Enrolling pupils into the Junior Language Challenge is an easy way for primary schools to meet the Government’s language learning target for all seven to eleven-year-olds to have the opportunity to learn at least one foreign language by 2011.

The competition is also an ideal way for schools to see how much can be achieved without having to commit large budgets or lots of teachers’ time.

This is because the children do all the learning from the Talk Now! CD-ROM so, although teachers can offer encouragement and guidance, they do not have to ‘teach’. In fact, most teachers have told us that, far from taking up time, the discs free up their time because the children get so absorbed with the learning software.

Teachers are also not expected to be qualified in the language being learnt on the discs and in fact it can be a positive advantage not to be. Some language teachers choose to work alongside the children to learn a new language and tell us that this “team” activity can be hugely motivating for their pupils.

Finally, as the Talk Now! range covers more than 120 languages, teachers at schools with an ethnic mix may see opportunities for further language learning in the future. For instance, for schools with Bengali speakers, it may be helpful to introduce pupils to Talk Now! Learn Bengali so they can have fun communicating with their classmates!