The LAGB (Education Committee) welcomes abstract submissions for the
Themed Session: Linguistics and community languages in schools
Over one million UK school children speak another language in addition to English at home (Naldic, 2015). Despite the fact that the vast majority of state (86%) and independent (83%) schools report supporting community languages (Tinsley Report, 2019), a major recent report by the UK national academies nonetheless highlights the minimal impact that these languages have on language learning in mainstream UK schools:
There is a disconnect between mainstream education and community-based language learning. […] It is scarcely ever connected up with the learning done by the same children in mainstream schools. (The British Academy et al., 2019, 5)
Putting to one side the issue with language qualifications due to the Covid-19 crisis, entries for GCSE and A-level in community languages are slowly rising, unlike mainstream modern foreign language entries (Tinsley, 2017). As the UK addresses its so-called ‘languages crisis’ (Bowler 2020), there is huge potential for community languages to play a more central role in language learning in schools. Linguistics should also play a role in the transformation of languages. In this webinar, we welcome contributions which address the question of how linguistics can play a role in the improved integration and utilization of mainstream and community language study in schools. Possibilities include teaching about language variation/multilingualism in schools so that heritage speakers can better understand how and why their home language may differ from the standard variety, or approaches which help multilingual pupils capitalize on their knowledge of a home language in the English or languages classroom. Contributions are welcome in relation to any community language.
