Funded with a University of Birmingham Impact Accelerator Award, the workshops aimed to encourage young students to see translation and language learning as creative activities. The facilitators were from the Stephen Spender Trust, which runs translation workshops in primary and secondary schools and is a partner on the project.
At the workshops, students translated a French poem, chosen by the facilitator from a booklet that Dr Emma Wagstaff from the Department of Modern Languages curated. They were provided with a glossary so the activity is not a test of language knowledge, but rather an exercise in being creative in English or in other Home languages the students have.
The facilitators' expertise and imaginative approaches were invaluable. I attended the workshop for Sixth Form students and was very impressed indeed with the way in which they engaged with the poem, by the author Jacques Brault from Quebec, and with different translation techniques.
Dr Emma Wagstaff - Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Birmingham.
One of the facilitators for the Year 10 workshops was Beth Rothery Caygill, a University of Birmingham Alumna in Modern Languages and Music.
I had a wonderful time conducting my first creative translation workshop at the University of Birmingham School for the Stephen Spender Trust.
Beth Rothery Caygill - University of Birmingham graduate in Modern Languages and Music.
The Stephen Spender Trust is inspired by the cultural activism of Stephen Spender, poet and champion of international literature. The Trust celebrates multilingualism and literary translation through a range of initiatives, including the Poetry in Translation Prize and Creative Translation in the Classroom programmes. Providing translators and teachers with the tools to bring translation into schools in creative, innovative ways, the Trust enriches intercultural awareness, while raising confidence and aspiration among young people.
There are hopes that the partnership with the Stephen Spender Trust and University of Birmingham School will continue to develop in the future.
