scholarly journals 7. UK Language Policy Quo vadis? Language Learning in the UK post Brexit

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Ursula Lanvers
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals “No, no Maama! Say ‘Shaatir ya Ouledee Shaatir’!” Children’s agency in language use and socialisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 771-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Said ◽  
Hua Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Family Relationship ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Family Language Policy ◽  
Children’S Agency ◽  
Family Language ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
The Uk

Aims and objectives: This paper investigates how children in multilingual and transnational families mobilise their multiple and developing linguistic repertoires creatively to assert their agency in language use and socialisation, and why these acts of agency are conducive to successful maintenance of the so-called “home”, “community” or “minority” language. Methodology: Close, qualitative analysis of mealtime multiparty conversations is carried out to examine children’s agency in language use and socialisation. Data and analysis: Twelve hours of mealtime conversations within one Arabic and English-speaking multilingual family in the UK were recorded over a period of eight months. The excerpts selected for analysis in this paper illustrate how agency is enacted in interaction. Findings: The data analyses of the family’s language practices reveal both their flexible language policy and the importance the family attaches to Arabic. The children in this family are fully aware of the language preferences of their parents and are capable of manipulating that knowledge and asserting their agency through their linguistic choices to achieve their interactional goals. Originality: This paper explores how Arabic is maintained as a minority language by second and third generations of Arabic-speaking immigrants in the UK through close analysis of conversations. Significance: The findings contribute to the current discussions of family language policy and maintenance by demonstrating children’s agentive and creative roles in language use and socialisation. Three factors are identified as the reason for the successful language learning, use and maintenance of Arabic: firstly, a family language policy that has a positive multilingual outlook; secondly, family relationship dynamics that connect and bond family members; and thirdly, the children’s highly developed ability to understand their parents’ language preferences.

scholarly journals Language Legislation and Policy in the uk and Ireland: Different Aspects of Territoriality in a ‘Celtic’ Context

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Scottish Gaelic ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Language Legislation ◽  
The Uk

In spite of the long-term dominance in Britain and Ireland of English, other indigenous languages continue to be spoken, and in relatively recent years several of those languages have benefited not only from a more coherent and supportive language policy but also from significant language legislation. One of the interesting features of these other indigenous languages is that, although strongly associated with rural ‘heartlands’ in the particular jurisdictions with which they are associated, they are also spoken in other parts of those jurisdictions, and, indeed, in other parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland. In this article, the ways in which the concept of territoriality has impacted upon legislation and on broader policy for two of these languages, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, will be considered.

Teaching and learning French – A tale of desire in the humanities

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-140
Author(s):  
Catriona Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Personal Perspective ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Close Textual Analysis ◽  
The Uk ◽  
French Language Learning

This article considers the way we talk about learning and teaching the humanities in higher education in the UK. By using the tools of the arts and humanities within the scholarship of learning and teaching, and examining a personal perspective, the author explores the transformational impact of French language learning and teaching. Close textual analysis of literary language learning memoirs highlight the sensual and physical effects of language learning that can remain muted in our everyday conversations. As a result, the author suggests that rather than lament the death of the humanities in 21st century higher education, learning and teaching a language offers a pedagogy of desire that embodies the transformation aspect of our disciplines, as we deal with the business of being human.

The Role of Social Networking Sites for Language Learning in UK Higher Education

2014 ◽  
pp. 1745-1764
Author(s):  
Billy Brick
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Text Chat ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

This paper seeks to assess the potential for Social Networking Sites (SNSs) to play a role in language learning in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector. These sites are characterised by certain features including learning materials, synchronous and asynchronous video and text chat facilities, a peer review feature, and some sites also incorporate an award system, in the form of points (http://www.livemocha.com) or ‘berries' (http://www.busuu.com). This serves to motivate participants by rewarding them for their progress and for their peer review activities. In order to consider if, or how, to integrate SNSs into the UK HE curriculum it is important to consider the views of practitioners and learners towards such sites and whether they consider them to have a potential role in HE language education. The paper will report on the outcomes of two small research projects which have sought to establish the view of both practitioners and students towards SNSs in the HE context. When considered overall the practitioners were more positive about the site than the learners.

Immersive Education Spaces using Open Wonderland From Pedagogy through to Practice

2011 ◽  
pp. 190-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gardner ◽  
Adela Gánem-Gutiérrez ◽  
John Scott ◽  
Bernard Horan ◽  
Vic Callaghan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Background Information ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

This chapter presents a case study of the use of virtual world environment in UK Higher Education. It reports on the activities carried out as part of the SIMiLLE (System for an Immersive and Mixed reality Language Learning) project to create a culturally sensitive virtual world to support language learning (funded by the UK government JISC program). The SIMiLLE project built on an earlier project called MiRTLE, which created a mixed-reality space for teaching and learning. The aim of the SIMiLLE project was to investigate the technical feasibility and pedagogical value of using virtual environments to provide a realistic socio-cultural setting for language learning interaction. The chapter begins by providing some background information on the Wonderland platform and the MiRTLE project, and then outlines the requirements for SIMiLLE, and how these requirements were supported through the use of a virtual world based on the Open Wonderland virtual world platform. The chapter then presents the framework used for the evaluation of the system, with a particular focus on the importance of incorporating pedagogy into the design of these systems, and how to support good practice with the ever-growing use of 3D virtual environments in formalized education. Finally, the results from the formative and summative evaluations are summarized, and the lessons learnt are presented, which can help inform future uses of immersive education spaces within Higher Education.

scholarly journals Parents as stakeholders: Language management in urban Galician homes

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anik Nandi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Language Revitalisation

AbstractMacro-level policy makers, perceived as stakeholders of language management, employ a range of language policy strategies to legitimise hegemonic control over meso- (i.e. family) and micro- (i.e. individual) level language ideologies (Cassels-Johnson 2013). However, language policies of an individual are often difficult to detect because they are implicit, subtle, informal, and often hidden from the public eye, and therefore frequently overlooked by language policy researchers and policy makers. The primary focus of this study is to investigate how individual, as well as collective linguistic practices of Galician parents act as language governmentality (Foucault 1991) measures influencing their children’s language learning. Drawing from multiple ethnographic research tools, including observations, in-depth fieldwork interviews and focus group discussions with parents, this paper demonstrates that in Galicia’s language shift-induced shrinking Galician-speaker pool, pro-Galician parents can play an important role in the language revitalisation process. The goal is also to ascertain whether these parents’ grassroots level interrogation of the dominant Castilian discourse takes the form of bottom-up language policies.

BAAL/CUP Seminar 2016: New plurilingual pathways for integration: Immigrants and language learning in the 21st century

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-296
Author(s):  
Nicola Bermingham ◽  
Gwennan Higham
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Round Table Discussion ◽  
Cost Action ◽  
Intercultural Studies ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Research

This seminar was held at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, on 27 May 2016. It was jointly organised by BAAL members Nicola Bermingham (Heriot-Watt University) and Gwennan Higham (Swansea University) in collaboration with COST Action IS1306 New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges, and supported by the Intercultural Research Centre and the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University. Ten papers and two keynote speeches were given. The keynote speakers were Professor Alison Phipps (Glasgow University) and Professor Máiréad Nic Craith (Heriot-Watt University). A round-table discussion was also held, with invited speakers including Ms Mandy Watts from Education Scotland; Professor Bernadette O'Rourke, chair of COST Action IS1306; Dr Cassie Smith Christmas, University of the Highlands and Islands; and Dr Kathryn Jones, Director of Language Policy and Research at the Welsh Centre for Language Planning.

Compulsory African language learning at a South African university

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Rudwick
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
African Language ◽  
The South ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Vernacular Language

Abstract While many universities in the world are making provisions to include the English language in their institutional structure, the South African University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is opposing the hegemony of English in its institution. The University has launched a language policy and planning (LPP) strategy that makes provisions first to incorporate the vernacular language Zulu as language of learning and teaching, and second, to promote it as a subject. In this vein, the institution recently made an unprecedented decision for the South African higher education system. Since the first semester of 2014, a specific Zulu language module is a mandatory subject for undergraduate students who have no proficiency in the language. Although considered a watershed moment among many African language promoters, the mandatory ruling is fiercely discussed and debated in the institution and beyond. Theoretically grounded in Language Management Theory (LMT) and empirically based on semi-ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the interplay between macro and micro language dynamics at UKZN in the context of the mandatory Zulu module. In juxtaposing interview discourses of language policy stakeholders with those of Zulu lecturers, the study reveals a stark discrepancy between macro and micro language management at this university. The article argues that this mismatch between the language policy intents and actual practices on the ground is symptomatic for South Africa’s language policy in education being shaped more by ideological interests than by pedagogical regards.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document