British Council language assistant scheme under threat

For more than a century, British students have been travelling abroad to teach in foreign classrooms as language assistants.

The tradition could now be in jeopardy after the British Council, which runs the programme, was forced to suspend next year's selection process following George Osborne's budget cuts.


The Independent

THE: report on Britain's linguistic skills gap

Modern languages should be a passport to life, so why are so few students queuing up to learn them? In a special report on Britain's linguistic skills gap, Matthew Reisz discovers that, globally speaking, we are missing out.

Includes quotes from Colin Riordan, Michael Worton and Pam Moores.

Times Higher Education

USA: Students want colloquial, not classical Arabic

As interest in Arabic-language studies has risen over the past decade among Westerners, language programs in the Middle East and North Africa face new challenges.

According to educators in the region, students today want courses that emphasize colloquial Arabic and expect classes to have a greater focus on cultural and social issues. Historically, programs in the region taught grammar and classical Arabic, which is used in the Koran and other Islamic texts.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

No language GCSE means no sixth-form place, say top schools

Two of the top-performing state schools in the country have declared their sixth-forms a "no go" area for pupils without a top grade GCSE pass in a modern foreign language.

Chelmsford County High School for Girls and neighbouring King Edward Grammar School in Essex have said that, from September 2013, they will not accept pupils into their sixth forms unless they have at least one C grade GCSE in a modern foreign language.


The Independent

"Hidden" Language, Koro, Found in Remote Indian Tribe

A "hidden" language has been documented in an isolated hill tribe in a northeastern Indian region considered a "black hole" in the study of languages, linguists announced today.




National Geographic

French teacher addresses Conservative Party conference

Katharine Birbalsingh earned standing ovation at Conservative party conference for criticising the 'culture of excuses' in schools

The Guardian

Better French results than the French

Pupils at a London primary school have done as well, or better, in French than some French children

The Guardian

One of last native Oneida speakers dies, age 100

Lorretta Webster, one of the last people to learn Oneida as a first language, died Monday. She was 100.

Green Bay Press Gazette