New language trends survey sets demanding agenda for primary and secondary schools

CfBT Education Trust today published the results of national surveys of primary and secondary schools, revealing the multiple challenges for languages within the new English National Curriculum.

The ‘Language Trends’ report shows that while foreign language teaching is already a reality in most primary schools, there is a very wide spectrum of practice and a lack of consistency in both approach and outcomes. Teachers need further training and support as the subject becomes statutory in September 2014, particularly in those schools where provision is currently least developed.

Download the report

Do you engage with iTunesU?

iTunesU is an area within Apple iTunes which allows institutions to create accounts and publish their own, branded educational content. It is a place to showcase excellence in education through the open publication of teaching resources. We, at LLAS, have recently been involved in the HEA-funded ‘iTunes and You’ project, where  we have taken existing open educational materials published for research and teaching by humanities staff at the University of Southampton, and worked with the university marketing department to repackage them as learning modules in the form of iTunesU course packages. This is a new way of presenting content through the University’s iTunes site and offers a model of engagement for academics to showcase and package their research and teaching work in appealing ways to a broad, global audience.

iTunesU is often seen as exclusively for high-quality video or audio recordings and it can be an intimidating place for researchers and teachers to consider when wishing to publish their work openly. The iTunes and You project has clarified and demystified the process for staff and provided clear guidance material to assist them in understanding how to publish their work in this way. In addition, the project has created an exemplar model of how nuggets of related research and teaching materials can be packaged as mini, bite-sized modules of learning and published with coherence through the iTunesU site (and other OER-sharing platforms).

A key aspect of the project has been to demonstrate that materials created for one particular discipline and educational context (Spanish language, migration studies) has wide applicability across the humanities and to a range of audiences in different parts of the world. OERs used for this project have been published by Southampton as part of the JISC-funded OpenLIVES project. The material consists of oral testimonies collected from Spanish migrants, and includes images, learning objects, and various teaching materials. Materials are in Spanish and English. Click on the link below to see the materials on iTunes:

Incredible people, incredible stories

Research Skills for oral history

Some of our key findings are:

Engagement with iTunesU can be effective if part of a ‘holistic approach’ to publishing open content. Our analysis of iTunesU content and site management revealed that it has advantages and limitations as a site for publishing open content. Its advantages include its reach to an international audience, its high production values (as a website), its value as a promotional site, and its reputation and requirement for high quality materials. It also has limitations as a site for publishing open content: there is limited facility for the addition and display of metadata on each file; iTunesU is hidden from principal search engines; use of the site is dependent on installation of Apple iTunes (this is possible at the University of Southampton only on request from our central IT services); management of the site requires staff dedicated to this purpose; there are perceptions amongst staff that iTunes is for audio and video material only, and that the site is only for hosting material of exceptionally high quality (which puts-off potential depositors). This mix of advantages and limitations means that iTunesU is perhaps best used as part of a ‘holistic’ OER approach, which would include promotion and use of other sharing sites, such as public social networking sites like YouTube and Flickr, as well as academic repositories like Jorum or HumBox. The high quality and promotional aspects of iTunes are important ways of raising awareness internationally about UK HE and UK HE resources and staff, and therefore should be part of any ‘open access toolkit’ in an institution.

Publishing on iTunesU offers a more supported way of engaging with open practice because users can make use of established university systems to help them navigate their way through issues around publishing open content. For example, most institutions have lecture-recording software widely available which facilitates the easy capture of content suitable for publication on iTunes. From our experience, material intended to go on to an iTunesU site is moderated for quality and copyright issues by another university staff member before being shared on the site, which offers reassurance to depositors fearful of infringing copyright, or doubtful over the value of the material (fears which are often noted as barriers to sharing).

iTunesU would benefit from more readily accessible web statistics. The key argument in promoting use of iTunes to staff and senior management is that it has impact demonstrable by web statistics. If Apple were to create an ‘administrator interface’ which gave access to a variety of download statistics, along the lines of Google Analytics, this would improve its take-up and impact with potential users.

Use of iTunesU has advantages and disadvantages for the sharing of open content; however, it is an important tool for publishing a range of different OERs and promoting the excellence of UK HE internationally. Effective use of the site requires active institutional support, encouragement and guidance, and we suggest that it is best used as part of a range of methods of engagement with OERs.

We would like to hear from you and your experience of iTunesU. Leave a comment below or contact us at llas@soton.ac.uk.

Kate Borthwick

LLAS Centre for languages, linguistics and area studies

Polyglots required if we want a place in the global academy

English cannot be the only acceptable language of scholarship, says Toby Miller. It’s arrogant, impractical and anti-intellectual

Times Higher Education

Why I'm glad I gave languages a second chance

Looking at my track record it's fair to say that I was an unlikely candidate for a modern languages degree. I achieved a B in French GCSE, and plummeted spectacularly when I received a D at AS-level. At parents evening my tutor said that I simply wasn't cut out for studying languages at an academic level.
Skip forwards four years and you'll find me writing from my desk in the University of Rosario in Bogota, Colombia. I'm on a placement year as part of my language degree which I am studying at the University of Leeds.

Full article in the Guardian 

Languages: the State of the Nation: new publication from the British Academy

Languages: the State of the Nation

Demand and Supply of Language Skills in the UK

The British Academy has today launched Languages: the State of the Nation. The report, prepared by Teresa Tinsley, outlines the baseline data on foreign language use and deficits in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Key findings from the report include:

·         There is strong evidence that the UK is suffering from a growing deficit in foreign language skills at a time when globally demand for language skills is expanding.

·         The range and nature of languages being taught is insufficient to meet current and future demand

·         Language skills are needed at all levels in the workforce, and not simply by an internationally-mobile elite

·         A weak supply of language skills is pushing down demand and creating a vicious circle of monolingualism

·         Languages spoken by British school children, in addition to English, represent a valuable future source of supply – if these skills can be developed appropriately.

These findings present us with cause for both cautious optimism and rising concern. Our diverse demographics and world-class higher education system provide us with the tools to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the future. But, too often, education policies are operating in isolation of demand. The report concludes that without action from government, employment and education sectors, we will be unable to meet our aspirations for growth and global influence.

Click here to download the Summary and Full Reports.

Islamic Studies Network project draws to a close

Since 2009 staff at LLAS have been working on the Islamic Studies Network, a project funded by HEFCE and overseen by the Higher Education Academy. The Network was established following on from a series of consultation meetings and research commissioned by HEFCE on Islamic Studies in Higher Education, including two reports by LLAS staff and colleagues at the then-Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. The Network brought together academics working in Islamic Studies from a wide range of disciplines, and provided practice-sharing and networking opportunities through events, project grants and publications. A full range of resources developed through the project, including teaching materials, research reports, event reports, case studies and model module outlines are available on the Network website.

One of the main aims of the Islamic Studies Network was to create a sustainable network of Islamic Studies practitioners to continue building on the work of the Network once the project funding period was over. We are therefore pleased to announce that planning is underway for the formal establishment of a British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS). The association will be a learned society and professional organisation focused on enhancing research and teaching about Islam and Muslim cultures and societies in UK higher education. It will provide a forum for academic exchange for scholars with an interest in any aspect of Islam and the Muslim world (including non-Muslim majority societies), and will act as an umbrella organisation for members working in a wide range of disciplines and geographical interest areas. To read more about the association please visit http://www.brais.ac.uk. The association is planning an inaugural conference in Edinburgh on 5-6 September 2013.

Lisa Bernasek, Academic Coordinator for the Islamic Studies Network

Modern languages lost for words over low intake

Two UK language departments may be forced to close their degree programmes because they recruited too few students for 2012-13, a lecturers' association has claimed.

James Coleman, chair of the University Council of Modern Languages, said that preliminary figures obtained from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show that acceptances to language degrees have dropped by more than 7 per cent compared with last year.

Full article:Times Higher Education

Cheaper lessons and US accent attract English language learners to the Philippines

Much cheaper lessons and a convincing US accent are bringing an increasing number of students to learn English in the Philippines.

The Philippines is fast becoming the world's low-cost English language teacher - with rapid increases in overseas students coming to learn English or study in English-speaking universities.

There might be other countries that people think about as a classic place to learn English, such as the UK, the US or Australia.
But there is one key reason that they are switching to the Philippines. It's much cheaper. And in the competitive market for language students, it means the Philippines is attracting people from countries such as Iran, Libya, Brazil and Russia.

Full story on BBC website

The SPEAQ project – where has this first year gone?

What is SPEAQ?

SPEAQ is a project funded by the European Commission to address issues related to quality assurance in HE. It stands for ‘Sharing Practice in Enhancing and Assuring Quality’. It is managed by Alison Dickens, Laurence Georgin and John Canning at the LLAS Centre and involves 9 partners across Europe.

What is it for?

We aim to connect three key quality circles, i.e. teacher, student and quality manager in order to share and enhance quality assurance practice in HE. We want to address a real concern that quality assurance can become ritualised rather than embedded in learning and teaching practice. We are hoping to develop new ideas on how to approach quality assurance within the institution providing evidence of how bringing together stakeholders in the quality process can lead to a wider and more meaningful interpretation of quality assurance.

What have we done so far?

In the first year of the project we have collected data through interactive workshops and focus groups involving students, teachers, administrators and quality managers in all partner institutions. The workshop model has been developed by two of the partners (Universities of Jyväskylä & Deusto) and has been used by all partners. It will be also run at the European Quality Assurance Forum conference in Estonia in November 2012. Following this, a final version will be translated and uploaded to the SPEAQ website. These workshops have been very interactive and have proven to be a useful way of encouraging discussion among staff and/or students.

We have also completed an initial data collection exercise through a series of student focus groups (facilitated by the European Students Union), meetings with institutional quality managers in the partner institutions and discussions with subject teachers in a range of disciplines, using a set of questions devised by the project team. Three synthesis reports, summarising the results from all partners, have been prepared and some key emerging themes have been identified: a need for better communication around quality issues, improvements in the collection and use of feedback, more engagement of students in quality enhancement, increased opportunities for sharing good practice, professional development for teachers, applied learning (including employability), balancing teaching with research agendas, sharing and collaborating with others outside the institution. It has been encouraging to see that some of the core aims of this project are reflected in this data, these being to connect the three quality circles and to give voice to the views of all stakeholders in the quality process.

We have also been busy disseminating our findings at international conferences (Belgrade, Istanbul, Cluj-Napoca) with two more scheduled in November 2012 (Tallinn, Malta). Once the project activities have been completed and the results of the institutional projects evaluated, an academic article will be written and submitted to an international journal.

What next?

Based on our findings, each partner institution will undertake a small project which will explore ways in which a more shared vision of quality assurance can be fostered at institutional and disciplinary level. This has already started and will end in June 2013.

Where can I find out more?

Go to our project blog: http://speaqproject.wordpress.com/

Alison Dickens, SPEAQ project director & Laurence Georgin, SPEAQ project manager

Over half of young Britons wish they had worked/ studied abroad

Fifty-four per cent of 18-24 year-olds feel their career prospects would have been better if they had studied or worked abroad, a British Council survey has found. 

Daily Telegraph

30 Britishisms used by Americans

The BBC Magazine's recent article about the Britishisation of American English prompted readers to respond with examples of their own - here are 30 British words and phrases that you've noticed being used in the US and Canada.

Full story on BBC news website

The West must start learning Chinese, says economist

China's growing importance on the world stage means that the West needs to start speaking its language, says economist Martin Jacques.

BBC News

Brazilian government uses indigenous language for the first time in anti-AIDS campaign

Brazil is using an indigenous language for the first in a campaign aimed at curbing violence against women and the spread of HIV.

The program includes folders warning that “violence or fear of violence increase women’s vulnerability to HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases” because women who fear violence can be forced to have unprotected sex.

Full article in Washington Post

Baroness Coussins speaks about MFL and Erasmus scheme in House of Lords

My Lords, I shall focus on what the report says about student mobility in relation to the Erasmus scheme and the teaching and learning of modern foreign languages. I declare an interest as chair of the All-Party Group on Modern Languages and vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Linguists.

Read full speech on Hansard

Seven-year-olds 'should learn Chinese'

 The British Council calls for primary school children to learn non-European languages.

The Independent

The British Council: friend or foe?

Educators working overseas complain that the venerable quango's business interests have turned it into a rival.

A few years ago, when the CfBT Education Trust, a non-profit organisation that runs schools and education services, was looking to expand its operations in Malaysia, its chief executive, Neil McIntosh, arranged a meeting with the local high commissioner. When he got there, though, he was disappointed to see that the commissioner had brought along a representative of one of CfBT's main competitors. "He was a bit put out that I should see the British Council in that light," says McIntosh.

Read the rest at The Guardian

New open resources published as part of FAVOR project

The LLAS-led FAVOR project is drawing to a close this month and is celebrating the publication of over 340 new open educational resources for language teaching and transition on www.languagebox.ac.uk

The JISC-funded project worked with part-time and hourly-paid language tutors to get them to publish a selection of their teaching resources as open, adaptable content. It also got them to create *NEW* resources to help explain and describe how languages are taught at HE, and give prospective students a ‘taste of’ language-learning at university.

There were about 25 tutors working on the project and materials cover at least 17 different languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Slovak, Latvian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Arabic, Swahili, Tigrinyan, Amharic, Finnish, Hungarian.

• Check out the online activities shared by University of Southampton tutors: Katy Heady for German and Bianca Belgiorno for Italian.

• Admire the beautiful kanga fabrics and proverbs for Swahili shared by Wambui from the School of Oriental and African Studies

• Study the examples of effective student feedback from Richard Galletly at Aston University

• Get into learning Finnish from Riitta-Liisa Valijarvi at UCL – I’ve already wiled away an enjoyable half hour on the loanwords quiz!

• Admire these beautiful and fascinating pictures of a Chinese market in Beijing from Dan Li at Newcastle University – they make me want to fill my house with giant calligraphy brushes and statues! Or learn some a Chinese song from Linda Cheng, also at Newcastle.

Tutors report that they have really enjoyed creating resources and making them available to the world. They will continue with open practice in their work and if you are keen to find out more, the project blog is at: www.thefavorproject.wordpress.com

There are still new FAVOR resources appearing on LanguageBox every day and all of them give a fascinating taste of language study in Higher Education. Have a browse and see what grabs your interest…

Kate Borthwick

Academic Coordinator, LLAS

New Zealand teachers visit Wales for Maori class tips

Four teachers from New Zealand have arrived in Wales to learn more about bilingual education in a two-week tour.

The visitors will take tips on how to boost Maori language lessons in their home country's schools.

BBC website

Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language Family

There are two competing hypotheses for the origin of the Indo-European language family. The conventional view places the homeland in the Pontic steppes about 6000 years ago. An alternative hypothesis claims that the languages spread from Anatolia with the expansion of farming 8000 to 9500 years ago. We used Bayesian phylogeographic approaches, together with basic vocabulary data from 103 ancient and contemporary Indo-European languages, to explicitly model the expansion of the family and test these hypotheses. We found decisive support for an Anatolian origin over a steppe origin. Both the inferred timing and root location of the Indo-European language trees fit with an agricultural expansion from Anatolia beginning 8000 to 9500 years ago. These results highlight the critical role that phylogeographic inference can play in resolving debates about human prehistory.

 

 

Bouckaert, Remco, Philippe Lemey, Michael Dunn, Simon J. Greenhill, Alexander V. Alekseyenko, Alexei J. Drummond, Russell D. Gray, Marc A. Suchard, and Quentin D. Atkinson. ‘Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language Family’. Science 337, no. 6097 (August 24, 2012): 957–960. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6097/957.full

English standards at universities being set below recommended levels

Nearly two in three UK universities are setting English language requirements below the recommended level for undergraduate students from outside the European Union, according to a Times Higher Education survey.

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which is one of the most commonly used tests and is partly owned by the British Council, recommends that a score of at least 6.5 is needed for any degree course.

Full article at:

Times Higher Education