[lg policy] Languages from Arabic to Zapotec

Tue Oct 4 21:34:50 UTC 2011

Languages from Arabic to Zapotec

Michael Gove is right to highlight the cognitive benefits of
bilingualism (Gove: teach languages from age five, 30 September), but
yet again he appears to ignore the 15% or so of our school population
that are already growing up with at least two languages in their
homes. They are not speakers of "modern foreign languages", such as
French or German, they are speakers of the other languages of the UK –
such as Arabic, Bengali, Chinese … Welsh, Xhosa, Yoruba, Zapotec.

If these children are to accrue the full benefits of their
bilingualism, they need both to develop their first languages and be
taught English and develop it through the regular curriculum by
well-trained English as an additional language (EAL) specialists.
Sadly, the massive cuts to local authority and school budgets mean
that there is now a dearth of such specialists. There is currently no
specialist PGCE training for EAL. We all know that our future markets
are with China and India, and we already have budding experts in the
languages these countries use in our classrooms, but Gove seems
determined to deadhead them before they ever get a chance to fully
flower. His "vision" of our classrooms seems to be of an all-white
1950s grammar school – as monolingual as it is monochrome – and it is
simply not fit for purpose in the multilingual, multicultural 21st
century the rest of us actually inhabit.

Dr Frank Monaghan
Deputy chair, National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum

• Michael Gove's enthusiasm for foreign language learning in primary
schools is welcome. Young children enjoy contact with other languages
and the culture and songs of other countries. As Gove says, learning
languages is probably good for the brain. However, it would be a
mistake for Gove to insist that all pupils study one language from the
age of five. As we prepare young people for life in the 21st century
and a world where many languages interact more frequently than ever
before, we no longer need a country of French or even Spanish
speakers.

The best use of the limited time available in the primary curriculum
would be to give pupils the chance to experience the basics of several
languages, preferably from different language families, and including
Latin. In this way they could develop their listening skills and gain
a better understanding of how language works. Secondary school
language teachers struggle to achieve continuity in a single language
because they take in pupils from many different primary schools. A
primary foundation course in multilingual language awareness would
make the transition much easier.

Peter Downes
Project director, Discovering Language, Association of School and
College Leaders

• According to Michael Gove: "No one who is fluent in a foreign
language isn't a masterful user of their own language." True enough,
but if you aren't masterful in your own language you are at an
enormous disadvantage socially, cognitively and economically. While
6%-8% of the population have a specific speech, language and
communication need, in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage
upwards of 55% of the children starting school do not have language
skills of a sufficient level to access the school curriculum.
Furthermore, there are strong links between poor language skills and
entry into the youth offending/criminal justice systems.

Resources should be set aside for high-quality, intensive language
support in areas of high need. Addressing these needs would make a
significant difference to equality of access to education, life
chances and social mobility. Once we have ensured that all our
children have developed proficiency in their own language, we could
think about teaching them another one.

Suzanne Dominian
Oxford

• So Michael Gove wants foreign languages taught from the age of five,
does he? Why, then, did the coalition scrap compulsory primary school
languages almost as soon as they came to power? This caused the
sacking of all the county co-ordinators and hundreds of hours of
training of primary school teachers and the advisory work of
overstretched secondary teachers to be thrown down the drain.

Craig Thomas
Holloway, Derbyshire

• Michael Gove is quite right in stating that "the process of becoming
fluent in a foreign language reinforces your fluency and understanding
of grammar, syntax, sentence structure, verbal precision". Indeed,
educationists have long maintained that language acquisition is
fundamental to all disciplines: allowing our young children the
opportunity of exploring new languages is long overdue and,
importantly, will not only make them better linguists, but also better
scientists, musicians, artists and, no doubt, better politicians too.

And yet our young people remain at a disadvantage when competing with
their peers from overseas. Many of these students who have not been
limited by the narrowness of the GCSE/A-level route have at least one
additional language; many of them will have studied the international
baccalaureate at primary school, in middle school, and in their sixth
forms, and in doing so will have learned additional languages
throughout their school careers.

The educationist David Corson once wrote that "a language policy is an
action statement … It is concerned less with where the students in a
school are going, and more with how they are going to get there." The
secretary of state's desire to overhaul language teaching is long
overdue: we have to allow our young people to compete as linguistic
equals; in doing so we will allow them to understand another culture,
develop new thoughts, and forge new friendships, all of which would
otherwise have remained for ever undiscovered.

Dr David James
Director of IB, Wellington College

• In his interview, Michael Gove says that "almost every other
advanced country teaches children a foreign language from the age of
five". Does he not know that most advanced countries do not even
expect their children to start compulsory school until they are six or
seven?
Karen Lambert
Farnborough, Hampshire

• It is good to see that the education secretary's grasp of foreign
languages has taught him to write beautifully tortuous English and to
make such good use of a double negative: "No one who is fluent in a
foreign language isn't a masterful user of their own language." Ah,
the benefits of a private education.
David Beaumont
Stehle Associates

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/03/languages-arabic-zapotec-michael-gove?newsfeed=true

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