Panel questions

The second half of the 'Investing in Our Languages' symposium comprised a lively panel debate. Below is a list of questions that were composed by the audience. These were divided into six categories: teaching and learning, business/economic, youth perspective, community cohesion, policy, and other.

Teaching and learning issues

  • How can we get Headteachers to value and understand children's bilingualism?
  • How can we convince leaders in education of the importance of the messages about the advantages of bilingualism given that many of them have limited experience of languages learning?
  • How can we persuade headteachers to enable their pupils to learn their community language?
  • Given that complementary schools are bilingual contexts what kind of curriculum and pedagogy needs to be developed for second/third generation young people learning a community language?
  • Shouldn't ALL primary school teacher trainees now be receiving language education as class-teachers of the future?
  • How can the development of extended services support partnerships between complementary and mainstream schools?
  • How can the Our Languages be fully embraced within education across the UK? And how will we know when this has happened?
  • How can schools develop policies to encourage the appreciation of the value of community languages? How could such policies counter the perception that language learning is difficult?
  • Encouraging the learning and awareness of community languages among the monoglot school population, and the general community.
  • Language diploma - what is the perceived level of demand for the diploma?
  • Accreditation - One of the key objectives of the National Languages Strategy was to provide a recognition system to give credit for community languages. Despite the development of Asset, progress has been very slow - how can we meet this key objective?
  • How do we train enough teachers quickly enough to meet the demand for languages such as Chinese? Won't demand grow more quickly than supply?
  • How can we ensure that teachers of community languages are well trained?
  • How can we reconcile the need for continuous teacher education and the lack of resources to supplementary schools and in general language learning entitlement in schools?
  • How can we ensure a diversity of languages learned/taught/spoken alongside the need for consistent and coherent learning of languages?
  • Isn't it the case that there's a real lack of free courses for adults who already have another language and would like to learn English? What can be done about this?
  • How do you get young English-speaking people to study a community language as well as or instead of French, German or Spanish?

Business/economic issues

  • Should students be encouraged to focus only on languages which are likely to be of use in a business/employment sense?
  • How do we make sure that languages are able to fulfil the potential they have to contribute to the legacy of the 2012 Olympics? At the moment they don't seem to feature.
  • How do we make the government and policymakers hear the messages about the importance of languages and how do we get them to appreciate how much we are losing out by not fulfilling our potential?
  • As well as learning particular languages/economic reasons, can we encourage general language awareness and skills to prepare for the unexpected? E.g. Learning French and Gujarati at school, but getting a job in Greece.

Youth perspective

  • Some younger students and young adults still have the attitude that community languages are 'not cool!'. What can be done to win them over?
  • How can we make multilingualism 'cool'?
  • How can we make learning a community language "cool", "sexy", and "hip"?
  • Making languages 'cool'!
  • From a pupils perspective, what kind of provision for learning community languages would be ideal?
  • How do you motivate pupils to be involved in learning a language which they may see as being no value to them? (I.e. if a community language is not their language).
  • How should young people be encouraged to take up languages - any examples of good practice?

Community cohesion issues

  • What more can/should be done to encourage family learning i.e. how can these projects be extended beyond traditional school?
  • How can we get headteachers to recognise the links between the duty to promote community cohesion (and ECM) and community languages?
  • To what level are mainstream schools aware of the role they are expected to play in supporting community cohesion?
  • In what ways can the new requirement on schools to promote cohesion help to promote community languages?
  • To what extent does the panel advocate the teaching of community languages to English first language speakers at least to reach a rough level in speaking and listening to promote neighbourhood cohesion?
  • In wider UK, opportunities to acknowledge value of indigenous UK languages Welsh Gaelic? Valuing immigrant languages can open eyes to indigenous cultures and their values.
  • The obstacles to integrating the reach of community languages into the education system have remained largely unchanged for 30 years. At its heart there seems to be a lack of trust. Would you agree, and how can fears be overcome?
  • There is an argument against the promotion of bi/multi lingualism that is put forward on social cohesion - and this is that, unless "foreigners" integrate and learn English to the exclusion of other languages, it might lead to a lack of social cohesion or even the spread of "terrorist activities". What are the thoughts of the panel?
  • Impact of community languages on community cohesion? Does the first support and encourage the other?
  • How can Key opinion formers (especially the media) be encouraged to see plurilingualism as an opportunity not a threat?
  • Do people/policy makers see community languages as a barrier to community cohesion? How can we move thinking on?

Policy issues

  • How can we dispel the myth (perpetuated in media and politics) that speaking a community language at home is problematic for success in mainstream educational contexts?
  • How close are we to meeting the aspirations of the Barcelona agreement of Mother Tongue + 2 in England and in Europe more generally? In MT + 2 do community languages count?
  • How do you overcome the resistance of politicians to engage with the languages agenda?
  • How can we make a place in mainstream education for long-term language learning/steady progress through to fluency, as opposed to repeated 'tasting' + 'awareness raising'?
  • Is it possible, desirable and practical for all trainee teachers to learn another language so that all our teachers are bilingual?
  • If a main objective of 'Our Languages'/community languages is to improve/ increase cohesion, then surely the teaching of these languages must be compulsory in all schools rather than only occurring in complementary schools?
  • A greater percentage of pupils from the private sector now do a GCSE/A Level in a language than in the maintained sector. Will this lead to "linguistic elitism"?
  • Should the government have a policy on which languages should be taught in schools? If so which? If not, how to introduce a wider range than French, German and Spanish?
  • What policy changes in the UK would the panel members like to see following on the success of the 'Our Languages' project? What comes next?
  • The 'Our Languages' project has achieved a huge amount in two years. It is hugely wasteful for the programme to stop at this point. What is the likelihood of funding being made available to build on progress made so far?
  • What can be done to ensure the continuation of the work of 'Our Languages' and to avoid a situation where the project is buried without a trace?
  • In one sentence, what would be the DCSF's mission statement be regarding languages in the UK?
  • Would it be possible for all Local Authorities to be encouraged to have an office responsible for development of facilities for complementary schools?
  • (1) How do you convince the general public that community languages are an 'unsung secret'? (2) How do you make decision makers at a local level aware of the changes in the languages spoken over the last two decades?
  • What needs to happen at policy level to change attitudes about community languages among (1) educational leaders, (2) parents, (3) media?
  • The current official frameworks for languages teaching (new NC for MFLs) make no mention of bilingual learners and their particular language needs. Is this an inclusive approach?
  • Comment on the relationship between 'learning community languages' and community cohesion. Thank you.
  • What happens to this project next?
  • What does the panel see as Ofsted's role on inspections that will contribute to the promotion of 'Our Languages' strategy on community cohesion?

Other issues

  • Eliminating the stereotype: ideas please on how to engage UK-born monolingual parents in language-learning at a time when adult education is so demoralised and 'English is enough' prevails?
  • Would immigrant (monolinguals) be more encouraged to learn English if their languages were valued in our society and education system? (If they didn't fear losing their culture).
  • UK media - both press and broadcasting - are hostile to languages and present multilingualism as a problem not a resource. How do we change that and undermine the negative influence?
  • Next steps: What mechanisms are in place to disseminate this project beyond complementary schools? An opportunity is available through the Extended Services in schools but requires some leadership.
  • How could we organise events such as these to avoid preaching to the converted and include other colleagues?
  • Are we happy that we have developed an agreed definition of 'community languages' that enable policy makers to channel resources appropriately towards sustainable initiatives to support plurilingualism?