UK: Clegg bid for compulsory English

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

We are about to have local elections in the UK.............

In a speech at a multicultural UK school on 28 April 2008, the leader of
the UK's Liberal Democrat party claimed that rising immigration is
putting pressure on schools and undermining education standards.

He argued for a common language, "the glue that binds us together" and
for more resources, and said that "Real resources and pressure" are
needed to ensure all young people speak English "including in the home".

Ironically, Clegg is himself multilingual (in European languages) and
multicultural.  Yet he does not seem to understand that the strong
promotion of English in the home, and the suggestion that using other
languages in the home is unBritish is one of the ways in which the
transmission of ancestral languages other than English is destroyed.  

What he is saying here is similar to what was said by the Labour MP,
David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, in 2002. Blunkett expressed regret
that, in 30% of Asian (=people of South Asian ancestry] British
families, English was not used at home, and advised Asian British
parents to use English in the home in order to "overcome the
schizophrenia which bedevils generational relationships".

There is no hard evidence of problems being caused by families
transmitting ancestral languages to their children. And immigrants are
generally keen to learn English. The funding of English courses for new
immigrants has been cut by the present government, and I would certainly
support a call from Clegg to restore funding for English classes. But
attacking ethnic minorities for wanting to transmit an ancestral
language to their children is not the way to go.

Anthea

REPORT FROM BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7370542.stm

REPORT FROM TELEGRAPH
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/28/nschools
328.xml

CLEGG'S WEBSITE
http://www.nickclegg.org.uk/
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Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>
NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk
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