LLAS News Blog

French town bans word "mademoiselle"

2012-01-12T10:17:00.000Z

A town in Western France has banned the word "mademoiselle" - the French equivalent of "miss". The move comes as feminist groups campaign for the word to be consigned to the dustbin of history everywhere. Could its days be numbered?

There are no longer any "mademoiselles" in the town of Cesson-Sevigne.

The small Brittany community has banned the use of the term in all its official documents, arguing that women, like men, should not be defined by their marital status.

BBC news

15 ways to get ahead in your career in 2012

2012-01-09T16:00:00.000Z

Get involved in LLAS in 2012

1. Come along to the annual e-symposium at the University of Southampton on 27-28 January.
2. Submit a paper and attend the LLAS/ UCML/ AULC conference in Edinburgh on 5-6 July 2012.
3. If you are new to teaching in higher education come along to our new staff workshop on 12 April 2012.
4. Watch out for our annual Heads of Department workshop in September 2012 (date to be confirmed).
5. Learn to create online learning materials using our LOC tool. There is one in London on 17 April. If that’s not convenient ask us about running a workshop where you are.

Things to do in 2012

1. HEFCE will be reviewing its support for Strategic and Vulnerable Subjects in 2012. Watch out for developments by checking out the HEFCE website regularly.
2. Get involved in Speak to the Future, the national campaign for languages.
3. Make sure you understand Key Information Sets. They will be required for every higher education course.
4. Encourage your best students to submit their work to Debut: the undergraduate journal of languages, linguistics and area studies
5. Teacher licensing in higher education is on the agenda. Check what you need to do to become a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy if you do not already have this status.

Challenge yourself (and your colleagues) in 2012

1. Think about how you can integrate environmental issues/ climate change into your courses. If you think you can’t, think again!
2. Learn more about what is happening with language teaching in schools.
3. Each month read an article about teaching and learning in a language other than English.
4. Share your teaching materials in HumBox or the Languagebox and take a look at other people’s.
5. Join the conservation: share your teaching ideas on Twitter

SCOTLAND: Learning support in Gaelic lacking, MSPs told

2011-12-07T10:16:00.001Z

A mother of a boy who requires learning support has said that such help was severely lacking in Gaelic education.

Carole Henderson's son was diagnosed as having verbal dyspraxia when he was at nursery. He is now in Gaelic medium education at primary school.

Ms Henderson said in Lanarkshire, where they live, she had been unable to find educational specialists with Gaelic.

BBC news

How to embed Open Educational Resources into academic practice – some tips from HumBox users

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000Z

By Kate Borthwick (Academic Coordinator e-learning)

HumBox is an online space for sharing humanities teachingresources. It contains over 1300 resources from a range of humanitiesdisciplines and is an excellent place to showcase your teaching. HumBox ismanaged by LLAS.

1. Use your OER repositoryas your personal website.

When you publish an openeducational resource in a repository (like HumBox), it receives a unique URL.You can send your students directly to this URL to access the resource. This isan easy way to put your material online.

2. Avoid carrying paper/USBswith you when you present at conferences.

You can publish your slides,handouts, plus any related information in one HumBox collection – and thensimply give out the unique URL for this collection to your audience. This keepsall of your files in one place and is always accessible (as long as you have aninternet connection).

3. Refine and polish yourteaching material following review by colleagues.

If you publish a resource onHumBox, any other registered user can post comments on it. HumBox users reportthat these comments have been really useful in enabling them to improve theirwork. After republishing their resource, they feel confident that others willbe able and willing to re-use it in their own context because it has beenreworked in a collaborative way.

4. Find useful resources toadapt or use if teaching a class at short notice.

OER sites provide a wealth ofmaterial of all kinds: from whole courses to individual handouts and slides.This can be useful if you have to teach a class in an area that is outside ofyour expertise, or if you have to cover another class at short notice.

5. Enhance your digital presence and international reputation.

OER sites, like HumBox, and theresources held in them, are picked up easily by search engines, and so bycontributing to such sites you can shape an impressive professional digitalpresence.

6. See how otherpractitioners approach particular topics and keep up with developments in yourdiscipline.

Browsing HumBox can give anexcellent overview of how other humanities lecturers across the UK teachcertain topics and ideas and keep you up-to-date with new approaches.

7. Get good ideas forenhancing your practice and reflect on what you do.

Browsing an OER repository like HumBoxcan inspire new ideas and help you to reflect and enhance your teaching.

8. Use OER early in yourcareer to glean ideas, and showcase work and teaching experience.

If you are an early careerresearcher/lecturer, browsing HumBox can give some real-life examples of howyour subject is taught ‘in the wild.’ Publishing your own resources is also away of showcasing your work as soon as you start work.

9. See perspectives fromother humanities disciplines.

Browsing HumBox enables you tosee how other humanities disciplines approach certain issues and ideas – thismay broaden your own perspective.

10. Feel confident in adapting and re-using other people’s materials.

Most OERs have been created andpublished explicitly for use and adaptation, and are licensed for suchactivity. This means you can avoid concerns about using other people’s materialand worries about copyright - and you can use, re-use and republish (withattribution) as freely as you wish to.

Labour backs English baccalaureate to boost languages study

2011-11-28T13:07:00.001Z

The government's English baccalaureate (Ebacc), which recognises pupils who achieve good passes in a mix of academic subjects at GCSE, has won support from Labour's education spokesman.

Stephen Twigg, who was appointed shadow education secretary last month, gave qualified praise to the measure, which he said might reverse the decline in children studying languages.

The Guardian

King's College London to establish dedicated Russia Institute in 2013

2011-11-21T09:54:00.001Z

A new institute for the study of contemporary Russia is to be established at a London university, the latest in a network of institutes at King's College London devoted to mapping the rise of emerging powers.
The university's Russia Institute, due to open in 2013, joins an India Institute which opened in September and institutes focusing on Brazil and China that were set up in 2008.

The Guardian

Skills warning over foreign language assistant cuts

2011-11-15T00:54:00.001Z

The number of foreign language assistants in Scottish schools has fallen by 80% in the past six years.

Figures from British Council Scotland revealed the total had dropped to 59, down from 284 in 2005/06.

Only seven out of 32 local authorities employed native speakers of French, German, Italian, Spanish or Chinese

BBC website

Discard the irrelevant: Statistics don’t bleed, but our students do.

2011-11-03T13:22:00.000Z

John Canning, LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Some rise by sin and others by virtue fall. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

Statistics are everywhere in education. We have the National Student Survey (NSS), the First Destinations Survey, newspaper league tables, and the Times World University rankings among others. Universities are now required to publish ‘Key Information Sets’ (KIS) from 2012. The KIS has data from the NSS (the higher the agreeing percentages the better), the cost of university accommodation (presumably the lower the better), fees (the lower the better), graduate employment rates (the higher the better), percentage of assessment which is written exams (depends on the student) and number of ‘contact’ hours (again, depends on the student). In short if it can be measured the data is out there. And if it can’t be measured, we’ll find a way to measure it anyway, (research impact anyone?). Add to all this the information that students get from visit days, Facebook, twitter, the online student forums, friends and the phrase ‘information overload’ comes to mind. In his report Dimensions of Quality Graham Gibbs warns us about that immeasurable factor, reputation, which can override any real measure of quality. I suspect that all this information only serves to make reputation all the more important.

As I warned in a recent article on the NSS chasing the ratings can be tempting. Bad practices can beget good statistics which are really evidence of a bad situation. Sometime in the early 1990s I watched a football game between Cheltenham Town and Worcester City in the Beazer Homes League. Disappointingly, for those who feel distressed at having missed this mouth-watering encounter, I’m not aware of it being available on DVD, but the Worcester goalkeeper had an amazing game making save after save. But why was he so good that night? He had to be - the rest of his team were dreadful. The Cheltenham Town attack kept him busy all evening. And despite the goalkeeper’s super performance his team still conceded five goals (fans of the statistically excited sport of American football may find the illustrations on the Freakonomics blog even more exciting than my example). A course with a high number of contact hours could be one where students are spoon-fed in endless lectures or who have timetabled ‘group work’ sessions which exist for the sole purpose of increasing contact hours. Low rents may make university cheaper, but they can be a reflection of poor economic conditions or poor quality accommodation.

If we are near the top of the employability league we proclaim it online, at our open days and to anyone who will listen for ten seconds. When they work against us, statistics can motivate us to make excuses. We say that our performance reflects the industries our graduates go into; they have all gone abroad or they like our town so much they don’t want to leave and area doing odd little jobs until they decide what they really want to do. We seek loopholes – are office hours contact hours? Can we ‘reset’ that programme that didn’t do so well, by changing its name or by merging it with a more successful programme? Then there’s outright ‘cheating within the rules’ as when American football wide receivers (the person who tries to catch the ball when the quarterback throws it) once put adhesive on their gloves to enable them to catch better (a loophole in the rules now since closed). I am not going to speculate what the higher education equivalent of gluey hands might be, but statistics can bring out the worst in us. Mark Twain said that we are apt to use statistics like a drunk uses a lamppost – to support ourselves rather than to see the right way to go. As Escalus says in Measure for measure, “Some rise by sin and others by virtue fall” – statistics can facilitate our sins and our virtues. In this ‘New World’ of higher education more and more of us are looking back to our defacto ‘patron saint’ Cardinal Newman.

If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society... It is the education which gives a man (sic) a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him (sic) to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought to detect what is sophistically and to discard what is irrelevant. John Henry Newman, The idea of a University.

Higher Education statistics can lead us to pursue what is irrelevant. Let us seek the truth - the statistics will follow to vindicate us... possibly.

John Canning is Senior Academic Coordinator at the LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, but writes here in a personal capacity. He can be found blogging about matters higher education at his website www.johncanning.net

JAPAN: Global Economy Exposes Japan's Shortage of English-Speaking Graduates

2011-11-03T10:14:00.001Z

In Japan's business world, they call it the "Rakuten English shock." The country's largest online retailer has told its 6,000 employees that they must be fluent enough in English to converse with one another by next year. Executives who aren't up to speed will be fired; rank-and-file workers will find their path to promotion blocked.

That dramatic move by Rakuten's Harvard Business School-educated founder, Hiroshi Mikitani, is the latest sign that some Japanese companies are accepting a long-held truism: English is the language of global business. It is also, however, exposing a long-term shortage of local university graduates fluent in the world's lingua franca.

Chronicle of Higher Education

Languages for employability video (Leeds Met University)

2011-10-31T15:11:00.004Z

Graham Webb and colleagues from Leeds Metropolitan University have produced a short video about languages for employability. It was filmed at their recent Language and employability conference which was attended by employers, students and academics.

Leeds Met Languages and Employability Conference Press Release

The coalition government’s education policy changes mean demand for language teachers is set to soar over the next few years. After a decade in which language teaching in schools has declined dramatically (total GCSE entries in modern languages this year were down this year by 43% compared to 2000) the inclusion of a modern foreign language as one of the 5 core subjects of the English Baccalaureate and which count towards school league tables means the focus is back on language study. The School of Languages at Leeds Metropolitan University is already seeing an increase in applications to study languages and more interest teaching languages as a career.

Rai Shacklock, Head of School, said “Over the next 5 to 10 years, qualified teachers that can teach two languages or a language and another key subject will be in high demand, so now is an ideal time to be taking a language degree.” However, teaching is only one of a whole range of careers open to language students as pupils from local Leeds schools heard recently at the Languages and Employability Conference at Leeds Met

Debbie Easton from Enterprise Rent a Car said “We recruit 750 graduates every year and we like language graduates as they can demonstrate good communication skills as well as resilience, confidence and leadership as most have had a year abroad when they had to fend for themselves”.

Fiona Spence, representing the global group ITW, said that they now actively targeted graduate entrants that had not one but two languages because their business needs people who can move between their main operations worldwide. English may be the major global language but people everywhere prefer to do business in their own language, especially if they are considering buying British products.

According to Victoria Boldison, Export Sales Manager of Optimum Medical Solutions, “languages are vital for UK companies as you can target markets that are not in recession even if the UK and Eurozone are”. So, the revival of languages in schools may be just in time to help revive the UK’s economy over the next few years.

Call for contributions: European Journal of Language Policy

2011-10-25T16:40:00.000+01:00

European Journal of Language Policy/ Revue européenne de politique linguistique
Call for contributions

Proposals are invited for contributions to the European Journal of Language Policy / Revue européenne de politique linguistique, which is published by Liverpool University Press, in association with the Conseil européen pour les langues / European Language Council, and edited by Michael Kelly (University of Southampton, UK).
This is an international peer-reviewed journal, which has published eight issues since Spring 2009. It addresses major developments in language policy from a European perspective, regarding multilingualism and the diversity of languages as valuable assets in the culture, politics and economics of twenty-first century societies. The journal’s primary focus is on Europe, broadly understood, but it is alert to policy developments in the wider world.
The EJLP/REPL invites proposals or manuscripts of articles studying any aspect of language policy, and any aspect of the area of languages for which policies may need to be developed or changed. It particularly welcomes proposals that provide greater understanding of the factors that contribute to policy-making, and proposals that examine the effects of particular policies on language learning or language use.
The EJLP/REPL presents relevant policy documents and reports, particularly where these contribute to debates and decision-making on language policy in Europe and elsewhere. It invites suggestions for such documents.

Articles and other items are accepted in either English or French. Abstracts of articles will be provided in both languages. Materials may be derived from or refer to texts in other languages, and a website associated with the journal will provide access to texts and materials in a wider range of languages.

The next issue for which contributions are invited will appear in Autumn 2012 Manuscripts for publication should be submitted to the Editor by 30 April 2012. All correspondence should be addressed to Dr Eleanor Quince (E.M.Quince@southampton.ac.uk).

European Journal of Language Policy/Revue européenne de politique linguistique is hosted online by Metapress at http://liverpool.metapress.com/content/121626/, and online access is free to existing subscribers.
October 2011

Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages, Map, Facts, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic

2011-10-18T15:37:00.000+01:00

Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages, Map, Facts, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic

Footballer Joe Cole learning French

2011-10-14T18:11:00.000+01:00

Joe Cole embraces life with Lille to reinvigorate his England hopes
Winger has refound his joie de vivre since moving to France, so much so he has gone back to school to learn the language

The Guardian

£6m to improve standards in Welsh medium-teaching and learning

2011-10-13T17:54:00.001+01:00

Cardiff University’s contribution to a multi-million pound scheme to improve standards in Welsh medium-teaching and learning will be launched by Education Minister Leighton Andrews tonight (13 October).

The Welsh language Sabbatical Scheme is a course designed for teachers, lecturers and classroom assistants who want to raise the standard of their Welsh and gain confidence in using the language.

Cardiff Universityhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

'Lack of trust' and course mismatches mean study abroad may go unrecognised

2011-10-13T13:59:00.000+01:00

One in five students who participates in an Erasmus exchange is forced to retake courses and exams after failing to be given full credit for studies abroad.

The problem of international accreditation has been highlighted in a survey of almost 9,000 students participating in the European Union exchange programme in 2010-11.

About 25 per cent of students reported receiving only partial credit for work done abroad, and 3 per cent gained no credit when returning home, according to the Erasmus Student Network.

Times Higher Education

Language awards reward innovative learning and teaching

2011-10-11T11:24:00.000+01:00

Excellence in language teaching has led to awards for schools and education groups in the East of England, West Country and West Midlands.

Eleven awards for excellence in language teaching have been made this year by the CfBT Education Trust.

Successful projects received a European Language Label to reward innovative teaching and learning.

BBC website

South Sudan adopts English as its official language

2011-10-09T20:02:00.001+01:00

The young nation of South Sudan has chosen English as its official language but after decades of civil war, the widespread learning of English presents a big challenge for a country brought up speaking a form of Arabic.

BBC news

Anthony Seldon: Modern languages in schools are 'close to extinction'

2011-10-06T09:43:00.000+01:00

Modern languages are close to extinction in British schools, a leading educationalist is to warn teachers.

Anthony Seldon, a pioneer of innovative teaching and the headteacher of Wellington College, will tell language teachers that their subject is deeper trouble than it has been for a century.

The Guardian

Dying languages and how Hebrew was saved

2011-10-04T11:55:00.002+01:00

LANGUAGES ARE draining away. According to linguist Mark Abley, a language dies every 14 days, never to be heard again.

Wonderful languages are already dead, like the magical Marlda Kangka, spoken only by the boys of three islands south of New Guinea upon initiation into its signed vocabulary after ritual circumcision; and Mati Ke, whose last two speakers in northern Australia were brother and sister, prohibited by taboo from talking together.

Irish Times http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Respones to Michael Gove's call for primary languages

2011-10-04T10:36:00.001+01:00

The Guardian has compiled some of the responses to Michael Gove's call for languages from age 5.

The Guardian

Teach foreign languages from age five, says Gove

2011-10-01T17:07:00.000+01:00

Every child aged five or over should learn a foreign language, Education Secretary Michael Gove has said.

He told the Guardian that almost every other advanced country teaches a foreign language from that age, and the UK should set itself the same target.

BBC website

New book on Naval slang

2011-09-28T09:43:00.000+01:00

A collection of thousands of naval slang words and phrases known as "Jackspeak" has been published, highlighting just how many of them have crept in to the modern lexicon over the years.
Ever been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea? Or maybe you have been told to show a leg, been taken aback or have been made to run the gauntlet.

These men can laugh about working for the "Grey Funnel Line" (the navy)
If so, you have been using just a few of the thousands of slang words and phrases coined or adopted by the Royal Navy - the world's oldest organised fighting service - over the course of more than 400 years.

BBC website

Private language tutors to be targeted by HM Revenue & Customs

2011-09-22T09:37:00.001+01:00

Private tutors are the latest group of professionals to be targeted in a crackdown on tax-dodging as HM Revenue & Customs said it was beginning to win the battle against avoidance, evasion and fraud.

HMRC said the so-called "tax gap" between what should have been paid by individuals and businesses and what was collected, had fallen by £4bn to £35bn.

The Guardian

Language teaching 'deplorable'says Bishop

2011-09-21T10:50:00.002+01:00

Language teaching and learning in England is "deplorable" and declining drastically, a senior Church of England bishop has warned.

The Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Bradford, called for the English to learn other languages to help deepen their understanding of the world.
The Independenthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Jewish US army translator who got close to the Nazis

2011-09-20T09:27:00.001+01:00

A German Jew who became a US military translator is the last surviving member of a team that carried out psychological tests on leading Nazis after the war. They learned very little, he says - but he gained unique insights into their characters.

"If you took away the names of these Nazis, and just sat down to talk to them, they were like your friends and neighbours."

Howard Triest, 88, spent many hours with some of the most notorious leaders of the Third Reich, acting as a translator for American psychiatrists at Nuremberg.

BBC website

French Studies for the 21st century: new book

2011-09-13T15:08:00.004+01:00

Many humanities programs -- and in particular many language programs -- have faced challenges in recent years of budget cuts and questions about their relevance. A new collection -- French Studies in and for the Twenty-First Century (Liverpool University Press) -- asserts that the field of French studies most certainly matters -- and should continue to be nurtured at top universities.

The book's editors are Philippe Lane, attaché for higher education at the French Embassy in London, and Michael Worton, vice provost and the Fielden Professor of French Language and Literature at University College London. Worton responded via e-mail to questions about the book and the state of French studies.

Philippe Lane and Michael Worton, French Studies in and for the Twenty-first Century (Liverpool University Press, 2011).

Interview with one of the editors, Professor Michael Worton In side HigherEd.com

Speaking assessment blamed for drop in numbers doing GCSE Chinese

2011-09-06T12:10:00.002+01:00

The number of pupils taking GCSE Chinese dropped by a massive 42 per cent this year after the introduction of new speaking and writing assessments triggered an exodus to the IGCSE syllabus.

Numbers taking GCSE Chinese fell from 3,650 in 2010 to 2,104 this year, figures released last week reveal.

Teachers, academics and advisers working with community groups warned last year that a change to the rules on coursework would mean a drop in numbers.

The new rules meant that for the first time pupils studying certain community languages had to undergo controlled assessment of their speaking skills by a trained teacher in an examination centre, usually in their mainstream school.

Times Education Supplement http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

HEFCE announce funding boost for Routes into Languages

2011-08-15T10:51:00.002+01:00

HEFCE has announced a £1.2 million funding boost to support the Routes into Languages programme.

For the full story see the HEFCE press release or the THE:

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2011/lang.htm

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=417117&c=1

Obituary: Nancy Wake SOE servicewoman

2011-08-09T14:05:00.001+01:00

During the second world war, the servicewoman Nancy Wake, who has died aged 98, became known as "the White Mouse", a nickname given to her by the Gestapo for her elusiveness. In the run-up to D-day, Wake, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which was eager to recruit French-speaking women to serve as couriers.

Guardian

ISRAEL: Lawmakers seek to drop Arabic as one of Israel's official languages

2011-08-04T12:09:00.003+01:00

The bill redefines basic consensus regarding the character of the state. For example, it also proposes that Hebrew would be the only official language in Israel, as opposed to the present situation - based on current mandatory law, Arabic and English are also recognized as official languages.

According to Elkin, the law is intended to give the courts reasoning that supports "the state as the Jewish nation state in ruling in situations in which the Jewish character of the state clashes with its democratic character."

Haaretz.com

Obituary: Navajo code talker Joe Morris

2011-07-26T12:12:00.002+01:00

Joe Morris, who died on 17 July aged 85, was one of more than 400 American Indians who used the language of their ancestors to relay secret battlefield orders during the Second World War. Navajo code talkers were young Navajo men who used their language to transmit secret communications in every major engagement in the Pacific theatre, including Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Morris kept secret what he did during his Marine Corps service until President Reagan declassified the role of the code talkers in 1982.

The Independent

Academic speaks out on bias towards English-language in academic publishing

2011-07-25T10:44:00.002+01:00

The complaint that "much of the global news is about a small elite: the very rich, athletes, entertainers, royals and politicians" seems particularly topical in light of the soul-searching about the state of journalism as the phone-hacking scandal continues in the UK.

But in this instance, the analysis focuses not on the output of the now-defunct News of the World, or Rupert Murdoch's hold over British politics. Writing on The World View blog (http://bit.ly/nsKt5N), Jorge Balán, a sociologist and international education policy specialist at the Center for Studies of the State and Society in Argentina, decries the way in which developments in global higher education are reported - or not.

Professor Balán argues that there is an unreasonable bias towards work by academics and universities in the English-speaking world that is "reflected in the poor news coverage of the massive volume of teaching and research that is carried out in languages other than English - in continental Europe, in the Arab world, in Asia, Africa and Latin America".

Times Higher Education

Police interpretor implicated in phone-hacking

2011-07-19T14:46:00.002+01:00

In the latest bizarre twist in the phone hacking story it emerged that Alex Marunchak, an executive editor on the Sunday tabloid, worked for the force between 1980 and 2000 translating for Ukrainian suspects.

The revelations will do nothing to dampen suggestions that the newspaper enjoyed a cosy relationship with the Yard

The Telegraph

Pupils forced to switch GCSE courses as schools chase Ebacc results

2011-07-14T13:13:00.001+01:00

Schools have put in place plans to restrict pupils' GCSE choices as a direct result of the introduction of the new benchmark, a seminar has heard

The Guardianhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

German teachers campaign to simplify handwriting in schools

2011-06-30T14:44:00.000+01:00

t has long been a painful rite of passage for German schoolchildren – learning "die Schreibschrift", a fiddly form of joined-up handwriting all pupils are expected to have mastered by the time they leave primary school.

But now, many German teachers have had enough, insisting it is a waste of time to force children to learn a cursive script when they have already learned to print letters at kindergarten. Furthermore, they say, the joined-up handwriting is often illegible.

The Guardian

Vous êtes congédié! Monoglots bad for business

2011-06-30T10:49:00.001+01:00

British business is losing out because of the nation's foreign language failings - yet academics are struggling to convince their universities to do anything about it.

Those were among the issues raised in The Future of UK Modern Languages, a debate organised by the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies and the Modern Humanities Research Association.

Times Higher Education

Baroness Cousins raises languages in the Lords

2011-06-15T15:51:00.001+01:00

My Lords, I will raise briefly two or three issues connected with modern languages in relation to some of the Bill's objectives. I declare an interest as chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages.

Lihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnk to speech

British academics launch £18,000 humanities college in London

2011-06-06T10:53:00.000+01:00

A new British college aiming to rival Oxford and Cambridge has been launched by leading academics.

New College of the Humanities will give a high-quality education to "gifted" undergraduates and a degree from the University of London, creators say.

BBC news

Are Germans ruder than the British?

2011-05-26T13:48:00.001+01:00

Are Germans ruder than the British? Are Britons more dishonest than Germans? Fortunately, we don't have to rely on blind prejudice for answers. Serious academic research has been done on both sides of the North Sea.

BBC website

"MFL should not be compulsory" says secondary head

2011-05-23T17:15:00.001+01:00

An Oxfordshire head teacher has said she should not be forced to teach foreign languages to her pupils.

Dr Fiona Hammans from Banbury School said a 12-year-old with a reading age of six did not benefit from learning French or German.

She said: "They are so left behind and my real concern is that we don't leave them even further behind."

The school has now applied to become an academy so it is free from having to stick to the national curriculum.

Currently Banbury School is obliged to teach a second language to all its pupils until the age of 14.

BBhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifC news

Don't Look to the Ivy League - Howard Hotson

2011-05-19T14:06:00.003+01:00

This thought-provoking article has just appeared in the London Review of Books (Vol. 13, No. 10, May 19). In it, Hotson questions the prevailing view in the UK that US universities perform far better than their counterparts here. He argues that closer inspection of league tables and rankings shows that the UK does very well if population numbers are taken into account. The UK, Hotson suggests, has more top 20 universities per head of the population than the US and it has managed to achieve this with a fraction of what the US spends on higher education. This effect is intensified if the league tables are considered in their entirety.

To read the whole article, go to: www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n10/howard-hotson/dont-look-to-the-ivy-league

Can you learn a language in just two days?

2011-05-19T09:33:00.000+01:00

'In theory," says language teacher Paul Noble, forming a steeple with his fingers in true professorial style, "you should learn Chinese today and tomorrow quicker than anyone has ever learned it on the planet." In theory, because I'm the very first student to take his intensive two-day course in Mandarin, which he is teaching me with his wife, native speaker Kai-Ti Chou, in the basement of a north London art gallery. If their prototype course works as well as they are hoping, then two days from now I will, as the spiel on Noble's website boasts, "have learned to speak Chinese the way it is really spoken".

The Guardian

Speaking multiple languages can give you multiple personalities The idea that language affects the

2011-05-03T13:00:00.001+01:00

Speaking multiple languages can give you multiple personalities

If you speak multiple languages, you might have multiple personalities. Reporting October 15 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, psychologists at Hong Kong Polytechnic University found that native Chinese students who were fluent in English appeared more assertive, extraverted and open to new experiences—personality traits often associated with Westerners—when conversing with an interviewer in English as opposed to Cantonese.

iO9 website

Scientific American website

Threat to languages and Caribbean Studies at London Met

2011-04-16T08:36:00.001+01:00

London Metropolitan University's vice-chancellor, Professor Malcolm Gillies, plans to reduce the number of undergraduate degrees from 557 to 160 by the autumn of next year.

History and philosophy are among those earmarked for closure. The university also plans to shut down its degree programme in Caribbean studies – the only one in the UKOther courses to go include theatre studies, trade union studies, dance, parts of multimedia, , performing arts and modern languages.

The Guardian

Language universality idea tested with biology method

2011-04-16T08:31:00.000+01:00

A long-standing idea that human languages share universal features that are dictated by human brain structure has been cast into doubt.

A study reported in Nature has borrowed methods from evolutionary biology to trace the development of grammar in several language families.

BBC website

Nature article

UHI cuts six Gaelic posts

2011-04-14T12:41:00.001+01:00

Dismayed funders question viability of institution's language-promotion mission. Hannah Fearn writes

A Scottish university with a mission to preserve and develop the Gaelic language has axed six posts in its Gaelic team, leaving non-speakers in charge of the strategy.

Among the positions cut by the University of the Highlands and Islands, which gained university status earlier this year, is that of its Gaelic manager.
Times Higher Education

Teaching English overseas: Graduates with a foreign language have a huge edge in the job market

2011-04-14T10:06:00.002+01:00

There are pros and cons about being a native speaker of English. One advantage, of course, is the ease with which English speakers can move around the world, on holiday or on business. But a disadvantage is that it breeds laziness. Far too many of us Brits, either consciously or unconsciously, don't really bother with learning a foreign language.

The Independent

CILT news: Powerful new partnerships launched for languages support

2011-04-08T09:33:00.001+01:00

Following productive discussions with the coalition Government about the future of support for language teaching and learning, CILT, the National Centre for Languages is to merge with the education charity CfBT Education Trust with effect from today. Its branch in Cardiff, CILT Cymru, which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, will continue to provide services to teachers in Wales by merging with the WJEC. The brands and core objectives of both CILT, the National Centre for Languages, and CILT Cymru will remain unaffected.

CILT, the National Centre for Languages website

Tuition fee warning over four-year language courses

2011-03-30T10:08:00.002+01:00

University language departments are warning that the increase in tuition fees in England could undermine their ability to recruit students.

Many language degrees include an extra year abroad - and there are fears that students will not want to pay up to £36,000 for a four-year course.

BBC news

The LLAS subject centre is running an workshop related to this issue. Please visit the workshop website for further details.

Poor language skills put Scots at disadvantage

2011-03-28T17:26:00.000+01:00

Early opt-outs and removal of foreign assistants fuel rapid decline of languages, TESS survey reveals

There has never been a more perilous time for modern languages in our schools.

So says Eddie Morrison, headteacher of John Ogilvie High in South Lanarkshire, whose commitment to languages makes him the exception, rather than the rule.

Some heads are counting the hours that pupils are taught a modern language in primary, and once they are sure their 500-hour entitlement is met, are “dropping it like a hot tortilla”, he says.

Times Education Supplement

FCO travel advice mapped: the world according to Britain's diplomats

2011-03-23T12:15:00.001Z

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issues travel warnings and advice for British citizens. See the snapshot they paint of the world today

The Guardian

Poorly organised language provision has major effect on success of military intervention

2011-03-18T12:05:00.003Z

A University of Reading led study has found that poorly organised language provision can have a major effect on the success of military intervention. The three-year project is the first study to examine the way war is spoken, and focus on the people who give a voice to the 'friendly faces'.

Reading website

Concerns expressed about lack of experience on ML and Linguistics REF panel

2011-03-17T11:51:00.001Z

The lack of previous experience among members of two subpanels in the forthcoming research excellence framework could undermine researchers' "grudging acceptance" of the exercise, an academic has warned.

The membership of the 36 subpanels was announced last month by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The law subpanel contains just one person who has experience of working on the research assessment exercise, which preceded the REF. None of the Hispanists on the modern languages and linguistics subpanel has prior experience.

Times Higher Education

Bilingualism impacts on colour perception

2011-03-15T10:12:00.001Z

Learning a foreign language literally changes the way we see the world, according to new research. Panos Athanasopoulos, of Newcastle University, has found that bilingual speakers think differently to those who only use one language.

Science Daily

UK Ambassador in Mexico to give careers talk in Southampton

2011-03-03T23:29:00.003Z

“Careers in the Diplomatic Service”- by Judith Macgregor, British Ambassador in Mexico

Date: Monday 7 March / Time: 5:45-6:30 pm / Location: Lecture Theatre C (Avenue Campus), University of Southampton

Brussels seeks to woo monoglot Brits

2011-02-25T10:00:00.002Z

Monoglot Britons may be allowed to take a special "English-only" entrance exam to work in Brussels, in an effort to boost the dwindling number of British officials at EU institutions.

Financial Times

Job anguish for immigrants as English language courses face cuts

2011-02-14T13:28:00.001Z

Despite David Cameron's call for immigrants to learn English, public funding for language schools across the country is to be cut back

The Guardian

Stay-at-home UK students still the 'worst in Europe' for study abroad

2011-02-10T10:17:00.001Z

Lack of language skills and worry about academic inflexibility deter venturers, writes Hannah Fearn

Efforts to encourage more UK students to study abroad appear to be failing, with the country retaining the worst outbound-inbound student ratio in Europe.

According to data from the Academic Cooperation Association, the UK still sends just one student abroad for every 20 who come to the UK to study for a degree.

Times Higher Education

Dumping languages stunts life chances, schools are told

2011-01-27T09:36:00.002Z

State schools were accused of disqualifying their pupils from top jobs today after it emerged that little more than a third of them now teach the majority of their pupils a foreign language.

The Guardian

Erasmus Scheme’s ‘unfairness gap’ criticised

2011-01-17T09:50:00.001Z

The Erasmus Scheme was set up in 1987 with the admirable aim of increasing academic mobility within Europe.

Via the funding of exchange programmes for students and staff, the scheme involves 90 per cent of all European universities and colleges across 31 countries.

However, as it approaches its quarter-century, the equitability of the scheme is a matter of debate, and it remains unclear whether students in some participating countries – rich or poor – get as much out of it as those from others.

Times Higher Education

Report criticises GCSE languages tuition

2011-01-11T12:47:00.001Z

Some state secondary schools do not have a single pupil taking a modern foreign languages GCSE, inspectors reveal today.

A report by Ofsted, the education standards watchdog,.reveals that two-thirds of secondary schools have failed to reach a benchmark set by the previous Government that half their pupils should study a modern foreign language at GCSE.

The Independent

What to do with a degree in American studies?

2011-01-10T10:36:00.000Z

It's a big draw and living the American dream need not be out of reach

The Guardian

European languages applications to university decline, despite overall increase

2011-01-04T12:45:00.002Z

Young people denied a place to study last autumn are fuelling a surge in university applications for the coming academic year, ahead of tuition fees rise in 2012, Ucas figures show

Applicants' subject choices indicate a decline in European languages, which dipped by 1.4%,

The Guardian

More students choose languages in broader curriculum

2010-12-23T09:48:00.002Z

Aberdeen: The total number studying French, Gaelic, German and Spanish has risen to 1,726, with the overall number of first-year language course enrolments increasing to 2,115 when Latin, Arabic and Mandarin are taken into account.

The figures come during a period of general decline in the number of students studying language degrees in the UK. In 2009, Michael Kelly, director of the UK Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, estimated that just 2 to 2.5 per cent of students chose modern language degrees.

Times Higher Education

Discover Japanese Studies website launched

2010-12-15T10:13:00.002Z

The British Association for Japanese Studies has launched a website Discover Japanese Studies. www.discoverjapanesestudies.org is aimed at students who are interested in studying Japan and the Japanese language.

In Study Abroad, Simple Is Sophisticated

2010-12-10T12:55:00.001Z

My field, study abroad, is far from simple, and if you follow the buzz, you probably know how "unsophisticated" it can be. A recent study at the University of Washington, published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, found that many American students double their alcohol consumption while studying abroad in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand. Study abroad has long been associated with partying and, as a recent article in The Chronicle put it, "a perk for wealthy students at selective colleges."

This is disappointing because many of us who work with college students, or send them to other countries to study, have higher aspirations for their international experience than drinking more alcohol or backpacking around Europe. We see study abroad as education, not vacation, and we honestly believe that the study-abroad experience has the potential to change lives, and the world, for the better.

Chronicle of Higher Education

Pupils to learn a language in GCSE shake-up

2010-11-24T09:32:00.001Z

A shake-up of league tables used to rate schools will force growing numbers of teenagers to take GCSEs in subjects such as French, German and Spanish.

The Telegraph

Today is World Languages Day

2010-11-17T10:32:00.001Z

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is World Languages Day, and it seems appropriate to announce a happy but increasingly uncommon event: the discovery of a previously unknown language in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Koro, as the language is called, is spoken by hill tribes living in the northeastern state of India called Arunachal Pradesh, near the borders with China and Burma. Its discovery bucks a trend, since linguists have estimated that at least half of the roughly 7,000 extant human languages will be dead or moribund – meaning that children will not be able to speak them – by 2100. In fact, Koro was first identified by a team of Indian language surveyors in 2003, but its findings were never published. The three linguists who announced their "discovery" of Koro last month travelled to the remote Indian province as part of National Geographic's Enduring Voices project, to record two other, little-known languages belonging to the Tibeto-Burman language family, Aka and Miju, and rediscovered Koro by accident.

The Independent

UK students too reluctant to study abroad, says British Council boss

2010-11-08T09:55:00.001Z

Fewer than one in every 200 of the UK's university students spend part of their degree in another European country – almost a third fewer than in France or Germany, figures reveal today.

The British Council, which collected the data, warned that the country's economic future would be in jeopardy unless more teenagers went abroad to study. Last year, just 0.46% of UK undergraduates took part in Erasmus, the largest pan-Europe programme to assist student exchanges. In France and Germany, almost three times the proportion took part: 1.31% and 1.24% respectively.

The Guardian

Speak to the future: New languages campaign launched

2010-11-04T12:48:00.001Z

Speak to the future is a developing five-year campaign, from 2011 to 2015, to improve the UK’s understanding of the value of languages in all areas of life; to achieve a step change in language learning at all levels; to improve the nation’s capacity in language skills and professional services.

The campaign is addressed principally to policy makers in government and leaders in education and business. It will aim to demonstrate the importance of languages for success in social, economic, political and cultural life. It will identify specific steps that we should take now to promote and increase language learning in the UK.

The campaign will span the intended life of the current Parliament, taking in the milestones and opportunities of the 2012 Olympics, the 2014 European Parliament elections and the election campaigns for the next Welsh Assembly and Scottish and Westminster Parliaments.

Speak to the future website

British Council language assistant scheme under threat

2010-10-25T10:52:00.000+01:00

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

2010-10-21T12:24:00.001+01:00

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

2010-10-12T12:09:00.001+01:00

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

2010-10-11T16:54:00.001+01:00

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

2010-10-07T16:53:00.006+01:00

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

2010-10-07T13:56:00.001+01:00

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

2010-10-06T17:48:00.000+01:00

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

2010-10-01T17:30:00.001+01:00

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

Green Bay Press Gazette

Bloggers to press for Russian-language Twitter interface

2010-09-21T10:17:00.002+01:00

Well-known Russian Twitter users will head to the U.S. in late September to discuss the introduction of a Russian-language service with the staff of the popular micro-blogging website.

Rianovosti

What to do with a degree in modern languages

2010-09-20T17:31:00.003+01:00

Whether it's l'addition, la cuenta or il conto, it remains a sad fact that most Britons' grasp of foreign languages is limited to the subtleties of settling the bill on holiday. Amazingly, the study of modern languages in the UK continues to decline. French is no longer even in the top 10 GCSE subjects, which is a crying shame because a world of fascinating employment opportunities awaits talented linguists with an eye for adventure, both within these shores and beyond.

The Guardian

Our ever changing English

2010-08-20T09:17:00.000+01:00

Our ever-changing English

I get grumpy about crimes against language. But we Brits have been lamenting declining standards of English for centuries

Alison Flood

The Guardian

Trapped in the Anglosphere, we've lost sight of next door

2010-08-20T09:12:00.001+01:00

Trapped in the Anglosphere, we've lost sight of next door

It's great the internet has engaged us in Australian elections and Alaska, but language has cut Europe from our mental maps

Martin Kettle

The Guardian

UK students urged to go Dutch amid place shortage

2010-08-19T09:53:00.001+01:00

With tens of thousands of would-be students likely to be turned away from UK universities this year and degree costs set to rise, higher education institutions in the Netherlands are promoting themselves as an alternative for British students.

They say there are still plenty of places left for this year and the costs of studying abroad could, for some students, be less than staying in Britain.

Dr Jeanine Gregersen, director of communications at the university says: "These are courses like life sciences, European law, European studies, arts and culture - these types of programme are still available.

BBC website

More British students 'to study abroad', says Willetts

2010-08-02T09:17:00.001+01:00

British students are to be offered up to two years at universities abroad amid Government warnings that poor language skills are crippling graduates’ job prospects.

Daily Telegraph

Computers to translate world's 'lost' languages after program deciphers ancient text

2010-07-26T09:57:00.001+01:00

Scientists have used a computer program to decipher a written language that is more than three thousand years old.

The program automatically translated the ancient written language of Ugaritic within just a few hours.

Scientists hope the breakthrough could help them decipher the few ancient languages that they have been unable to translate so far.

Ugaritic was last used around 1200 B.C. in western Syria and consists of dots on clay tablets. It was first discovered in 1920 but was not deciphered until 1932.

Daily Mail

Will Kafka's unpublished papers be released?

2010-07-23T09:52:00.002+01:00

The circumstances surrounding this week's partial release of the long-sequestered Kafka papers from their Zurich bank vault could be called “Kafkaesque” were it not that the whole saga — full of disobeyed instructions and legal spats — resembles an exceptionally complicated Victorian novel.

Kafka died at 40 in 1924, having commanded his friend Max Brod to burn all his unpublished papers. This Brod resolutely declined to do, rescuing such masterpieces as The Trial, Metamorphosis and The Castle from the flames, fleeing to Israel in 1939 and eventually bequeathing the rest of the material to his secretary, Esther Hoffe, on his death in 1968.

London Evening Standard

USA: Colleges Help Students to Translate the Benefits of Study Abroad

2010-07-23T09:46:00.001+01:00

Clemson University administrators were troubled by what they discovered on YouTube in the summer of 2008. Students at the university had posted videos of themselves drinking and partying during their study abroad in Spain, and the videos had been widely circulated.

Chronicle of Higher Education

Milkman breaks language barrier by learning Gujarati

2010-07-09T12:23:00.000+01:00

"Cemcho bhai, harisani, ano chokra kabar?"

That is Gujarati for: "Hello brother, how are you? Any news about your son?"

Not too unusual as the start of a conversation in the heart of the Asian community in Blackburn, apart from the fact that the words are being spoken by a 69-year-old white, English-born milkman.

BBC website

English language schools win court battle over visas

2010-07-09T12:19:00.000+01:00

English language schools have won a High Court battle over visa restrictions which they say are absurd and damaging to their businesses.

They took the action over new regulations which say that students entering the UK to study must have a good standard of English.

BBC website

USA: Computer programs replace foreign language teachers in classrooms after budget cuts

2010-07-06T11:00:00.000+01:00

In Ridgewood last year, school officials faced a dilemma that has become familiar in districts across New Jersey: Where to cut the budget.

Looking to squeeze under the state spending cap, Ridgewood honed in on Spanish classes for children in grades 3-5. They introduced an interactive computer program in which students listen to lessons on headsets, using a computer mouse to answer questions and a microphone to practice words and phrases. A regular classroom teacher supervises.

HONG KONG: New repository of statistical information on China

2010-07-05T17:33:00.001+01:00

A university library in Hong Kong is aiming to open up new fields of research on China by building the world's most comprehensive repository of statistical information on the country.

Chronicle of Higher Education

New translation tool launched

2010-06-29T11:17:00.001+01:00

Researchers now have a tool offering translations of open-access material in nine major languages.

WorldWideScience.org was launched in 2007 by the British Library and the US Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information to provide a single portal - www.worldwidescience.org - to carry out federated searches of multiple open-access scientific databases around the world.

The alliance now encompasses about a dozen national libraries and research organisations, and the database links to 400 million pages of research in 65 countries. The search engine has expanded its users from fewer than 8,000 in January 2009 to nearly 96,000 in April 2010, while the languages employed by users have risen in number from 71 to 114.

Times Higher Education

Integrating sustainable development in higher education

2010-06-28T15:07:00.003+01:00

Sustainability Education
Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education
Edited By Paula Jones, David Selby and Stephen Sterling

This book includes a chapter on languages, linguistics and area studies by John Canning

Earthscan publishing

French is a useless language: learn Arabic and Mandarin instead says former minister

2010-06-16T10:28:00.003+01:00

Chris Bryant, who served as minister for Europe under Gordon Brown, used a speech in the Commons to highlight the waning value of the French tongue, which has traditionally been the first foreign language taught to British schoolchildren.

Mr Bryant, now a shadow Foreign Office minister, said that young people should be pointed towards languages that were more useful for business.

Telegraph

Discussion about languages in the House of Lords

2010-06-16T09:55:00.004+01:00

A discussion about modern foreign languages took place in the House of Lords on 8 June 2010.

The following peers contributed to the debate.

Baroness Coussin (Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages)

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Government Spokesperson, Department for Education 2010- )

Baroness Sharples

The Lord Bishop of Chichester

Lord Wright of Richmond

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Baroness Walmsley

Lords Hansard 8th June 2010

ISRAEL: First Arabic-Language College Hopes to Bridge Differences in Opportunity

2010-06-15T21:25:00.002+01:00

After a decade-long struggle for official recognition, Israel's first comprehensive Arabic-language college of higher education will open its doors here in October.

Chronicle of Higher Education

Pedants’ revolt aims to protect English from spell of txt spk

2010-06-08T12:43:00.000+01:00

An Academy of English is being formed by the Queen’s English Society, to protect the language from impurities, bastardisations and the horrors introduced by the text-speak generation.

France has L’Académie Française, Spain the Real Academia Española, and Italy the Accademia della Crusca — august institutions that uphold the rules of their languages. English, however, has no such bastion against corruption and continuously mutates as new words develop, or fall out of use, grammar changes and the intricacies of punctuation go in and out of fashion.

The Times

French presidents' intepreter on career at Hay festival

2010-05-31T22:44:00.000+01:00

A British-born interpreter has been giving her insights into the occasional pitfalls of being chief translator to French presidents.

Linguist Amanda Galsworthy told the Hay Festival in Powys of her work with three French presidents over 26 years.

BBC news

High percentage of A* expected in some language A-levels

2010-05-28T10:53:00.002+01:00

7% of all grades are expected to be an A* . In Japanese, Russian and modern Hebrew, because the majority of pupils taking these subjects were brought up speaking them. In Japanese, Russian and modern Hebrew, 45%, 41% and 33% are expected to obtain an A*.

The Guardian

Gaelic is spreading like wildfire, thanks to a popular lunchtime club

2010-05-24T16:35:00.001+01:00

A teacher walks along the corridor. “Feasgar math,” says one pupil. “Ciamar a tha thu?” asks another. The knowledge of Gaelic is impressive, particularly as this is not a school in the Highlands, but Caledonia Primary in Glasgow.

Times Education Supplement