Let Me Tell You a Story, Let Me Tell You in My Language |

The Competition

Students tell an original story in two languages. One language must be English and the other language will be the language the student uses to communicate in the home and/or community. The story can be about any topic, it can be true to the storyteller’s life or fictitious. The story must have an intercultural component to it through which the audience will learn about an aspect of the language’s culture.

Stories must be presented as a bilingual eBook using a narrative genre. The book must include audio and/or video files of the story told in a language in addition to English and captions of the English translation. Images such as photographs taken by the student or drawings/paintings created by the student should be included on each page to reinforce the meaning of the story. The eBook must not exceed 20 pages.

Teachers of bilingual students, background language students, English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) students such as Aboriginal language teachers, EAL/D teachers, community and mainstream language teachers should encourage their students to take part in the competition. The competition is designed to give voice to culturally and linguistically diverse students and to provide them with opportunities to develop translating and intercultural skills. When encouraging participation in the competition, teachers must ensure students read the Code of Conduct before taking photographs.

Assistance from adults can be sought, however it is essential that the content such as the story, images and spoken narratives (eBook audio files) be the work of the student. Should the student use any other images or photographs they must be free from any copyright, including third party, restrictions. The story must be original, not a translation of an existing story.

Eligibility

This competition is designed for background and first language learners of a language in addition to English. The stories must be created by individual students.

Categories / Languages

Age categories:

Junior Primary (Year 1 – Year 3)

Senior Primary (Year 4 – Year 6)

Lower Secondary (Year 7 – Year 9)

Upper Secondary (Year 10 – Year 12)

There is no limit to the home/community languages that can be used in the bilingual storytelling.

Prizes

Prizes are awarded to the best story in each age category. Winning stories of each age category will receive a monetary prize of $40 (1^st place), $30 (2^nd place) and $20 (3^rd place). All creators of winning stories will receive a Winner’s Certificate.

Winners will be invited to attend an event on October 19th 2023 to receive their prize and will be notified via email by 9 October 2023.

Videos of the winning film submissions may be screened at future MLTAWA events and/or posted on the MLTAWA website, MLTAWA YouTube channel and the MLTAWA Facebook page.

Judging criteria

Each story will be judged on:

- Combination of visual and digital elements to reinforce meaning and create layers of meaning.
- Ability to entertain, convey ideas, express emotions and explore the creativity of language.
- Ability to capture the experience of ‘living between languages/cultures’ and/or the multicultural nature of the creator(s) personal, school and community experience.
- Ability to convey intercultural knowledge and understanding.

Submission process

Students themselves submit their stories, however, teachers and/or parents should assist in the uploading of the submission.

If you have any queries or issues, please contact our President, Marisa Schiavi at [email protected]

- The eBook submissions must be uploaded in an ePub format and uploaded to the Submission Page.

Submissions must be accompanied by a scanned copy of a signed Declaration Form for each student appearing in the videos. The declaration forms can also be uploaded to the submission page.

All competition submissions are bound by the MLTAWA competition Terms and Conditions.