Cover lesson · MFL · Year 7 · Beginner

Translating digital interfaces

DCF: Interacting and collaborating → Communication

Name: Class: Date:

Cover teacher — you need no French, Spanish or Welsh

Print: this sheet, one per pupil, and the stimulus sheet "Twelve icons, four languages", one per pupil or one between two. Every word pupils need is in the word bank on the stimulus sheet, and the answers are on the worked example. No computers needed at all — this is a paper lesson from start to finish.

Run: 5 min look at the icons and say what each one does · 15 min fill in the glossary grid from the word bank · 5 min the three traps · 15 min localise the library screen into one language, obeying the 16-character button rule · 5 min the "too long" fixes · 5 min swap and check.

Collect: this sheet from every pupil. The localised screen at the bottom is the piece of work.

What you are doing

Someone has to write the words on every button of every app, in every language it is sold in. That job is called localisation, and it is harder than translation, because the word has to mean the right thing and fit in the button. You are going to build a four-language glossary of interface words, and then put a school library app into French or Spanish without breaking the layout.

Step by step

5 min — Look at the twelve icons on the stimulus sheet. For each one, say out loud what tapping it would do.
15 min — Fill in the glossary grid using the jumbled word bank. Copy the accents exactly — paramètres and sesión are wrong without them.
5 min — Answer the three traps questions. These are the ones translation software gets wrong.
15 min — Localise the library screen. Choose French or Spanish and write your labels in the boxes.
5 min — Any label over 16 characters has to be shortened. Record what you cut and why.
5 min — Swap with a partner. Count their characters for them — people always miscount their own.

Glossary grid

English	Français	Español	Cymraeg
Save
Search
Settings
Download
Delete
Home
Back
Attach a file
Print
Refresh
Share
Log out

The three traps

Question	Your answer
A French app has one button, télécharger. How do you know whether it means download or upload?
A pupil translates "Refresh" into Spanish as en realidad. What have they done, and what is the right word?
Why is the French for the Home button accueil and not maison?

The screen to localise

This is the English version of the Bryn Onnen library app. Every button is 16 characters wide. Anything longer gets cut off on the real screen.

Your localised version

Language I have chosen: ____________________

Where it appears in English	My label	Characters (max 16)
Title: Library
Search for a book
3 books due back on Friday
Button: Save
Button: Download
Button: Share
Button: Print
Help
Settings
Log out

Anything too long

Write the label that would not fit, the shorter version you chose, and why the shorter one still tells the user what the button does.

Success criteria

I match each icon to what it does, not to what it looks like.
My glossary is spelled correctly with every accent in place.
I can explain a false friend (actualizar) and a word with two meanings (télécharger) in my own words.
Every label on my screen fits inside 16 characters, and I say what I cut where it did not.
My labels use the same word for the same action everywhere on the screen, so the app does not contradict itself.

If you finish early

Do the screen a second time in Welsh, using the Cymraeg column of your glossary. Which language needed the most shortening?
Write the French or Spanish for the error message "Sorry, that book is already on loan." How formal should an app be with a Year 7 reader?
Find two icons on the stimulus sheet you could not guess without the label. What would you draw instead?