[lg policy] Importance of using Scots language in classroom

Sat Mar 9 20:25:58 UTC 2019

The importance of using Scots language in the classroom

Scots speakers must be encouraged by teachers to use and celebrate the
much-neglected language, says Bruce Eunson

By Bruce Eunson
07 March 2019
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The 2011 census reported that over 1.5 million people in Scotland speak
Scots language. If we were to say that roughly a third of adults speak
Scots, could we also say that a third of Scotland’s children and young
people speak Scots?

That might be going too far. Scots is a minority language and one that many
believe is dying out. We would be able to measure that more accurately if
the 2001 census or the 1991 (or any previous census ever recorded) had
asked all adults living in Scotland if they could speak, read, write and
understand Scots. The 2011 census asked the question for the first time
because Scots language has for so long been seen as either something of the
past, or as a dialect of English, or as being simply “wrong” or “bad” or
“slang” – or many other derogatory terms that led to Scots being marginalised
from both education and wider society
<https://www.tes.com/news/best-laid-plans-scots-speakers>.
------------------------------

Reporter’s take: Scant opportunity to study Scots in schools
<https://www.tes.com/news/best-laid-plans-scots-speakers>,
outwith commemorating Robert Burns

Interview: Scots gives ‘a unique way of seeing the world’
<https://www.tes.com/news/matthew-fitt>

Quick read: Call for the right to be taught in Gaelic
<https://www.tes.com/news/call-right-be-taught-gaelic>
------------------------------

If you work in a school, do a third of the weans or bairns there speak
Scots? Think beyond the classroom. Because Scots has suffered so many years
of low status, neglect and of being undervalued, there are a huge number of
children and young people who are using Scots in the playground with their
friends, at the front gate of the school with their mam or their grandad in
the morning and afternoon – but who do not bring that wealth of vocabulary
and creativity with them into the classroom.

Scots is a language that was used by kings and queens of the past. It is
the language Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott wrote in, and it is still
alive and vibrant today. Go onto Twitter and search for @Historic_Ally to
see Alistair Heather’s Scots language videos, read the posts he writes in
Scots, find out about the work he does with the Elphinstone Institute at
the University of Aberdeen. Go onto YouTube and search for Michael
Dempster. Michael is the national Scots scriever – a role established in
2015 to support Creative Scotland's Scots language policy – as well as an
auditory neuroscientist. There is a TEDx video which has been viewed over
60,000 times of Michael delivering a gripping presentation – in Scots – on
how the mind reacts when we talk freely with the language we grew up with.
People like Alistair and Michael are doing lively, exciting and fascinating
work to promote Scots language across Scottish society today.

When in your school do the learners get a chance to learn in, or learn
about, Scots language? Whether a third of children and young people
currently speak Scots is irrelevant. If a teacher in any school in any part
of Scotland has just one Scots speaker in just one of their classes, they
need to make sure and encourage that learner to bring that language into
the classroom and explore the educational benefits together.

Part of my work at Education Scotland has been to gather evidence of the
educational benefits of Scots. Teachers who know they have Scots speakers
in their class but aren’t sure how to start using Scots in their lessons
can visit the National Improvement Hub and search Scots language to find
resources and activities for all ages and levels of Curriculum for
Excellence. I am from Shetland, so I understand the need for dialect
diversity to be respected within the promotion of Scots: wherever possible
you should find resources that will mirror the Scots used in your area of
the country.

Whether you have been using Scots in your lessons for many years, or
whether you have only just started thinking about what your first lesson on
Scots might involve <https://www.tes.com/news/matthew-fitt>, it would be
great to hear from you.

*Bruce Eunson is Scots language coordinator at Education Scotland. He can
be contacted at bruce.eunson at educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
<Bruce.Eunson at educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk>*

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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