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Is English enough? UK language policy
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Nov 05, 2015 02:38 PM
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A ground-breaking policy workshop aiming to break the
“vicious circle of monolingualism” in the UK was held at Cambridge
University, featuring representatives of government, education and key
organisations including the British Academy and the British Council.
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<p>A National Languages Policy workshop was held at Murray
Edwards College in Cambridge this week, supported by the University of
Cambridge in partnership with Speak to the Future and UCML. The aim of
the event was to map where the responsibility for language policy sits
within UK government and to promote joined-up thinking and greater
dialogue between policymakers, academic researchers, and practitioners.</p>
<p>The workshop, convened by Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett of Cambridge
University’s Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, and
chaired by Baroness Coussins, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary
Group on Modern Languages and President of Speak to the Future, brought
together representatives from different Whitehall departments ranging
from the Ministry of Defence to the Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills as well as from the devolved administrations of Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland, to examine the current situation in the UK
regarding languages, and discuss plans for the future.</p>
<p>In her introduction Baroness Coussins called for a “National
Languages Recovery Programme” to embed language skills in UK education,
and ensure that Britain is able to compete on the global stage.</p>
<p>Selected talks from the day have been made available to listen to online via SoundCloud. For more information, see <a title="undefined (Link to an external website)" class="" target="_blank" href="https://soundcloud.com/university-of-cambridge/sets/camlangpol-2015">https://soundcloud.com/university-of-cambridge/sets/camlangpol-2015</a>.</p>
<p>The numbers of students taking a language at A level are down 28%
since 1996 and over 40 UK universities have closed their language
departments since 2000. Susannah Poulton of the Department of UK Trade
and Investment estimated, based on research carried out by Cardiff
University, that up to £48 billion is lost by the UK every year in
missed contracts due to a lack of foreign language skills, in what has
been described as the "vicious circle of monolingualism".</p>
<p>However, as Professor Ayres-Bennet pointed out, “Despite the
reduction in the number of those becoming multilingual through formal
education, multilingualism is very strongly present in UK schools.
Department for Education statistics show that nearly one in five primary
school pupils have a first language other than English. The range of
languages spoken by these “heritage” and minority language speakers is
much broader than those traditionally taught, and could represent a
significant skill-set for the UK”.</p>
<p>Presenters at the workshop focused not only on the educational and
economic advantages of being multilingual, but also its benefits for
international diplomacy and collaboration, and, especially in a military
context, conflict resolution and peace-building.</p>
<p>Professor Ayres-Bennett said:</p>
<p>“I hope that this workshop, and others like it in future, will lead
to greater collaboration between university researchers and language
policy professionals across the UK. We want to establish new channels of
communication through which policy-makers can tap into evidence-based
research to develop new approaches to language teaching and a coherent
strategy for promoting languages nationally”.</p>
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