The case for languages
We are at an extraordinary moment in human history. Cooperation within and across borders is vital as we work to solve global challenges. Clear and precise communication is more crucial than ever before to the health and security of every nation.
(British Academy et al, 2020, P2)
In our increasingly global world, being able to engage with and communicate in different languages and operate interculturally are essential life skills for all. The advantages and benefits of language learning for children and young people cannot be underestimated. This section explores some of the key arguments for language learning and why it is a vital aspect of learning for children and young people.
Languages matter. Our language shapes our world and our sense of self. Whether we are a speaker of English or Gaelic, a learner of Spanish, German or French, a speaker of Scots, a speaker of Polish and Urdu or a user of British Sign Language, the languages and the cultural identities we explore and develop, are, or become part of who we are and how we see ourselves. Learning experiences which are language rich, recognise the vital importance of languages for all and create space for them to be celebrated, embraced, and encouraged.
Language learning is far greater than just language use. Having skills in languages shows that you can think multilaterally, engage with different perspectives, are invested in your own development and that you are able to embrace and cope with new challenging contexts. Whatever path we take in life, languages are an essential part of our toolkit and broaden who we are and what we are capable of achieving.
Being language learners makes us language aware. The more we explore and engage in language learning, the more aware we become of our own language, the languages and cultures of others; of how we communicate and how others communicate with us. Excellent language learning develops this awareness and helps us to develop strategies, interpersonal skills, and the confidence to engage effectively and positively with the world around us.
Language learning is empowering and life enhancing. It has the potential to open up opportunities which transform how we see ourselves and how we relate to other people, places, and cultures. Through language learning, our place in the world is not confined to our local circumstances and we open ourselves up to global opportunities.
Language learning improves our communication skills. Understanding what it means to communicate in a different language, enhances our awareness of how we communicate and in turn can help to develop our sense of empathy. Engaging in someone else’s language shows that you are open-minded, interested and that you care.
Language learning broadens our perspectives. Learning about other languages and cultures provides us not only with the opportunity to travel, explore and enjoy other perspectives but also provide us with a mirror context on our own culture, languages, and experiences. This helps us to better understand our own attitudes and how these develop and also helps us to deepen our understanding of how we tackle challenges and find solutions.
Global communication for global solutions. The challenges for our world are global challenges which require global solutions. Issues such as health, the environment, sustainability and, poverty, require people who can work and communicate multilingually and interculturally.
Language learning supports literacy development. By reading and writing in different languages, we draw on and develop transferable literacy skills. As we read in a new language, we decode words and phrases, refer back to our other known languages, form predictions and create visuals of meaning. When writing in other languages, we use our other languages to develop crosslinguistic skills such as applying knowledge about language (e.g. word order), spelling or writing systems and planning and organising our texts. By developing our understanding of the impact of language learning on literacy, practitioners are better placed to develop more integrated approaches which enhance learning.
Multilingualism is the global norm and a highly valued skill. It is estimated that over half of the world’s population speak two or more languages. The 2019 Scottish Government Pupil Census showed that 1 in 10 of our pupils speak a language other than English at home: a figure which continues to increase year on year. By ensuring that all of our learners have the chance to develop language skills, we equip them with the tools they need to fully participate in today and tomorrow’s world.
English is not enough. English has become a global lingua-franca and is one of the main languages of the internet, global business, science, and diplomacy. As an anglophone country, there is a temptation therefore, to think that this somehow excuses us from learning other languages and that we do not need to worry as everyone else speaks English. This mindset, however, is problematic on several fronts. Only an estimated 20% of the world’s population speak English as a first or second language (Szmigiera, 2021) so this leaves around 80% of the global population, who do not. The skills and cognitive benefits which come with learning languages extend far beyond simply communicating with others. When we understand the full potential of this, it becomes clear that we do ourselves and our learners a disservice by not engaging with the opportunities, skills and learning which languages bring. We have a deeper understanding of our own language when we develop our wider language skills as language learning contributes to our literacy (see Literacy above), our communication skills and supports us to become more language aware. If we do not understand the experience of speaking to someone using a language we have learned, and of operating interculturally, it makes it more difficult for us to relate to and communicate in a multilingual world. This in turn brings possible implications for us as a society, economically and in terms of how we see ourselves and how others see us.
These points are reiterated by the UK-wide National Academies in their report, “Languages in the UK: A call for action”
In our globalized world, there is even an element of truth in the claim that ‘monolingualism is the illiteracy of the 21st century’. If we want to enhance both our engagement with the rest of the world and our national social cohesion, we need our citizens to be better at languages other than English and to value them more highly — European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, South American, and indigenous UK languages (such as Scots, Gaelic, and Welsh). Some languages have more strategic importance than others, but that does not make them more valuable in every respect, since learning any language, including ancient ones, brings multiple benefits. Having competence in more than just English gives citizens windows onto other worlds; it broadens their mental horizons; it does so in a visceral way, by teaching them to produce unfamiliar sounds; and it makes them more likely to be curious and respectful when encountering other cultures and communities, as almost everyone does on a daily basis in the UK, where hundreds of languages are spoken.
(UK Royal Academies, 2019, P3)
The UK and Scotland need speakers and users of other languages to thrive. The CBI report, entitled ‘Educating for the Modern World’, highlighted the increasing importance of language learning to enable post-Brexit UK to secure global trading deals. It states:
The need for languages has been heightened by the UK’s departure from the European Union. To achieve the Government’s ambition for a ‘Global Britain’, we have to get language teaching in our schools right. If there is a lack of wider provision of foreign languages for children, UK business will suffer and will be unable to seize global opportunities effectively. Learning a foreign language can greatly benefit young people by providing exposure to other cultures, fostering pupils’ curiosity and deepening their understanding of the world. There is much to be gained from being able to express thoughts in another language, including ‘the language of business’. (CBI, 2019, P13)
All of these arguments are critical and lie at the heart of understanding why languages matter in our schools. They depend, however, on high quality learning and teaching and on learning experiences which are relevant and meaningful to children and young people, building skills they can achieve and apply.
References
British Academy, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Australian Academy of the Humanities, The Royal Society of Canada (2020) Languages in Global Context: An International Call to Action, available at: https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2020-11/Joint-Statement-on-Languages.pdf
British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society (2019) Languages in the UK: a call for action, London: The British Academy.
CBI (2019) Education and Learning for the Modern World: CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey report 2019,
Szmigiera, M. (2021) The most spoken languages worldwide 2021, Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/266808/the-most-spoken-languages-worldwide/
The development of this resource
The sections of this tool are intended to provide a policy, research and practice background in key areas relevant to learning and teaching modern languages in Scottish primary and secondary schools to help you to build your confidence in each area. Key areas include: leadership, curriculum, language learning, contexts & culture and learner experience. Our tool does not provide modules for language learning – rather, further online resources for developing language skills in particular languages are available at the bottom of this section on professional learning, with these resources intended to complement local authority provision. Core pedagogies for language learning (embedding language, discrete language learning and interdisciplinary learning) are covered in the ‘language pedagogy’ tile. This professional learning tile also includes a section on Content and Language Integrated Learning, an advanced language pedagogy used in Gaelic-medium education and in some interdisciplinary modern language learning in Scottish schools, which you may wish to explore in your own future practice.
This self-evaluation tool has been developed with ten primary and secondary teachers, who worked with Moray House School of Education and the South East Improvement Collaborative Local Authorities over the course of the 2019-20 school year. It was informed by European frameworks for language teacher education (e.g. A guide to teacher competencies for languages in education, 2019), as well as key Scottish documents, such as Curriculum for Excellence Modern Languages, HGIOS 4, and Education Scotland advice on 1+2 languages. The development of the tool has also been informed by research underlining the importance of teacher CLPL in languages to pupil learning experiences and outcomes. Bleichenbacher et al. (2019) note:
‘Language teacher competences are crucial to the quality and effectiveness of language education. Successful language learning depends in large part on the knowledge, skills and attitudes of language teachers.’
We hope that the present self-evaluation tool is useful in developing your knowledge, skills and confidence as a language teacher.
References:
Bleichenbacher L., Goullier F., Rossner R., Schröder-Sura A. (2019), A guide to teacher competences for languages in education, Council of Europe (European Centre for Modern Languages), Graz www.ecml.at/guidetoteachercompetences
How to use this tool
Introduction
Professional learning is central to the principles of the teaching profession and features heavily in all the professional standards that support our learning and teaching practice. Any professional learning that is undertaken should therefore be based on rigorous self-evaluation processes and should ensure that there will be an impact on both self and others. Self-evaluation involves asking deep and searching questions about your professional knowledge, understanding, skills and practice. As part of this process your self-evaluation should be supported by evidence from a range of sources drawn from day-to-day learning and teaching.
This tool has been designed to support and enable individuals, groups and whole schools to reflect on the current situation in their contexts, access current research and to identify next steps of development for all.
Within each area of TILES, policy, research and practice is explored to support practitioners to develop their understanding and knowledge in that area. Support through reflective ‘How are we doing?’ questions is provided and then guidance is offered through exemplars and direction to resources to scaffold next steps.
It is not an expectation that this tool will be used as a single point of staff development but rather that it should be utilised as a support to ongoing professional reflection and development for continuous school improvement. Therefore sections should be accessed, and returned to, on a regular basis.
By following the GTCS guidance that professional learning is both collaborative and should have an enquiring stance, this tool will build capacity in schools by providing opportunities for skills and knowledge acquisition for staff and provide a shared approach to pedagogical learning.
Navigating the Site:
To access the tool, you can either scroll down from the Home page to the tiles below or click on the Menu in the top right-hand corner and select Self-Evaluation Tool from there.
You will see that the TILES tool is organised into six themes: Leadership, Language Learning, Curriculum, Contexts and Culture, Learner Experience and Professional Learning. The clickable tiles allow you to navigate to each section. You can also use the drop-down menu to access a particular theme directly.
A full clickable overview of the TILES themes and sub-sections is also available to download here: TILES Sections Overview
When you access each theme, you will find a longer top TILE with a Research Summary in that area. In the ‘Developing our practice’ section, you will see more clickable tiles. These tiles are the main content of each subsection of the self-evaluation tool.
Each subsection is colour coded and has the same format which includes:
• An introduction with three ‘How are we doing? self-evaluation statements
• Links that take you to each of the key themes within the subsection
• Content of the key themes
• How are we doing? self-evaluation statements
• ‘Record your practice’ section which has a downloadable PDF template to support self-evaluation and planning for next steps
• References section (upon which the subsection text has been based)
• Resources section
The References and Resources sections contain links to online references and/or resources. Finally, each subsection contains links to any associated sections. You can use the links to navigate to other sections or alternatively, you can use the main menu option on the right hand to navigate to different themes and subsections within the tool.
Using the tool for the first time:
• Identify a theme that you would like to focus on.
• Navigate to the theme you have selected.
• Read the introduction and research for the theme to help you to identify the strand that you would like to explore further.
• You should then use the tiles to access the relevant strand.
• When you have clicked on the strand of your choice, read the introduction and ‘How are we doing’ statements.
• Begin to consider your own practice and the practice of your group, department and/or school in relation to these statements.
• Discuss these with colleagues, use the HGIOS scale to support your discussions.
• Read the content of each of the key themes for your chosen strand.
• Critically reflect on the self-evaluation statements after this reading. Use the downloadable self-evaluation PDF to help you with this process.
• Use the HGIOS scale to determine where you are and to begin to identify clear priorities for improvement. Use the references and resources section to support with this.
• Use the content of this subsection to help you to plan specific actions with a clear timeline. This will allow you to identify and achieve the planned impact that you desire for pupils, your practice, department and/or school.
• You should regularly review and evaluate your progress with your plans. Remember to use the TILES tool to support with this.
