all students will receive a certificate on successful completion from SCILT.
• study hours will be approximately five hours per week, including time spent on the direct application of the new skills in the classroom.

Post-beginners level

• teachers who have started studying one language in the beginners level of the course would need to continue studying the same language at post-beginners level.
• teachers who already have some basic knowledge in one of the four languages can directly enrol on the post-beginners level course to further develop their skills in that language and learn about primary languages pedagogy (without having to have studied beginners level).
• will follow the same format as the beginners level course and will be offered in the same four languages (French, German, Mandarin and Spanish).
• will teach primary languages pedagogy in more depth and cover:
  • the skills of writing and reading,
  • IDL with a special focus on outdoor learning as well as links with other key subject areas through CLIL,
  • learning and teaching of languages in multilingual contexts/communities.
• will have the same:
  • number of study hours,
  • assessment structure,
  • accreditation with 15 university credits,
  • optional GTCS recognition for the pedagogy strand, as above ;
• in their language study, students will reach the equivalent of the end of level A2 of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages (end of post-beginner level).
• after completing both courses, students would then be in a good position to go on to study one of the standard language courses at the OU should they want to improve their knowledge of the language even further.

Course codes are as follows: