Trans-Lingual Express

an introduction to our award winning project

Trans-lingual Express is a modern foreign language project designed to bring the magic of film and the moving image into the languages classroom. The project enables young people to create short documentaries in their target language and to exchange their films with their peers abroad. Combining technology with the chance to tell stories, the project provides inspiration for even the most reticent language learners by reminding them that language learning is about communicating their passions.

Trans-lingual Express was awarded the 2008 European Award for Languages, presented by Sir Trevor Macdonald, as the project offers young people a relevant and exciting way to explore a number of topics and themes required by the curriculum as well as broadening their vocabulary and revising grammatical structures. Eastside Educational Trust developed Trans-lingual Express in response to the decline in pupils studying languages beyond the age of 14. The project works equally well with KS 3, 4 and 5 with appropriate modifications. At its heart, Trans-lingual Express is about motivating students to want to learn foreign languages and supporting a growing cultural understanding, as they think about what matters to them and what they have in common with their peers abroad. Our original project was piloted with Grey Coat Hospital School and involved young people from London as well as Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Rome.

The aim of Trans-lingual Express is simple – we want young people to experience the pleasure of learning languages by enhancing their speaking and listening skills and by providing them with opportunities for oral and aural development. We want to liberate language students from purely classroom based exercises and activities and to make their learning feel more purposeful and fun! Trans-lingual Express challenges young people to learn the fundamentals of film-making in just five days and to script and shoot original short films inspired by documentary formats, using the target language. Our students were mentored by bi-lingual film-makers and additional support was provided by business-volunteers who were native-speakers or fluent in the languages being explored.

The aim of this online resource is to provide language teachers with tools they can use to inspire and motivate their students and to offer practical help by introducing basic film-making and editing skills to language classrooms throughout the UK, Europe and beyond. This resource is intended to provide you with the help of a ‘virtual’ filmmaker who will introduce students to the basics of film-making as well as to familiarise students with key specialist vocabulary. We offer you additional film-making guides too.

Finally, we hope that this site will empower teachers to harness young people’s fascination with technology and film in a creative way, developing deeper cultural awareness and understanding. Trans-lingual Express provides a fantastic opportunity to celebrate language and to make meaningful links with a new European partner or re-invigorate links that you might already have. We hope you enjoy taking part!

Why study languages?

Benefits of language learning

French & German preview film

Trans-lingual Express 2007

Spanish & Italian preview film

Trans-lingual Express 2008

National Curriculum