The next session in this series takes place on Wednesday 13 November. Details are below, and you can register here: 

https://newcastleuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqd-qqqT4tEt17L3J3CQcnUclo_6tK0sqT

Please share as widely as possible! 

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Rethinking language qualifications in the UK university admission process: the case of native vs non-native speakers.

Eva Eppler, Zara Fahim, and Yuni Kim, 1pm Wednesday 13 November 2024

This paper calls for a re-evaluation of university admission policies regarding the acceptance of MFL A-Level qualifications, particularly those in home, community and heritage languages. Despite the increasing linguistic diversity permeating UK schools, students face uncertainty regarding the recognition of these qualifications by universities, as evidenced by the ubiquity of the question, “Can native-language A levels be accepted?”, in university admissions FAQs. Indeed, a policy gap exists here: there remains no national guidelines (Ofqual, 2017), with different universities having disparate policies – including seemingly ad-hoc ones on individual, non-language-related courses – and no unified, evidence-based framework. A study of 319 recent school leavers (Fahim, 2023) alongside a comprehensive review of the literature on heritage language acquisition (e.g., Carreira & Kagan, 2011; Kupisch et al. 2013; Montrul & Polinsky, 2019; Rothman 2009) highlight i) a wide spectrum of proficiency levels among students who acquire non-dominant languages outside formal academic settings; ii) a misalignment between “native speaker” competences as assessed in A-Level exams and those developed in heritage-language contexts; and iii) the potential discriminatory impact of university admission policies on native-language A-Levels on the uptake of languages in schools by young people from ethnic minorities – a demographic already underrepresented within the post-compulsory MFL classroom (Fahim, 2023). Because “native speaker” status does not define a scientifically coherent group in terms of linguistic skills, we argue that a reassessment of policy perspectives based on this empirically flawed “native vs. non-native” dichotomy is indispensable to promote a more inclusive and equitable university admission process. 

Eva Duran Eppler is a linguist whose main interest lies in the multilingualism of minority communities which she has explored from sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and educational angels. She is Reader at the University of Roehampton and chair of the Committee for Linguistics in Education. She is currently engaged in a UKRI funded project on endangered minority languages (RISE UP).

Zara Fahim is an AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities PhD researcher in Linguistics (Modern Languages) at the University of Nottingham, focusing on language contact and emerging vernaculars in diverse urban contexts. She has previously specialised in comparative Romance syntax and dialectology; and remains dedicated to MFL outreach and widening participation (particularly among minority groups). She tweets on X at: @zarafahim15.

Yuni Kim is Strategic Research Development Manager at the University of Surrey, and was formerly a Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Manchester and Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex. Her research interests are phonology, grammar, and documentation of minority and Indigenous languages.