The annual festival of foreign languages in Germany is the second round in the field of school’s group contributions for classes from 5 to 10. The objective of this festival is to find the best contribution among theatre and media presentations in any foreign language taught and learned throughout Germany. This year the festival took place in Potsdam, between 16 and 18 June 2005.
Each group has already been awarded as the winner in its region (Land). Different organizations and institutions such as embassies, ministries of education as well as book editors gave prizes to many of the best contributions.
Background The Federal Foreign Language Competition (Bundeswettbewerb Fremdsprachen) in Germany was founded in 1979. The Federal Ministry of Education is the main financier of it since 1985. The Ministries of Education in the German regions (Länder) also support it and the Federal President of German is its patron.
Who can participate In the Federal Foreign Language Competition pupils can generally take part in single as well as in group competitions in various languages according to age and school grade. The most complex and advanced competition is the one in multilingualism in which the pupils have to prove excellent skills in two languages. The Festival of Languages brings together group contributions every year.
Where and what This year it was the capital of Brandenburg, Potsdam, hosting the event in which 41 groups participated. They were divided into two categories:
Theatre performances and
Media presentations
Both were also embedded in a life presentation and an interview by the jury.
What was presented The theme this year was 'Come and visit me'. The languages covered were also - except from the more common ones - Italian, Spanish, Latin and Ancient Greek. Related to the overall topic the audience this year saw a wide range of presentations on different themes such as about love and hate, legends of Europe, ghost stories, intercultural differences and understanding, friendship, historically important people among many others.
The fun they had But the pupils not only met to compete and find the best contribution but also to meet each other, share their experience, dance and have fun together. The frame programme organized especially for them included a trip on a disco boat on the river Havel and a sightseeing tour prepared by pupils of the host school. Many of the youngsters took the opportunity to go and see what the others were performing and exchanged their views. In the prize giving ceremony attended by many officials their work finally got its recognition.
European Dimension This year the organizers of the 'Bundeswettbewerb Fremdsprachen' invited 8 European experts to get an impression of this event and to report about it to schools and authorities in their countries. Many of them did not know about this event and were quite impressed by the quality of the contributions and the easy-going and relaxed atmosphere though the pupils were competing with each other.
Why and what's next The idea is to have such a festival of foreign languages on European level. There are many good reasons to do so:
Motivation of language learning
International recognition of the good work of pupils and teachers
Meeting pupils with the same interests and sharing a common experience
The low financial effort to organize all this - travel and accommodation costs for a selected number of students -
Schools with presentation facilities and some volunteers to give a hand
The pupils will bring their own equipment and take care of it.
For a start the German organisers think of inviting groups from abroad to their annual event. The next Festival of Foreign Languages will be in May in Berlin, next year.
Each group has already been awarded as the winner in its region (Land). Different organizations and institutions such as embassies, ministries of education as well as book editors gave prizes to many of the best contributions.
What was presented
