Dear LAGB members,

*** Please disseminate widely ***

The LAGB is cooperating with some other learned societies to prepare recommendations on the acceptance of languages A-levels in university admissions processes. Currently, there is no standard guidance or centralised policy, and some universities/programmes state that they will not accept A-levels from "native speakers," in at least one case including those who may be perceived from biographical details on their UCAS form to be native speakers. Such policies have obvious potential for negative effects - and disproportionately so - on the take-up of academic study of languages not commonly taught in UK schools, such as Polish, Urdu, and many more.

From previous work on this issue, it seems that admissions offices are often simply not aware of the scale of academic work and achievement that are needed to develop one's literacy, vocabulary, control of register, and other competencies to A-level standard in a language, even if it has partially been acquired outside a school context. When approached individually with information, programmes have generally been quick to change their policies. However, it is now necessary to develop standard guidance in the HE sector, and the LAGB is aiming to contribute summaries of relevant linguistic research to this larger effort.

Please visit, fill out, tweet, and send to relevant colleagues the following survey:

https://forms.gle/zPHyQXVuoePFGxck6

We will start collating responses on 31 October.

With this web form, I'm appealing for help in:

* crowdsourcing some key references or lit-review pointers on heritage language development that illustrate, preferably in a UK context, the gap between heritage speakers' skills and what is required from an A-level. This can be low-key and/or consist of pointers that are obvious to specialists in the field (of whom I am not one, hence the request for help).

* assembling a list of colleagues who would like to receive updates on this project, with the option to be involved.

Thanks very much in advance for your help. Please feel free to contact me individually at yuni.kim@surrey.ac.uk (please note that this is a new email address).

Best wishes,

Yuni