Ciara is praised in poetry competition
Commended for work
The multilingual talents of a West Lothian high school pupil were celebrated at a prestigious award ceremony in Glasgow.
Ciara Wilkie from St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston, created and shared poetry for this year’s Mother Tongue Other Tongue multilingual poetry competition. And she was highly commended in the Other Tongue category. Winners received their prizes from Scottish poet laureate, Jackie Kay, at the SECC recently as part of the wider Languages Show Live Scotland event.
Their work is published in an anthology. Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a project which celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity through creative writing and showcases the many languages used by children and young people across Scotland. The competition is organised by SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, based at University of Strathclyde. Mother Tongue invites children who do not speak English as a first language to write a poem, rap or song in their mother language.
Other Tongue encourages children earning another language in school to use that language creatively with an original poem, rap or song in that other language.
Fhiona Mackay, director of SCILT, says: “Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a celebration of the many languages that are spoken and learned by children and young people across Scotland. The collection of their poems weaves a rich tapestry of voices that honours cultural diversity and pays testament to the wealth of Scotland’s many languages and cultures.
“We were delighted to see such a high calibre of entries this year, submitted in 35 different languages. Our congratulations go to the winners and to all who took part in the competition.”
Details of the winners and the anthology will be published on the SCILT website, http://www.scilt.org. uk/MTOT/tabid/5841/Default.aspx