More students choose languages in broader curriculum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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