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Incantation, Investigation and ICT

By Jaclyn Wilson

Aims of lessons: Competences

- Practice resourcing skills - Incorporate ICT tools into the

language classroom - Detect the meaning behind

names - See how translators spot

problems and identify creative ways of overcoming them to ensure a similar effect on the reader.

- Communicative, linguistic and audiovisual

- Artistic and cultural competence - Digital and information processing - Learning to learn - Autonomy and personal initiative - Social skills and citizenship - Plurilingual and intercultural

competence - Oral communicative competence - Written communicative competence - Audiovisual communicative

competence

Steps

Part 1 Wizarding Words

1. As a class, brainstorm all the possible vocabulary that students may

need to talk about Harry Potter. If students do not know the word in

English (magic wand is not everyday vocabulary after all), accept words

in Catalan and Spanish.

2. Students create a plurilingual Wordl incorporating all the words they

have thought of as a class. Encourage them to use different fonts,

colours and layouts to personalize their Wordl

3. You cannot actually download the image from Wordl so what I suggest

you do is have students print the document. When they have to select a

printer they should choose Adobe PDF which generates a PDF file that

they can save.

Part 2 What’s in a name?

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1. Give students a list of Harry Potter characters (if they are huge Harry

Potter fans, you could let them choose their own favourite characters).

2. Ask them to use the following table as a guide, as they look for the

translations of these characters’ names in Catalan and Spanish

Orignal  (English)  

Origin/meaning  of  original  

Catalan   Spanish  

Fang   Large,  sharp  Toth  

Ullal  (literal  translation)  

Fang  

The  Fat  Lady     La  Dama  Grassa   La  Dama  Gorda  

Again, it will depend on your group, but you can also provide them with the following links to guide them in their research.

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_characters_in_translations_of_Harry_Potter    http://www.languagerealm.com/hplang/harrypotterlanguage.php    http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_wizarding_terms_in_translations_of_Harry_Potter      

3. Get students to create a ThingLink with the information they have found. -­‐ Choose a background image -­‐ Include photos and/or videos or perhaps a link that is connected to

each character. -­‐ Along with the image or video they should include the character’s

name in all three languages. -­‐ They should explain the translation (i.e. literal translation)

(See examples on page 3) 4. Students can then share the link to their ThingLink with you and it can

be included in your school’s/group’s blog. 5. Discuss the different translations of the characters’ names as a class. Do

your students like the translated names?

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