The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators

Mois de la Francophonie

The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators is a brand new competition for MFL learners in Years 7-13.
Inspired by the life and work of the great translator Anthea Bell, the scheme aims to promote language learning across the UK and inspire creativity in the classroom. By providing teachers with the tools they need to bring translation to life, the organisers hope to motivate more pupils to study modern foreign languages to GCSE, A Level and beyond.

In its first year, the prize is for learners of French, German, Mandarin and Spanish.

All interested teachers receive teaching packs for the prize, with ready-made resources designed to be used in class, for home learning or for extra-curricular activities.

▶️ Register here
 

Note for Teachers

You will receive the first two packs, on translating poetry and fiction, as soon as you register.

A resource on translating non-fiction will follow in March/April, and the competition tasks will take place in the summer term.

Entrants will translate a passage from one of those languages into English and will also have the opportunity to submit more ‘imaginative’ translations – a passage from a novel might be reimagined as a short film or comic strip, for example. The teaching resources are available and free to all, but places in the competition are limited.

Bringing more international culture into the classroom is a central aim of the prize, and so all passages – fiction and non-fiction – will be rich in cultural content, and creativity in the translation will be rewarded.
 
French Texts:

• Level 1: poems by Apollinaire and La Lune by Maurice Carême; prose text Victor Hugo habite chez moi, by Myriam Louviot.
• Level 2: instagram poem by Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe; prose text Réfugiée en Chartreuse by Nicholas Julo and Muriel Zürcher.
• Level 3: poem by Paul Eluard, Liberté; prose text La Vie extérieure by Annie Ernaux.
• Level 4: poem by Baudelaire, L’Albatros or France amour by Loubaki; prose text Meursault contre-enquête by Kamel Daoud

 
Timeline:

• Summer Term 2021: competition tasks completed by selected schools; regional judges (literary translators) judge entries, and hold assemblies at one school in each region, presenting certificates
• June-July 2021: national winners selected
• July 2021: virtual award ceremony, including a translation workshop for sixth-form winners