More Russian teachers in schools than pupils

NEW figures reveal there are 100 registered Russian language teachers in Scotland, yet only 13 people took a Higher in the subject last year.
Pressure is growing for the language to be treated in the same way as Chinese, which has resource centres across Scotland allowing councils to share the facilities.



The Scotsman

Learning to play a musical instrument can help children to learn languages

Music lessons could have a direct impact on a child's ability to learn languages by affecting the mind's sensitivity to all sounds, scientists have claimed.

Tests revealed that exposure to music can be beneficial to the brain in its developmental stages, and would have advantages for all children, including those who are dyslexic and autistic.

Telegraph

Rwanda switching from French to English

At the Kacyiru 1 primary school in Rwanda it's not the pupils chanting "this is my ear, this is my hair" and pointing to the board as they learn rudimentary English. It's the teachers.

The Telegraph

Bilingualism starts before birth

It may not be obvious, but hearing two languages regularly during pregnancy puts infants on the road to bilingualism by birth. According to new findings in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, infants born to bilingual mothers (who spoke both languages regularly during pregnancy) exhibit different language preferences than infants born to mothers speaking only one language.

News report PHYSORG.com

The trials of being an MFL supply teacher

I qualified as a teacher of modern languages in 2005 just as my subject lost its mandatory GCSE status and my specialism (German) was giving way to Spanish.

The Guardian

UCL Centre Lanches youtube mini-lecture "The truth about sign language"

People outside the deaf community may not know that the regional variations found in spoken language also exist in sign language.

Students offered little incentive to study languages and counts for little in the UK job market

The plight of the British polyglot

Students are offered little incentive to study languages – and when they do, they find it counts for little in the UK job market

The Guardian