Integrating Olympiad materials in
ordinary teaching
UKLO resources in English & MFL lessons
Why do it?
• General educational value - encourage students to develop
transferable problem-solving and independent thinking skills;
• Subject-specific educational value - particular “problems” / concepts
that students tend to find hard in MFL / English Language can
approached differently through UKLO problems;
• Develop cross-curriculum links – students are encouraged to see
connections between language(s), mathematics, and computing for
example;
• Make learning fun – GCSE and A-level syllabuses especially tend to be
very exam focused, while student feedback suggests these “extra
bits” are considered as some of the best of the course, and cited as
inspiration for degree choices.
Examples in the hand-out:
The problems
1. Zulu making new
words
2. Estonian, Finnish &
Swedish words
3. Shavian alphabet – a
better way to write
English
Background
• Problems 1 and 2 are “starter” activities;
• Problem 3 – a genuine UKLO Round 1
problem is intended as a longer activity.
Feel free to have a go at these problems.
Any ideas as to how you / your colleagues
could use these (and similar) problems?
Solutions:
Problem 1. Zulu
(c) thrashing stick = isibhulo
(d) inspector = umthuli
(e) thought = umcabango
(f) question = umbuzo
(g) tailor = umthungi
Problem 2. Estonian, Finnish & Swedish
1. Finnish words borrowed from
Swedish: “hän” and “torstai”.
2. Swedish is the elite’s language.
For Shavian: www.uklo.org see 2013
Intermediate test paper & solution.
How we use these problems:
Problems 1 & 2
• Starter / introductory
activities;
• A2 English Language
students;
• Zulu is used to introduce
derivational morphology;
• Estonian, Finnish, & Swedish
to introduce the concept of
borrowing.
Shavian Alphabet
• Post AS exams in the Lower 6th (Year 12) to
introduce phonetics;
• Year 10 and 11 G&T students taking part in
A-level English Day.
Other problems include passive activity (with
English examples) to prepare students of AS
Japanese; subjunctive starter problems for
students of Romance languages.
A-level Critical Thinking students would
develop problem solving skills with Olympiad
problems in their lessons.
Currently available:
• UKLO Competition & non-competition problems with varying levels of
difficulty;
• Starter problems (mainly for MFL / English – but can be used in other
subjects, too e.g. History, Geography, Mathematics for example).
Any kind / type of problem you would like to see?
Any other suggestions?
Babette Newsome, English Department, Aquinas College, Stockport.
bnestaff@aquinas.ac.uk or contact via UKLO.