« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Policies
The aim of this section is to offer some discussion of the initiatives that are in place and to indicate the direction of current policy and support for languages and language learning.
English
We need to recognise that English is the main language in Scotland and that the great majority of services are offered in English. The importance of supporting the acquisition of English language skills - whether for English speakers, for those for whom English is not their first language or for those who are unable to acquire English language skills because of a disability - is at the core of participation and equality in our society. Without adequate English language skills, people can neither fully participate in their local and national communities nor are they given the opportunity to meet their full potential.
Without acquiring a sound basis of knowledge and skills in literacy, children will not be able to benefit fully from school education and will face serious difficulties in reaching their full potential. This is recognised in the first of the five national priorities in education - to raise standards of educational attainment for all in schools, especially in the core skills of literacy and numeracy, and to achieve better levels in national measures of achievement including examination results.
We have a number of ongoing initiatives to improve attainment in literacy such as the Home Reading Initiative and Scotland Reads. In addition, Development Officers in Learning and Teaching Scotland work closely with the Local Authority Literacy Coordinators Network to share information and professional expertise.
The Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland ( ALNIS) report was published in 2001 and sets out the strategy for adult literacy and numeracy in Scotland which articulates a vision of a modern vibrant Scotland where all people living, working or studying in Scotland are equipped to reach their goals in life. Improving literacy skills can provide the first steps to learning other languages, promoting understanding in a multi-cultural society and accessing a whole range of life opportunities.
English for Speakers of Other Languages ( ESOL)
The provision of high quality, accessible and affordable English for Speakers of Other Languages ( ESOL) supports the Scottish Executive's ambitions for growing the economy and encouraging active citizenship in a diverse and pluralistic society. We have therefore developed an adult ESOL strategy for Scotland, which we plan to launch shortly. Our vision is that all Scottish residents for whom English is not a first language have the opportunity to access high quality English language provision so that they can acquire the language skills to enable them to participate in Scottish life: in the workplace, family, further study, and in the wider community, society and economy of Scotland. ESOL also has an important part to play in supporting other initiatives like Fresh Talent, and as mentioned previously, can enable in-migrants to contribute to the best of their potential to the Scottish economy and society.
These language skills are central to giving people a democratic voice and supporting them to contribute to the society in which they live. The ESOL strategy seeks to provide a blueprint for the direction and structure of ESOL provision in Scotland and support for the ESOL teaching community in its delivery of, and further professionalisation for, ESOL in the 21st century. Coherent provision and consistent high quality will benefit all ESOL learners, and in the short to medium term has the potential to reduce the demand for the provision of public services in other languages, as more learners become proficient speakers of English. The strategy therefore encourages the recognition and sharing of good practice.
English as an Additional Language
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 requires education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of school pupils for whose education they are responsible. The Act introduces a new framework within which all types of additional support needs may be met, with collaboration between different agencies and with the emphasis on the needs of the individual child.
The Scottish Executive commissioned the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland ( CERES) to work with the Scottish Executive's English as an Additional Language Co-ordinating Committee to prepare guidance on good practice which aims to assist all staff in education establishments understand better the strengths and development needs of bilingual learners.
Gaelic
Gaelic has been spoken in Scotland for over 1500 years. Over this period, Gaelic has been the language of court and government, learning and the arts, education and devotion and the home and the community. Although its use has declined over the centuries, it is still alive and an official language of Scotland, as well as a valuable part of our nation's living, diverse culture. Gaelic is a key part of Scotland's cultural identity and especially that of the people of the Highlands and Islands.
The 2001 Census recorded 65,674 people aged three or over as being able to speak, read, or write Gaelic - 1.3 per cent of the Scottish population. The number of people aged two or over who could speak, read, write or understand Gaelic was recorded for the first time and found to be 92,396, or 1.9 per cent of the population. The largest concentrations of Gaelic speakers live in the Western Isles, the Highlands, and Argyll and Bute, but there are many more speakers to be found throughout the country, with the largest single concentration in Glasgow.
We have been working hard since 1999 to strengthen the position of Gaelic in Scotland. In particular, we have introduced the Gaelic Language Act and invested record levels in Gaelic- medium education. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 received Royal Assent in June 2005 and commenced in February 2006. The purpose of the Act is to ensure a sustainable future for the Gaelic language by providing direction to Gaelic development activities and taking a more strategic approach to how the public sector engages with the language .
Under the Act, the newly-established Gaelic Language Board, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, is required to advise on matters relating to the Gaelic language, culture and education and to develop a National Gaelic Language Plan which sets out its strategies and priorities for the future development of the Gaelic language, culture and education. Bòrd na Gàidhlig will also be able to request Scottish public authorities to develop local Gaelic language plans which will set out how those bodies may promote the use of the Gaelic language.
We have taken a number of important steps to extend and strengthen Gaelic medium education. Gaelic is now available at all levels of education with much improved resources and materials. In addition to core education funding, we provide significant additional resources to local authorities to assist them with the delivery of Gaelic education.
We have sought to address the shortage of Gaelic teachers. A Gaelic Teachers' Action Group was established and made recommendations on the recruitment and retention of Gaelic teachers. Another working group is focusing on IT delivery and subject development, particularly at the secondary level. This group is working to expand Gaelic secondary provision and is considering new methods for delivering Gaelic medium education where teachers may not be available or where demand may be limited. And we have sought to develop new routes into Gaelic teaching, to provide support for Teachers and Pupils.
We have made progress in raising the profile of Gaelic in public life. There are more Gaelic officers working for public bodies, more Gaelic plans and policies being developed and more Gaelic signs on roads and buildings. We expect that the provisions of the Act and the work of Bòrd na Gaidhlig will add to this. The Gaelic arts also have a high profile in Scotland and are an important feature of Scottish cultural life. And Gaelic is also supported by local authorities, the Scottish Arts Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and a number of other public bodies.
We have also made good progress in strengthening the consistency and relevance of Gaelic. For example, the Scottish Qualifications Authority published the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions, a Gaelic Spellchecker is available from Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Fosglan Unit in Lews Castle College is working to bring greater consistency to the work of Gaelic translation.
Scots
The Scots language is an important part of Scotland's cultural heritage. It is a living language and is still widely spoken across Scotland today in a variety of forms such as Scots, Doric and Lallans. Unlike Gaelic, Scots is not an endangered language and has considerable overlap with Scottish Standard English. However, it is important that we recognise, respect and celebrate the Scots language as an integral part of our cultural heritage. We must also ensure a familiarity with the language so that we continue to understand not only our literature and our historical record but also our contemporary arts as well.
We are aware that there are many people in Scotland who do not regard Scots as a separate language. Scots, however, was once recognised as a language of government, business, academia and everyday life in Scotland. Scots, like English, German, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish, is a Germanic language. It is important for the confidence of Scots speakers that we recognise and respect it as a distinct language. We should not assume that speaking Scots is an indication of poor competence in English. Instead, we should celebrate the contribution that Scots has made to the modern English vocabulary as well as the influence that Scots speakers have had on the modern world - in disciplines such as science, literature, economics, politics, philosophy and the arts.
People in Scotland who are not from Scots-speaking families or communities - should also be encouraged to celebrate Scots as an important part of our diverse cultural heritage. Familiarity with Scots allows us to enjoy not only the great literature of the past but contemporary arts and culture as well.
The Executive's National Guidelines on English Language 5-14 advocate the inclusion of Scots in the school curriculum where appropriate. The Guidelines advocate the inclusion of Scots literature in the curriculum, and Learning and Teaching Scotland produces teaching materials in support of this inclusive policy. This allows pupils to be confident and creative in language and to develop notions of language diversity, within which they can appreciate the range of accents, dialects and forms of expression they encounter. This helps children value the Scots they may use at home or with their peers.
In addition, there are a range of groups supporting and promoting Scots, including the Scots Language Society, the Scots Language Resource Centre, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Dictionary of the Scottish Tongue, and the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. These groups have made important contributions towards raising the profile of Scots and thus enriching Scotland's cultural life.
British Sign Language
British Sign Language ( BSL) is a real, full and living language that is part of our rich cultural heritage. It has its own vocabulary, structure and grammar, which is different from English, and like spoken languages in Scotland, has its own regional variations and dialects.
Although there are no precise figures, it is estimated that BSL is the first or preferred language of approximately 6,000 deaf people in Scotland. This figure does not take account of other users of BSL such as hearing family members or other people in Scotland with a range of hearing loss who may have acquired BSL as an additional language 1.
BSL was officially recognised as a minority language by the United Kingdom Government in March 2003. In the same year the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also recognised sign languages as the expression of Europe's cultural wealth and a feature of Europe's linguistic and cultural heritage.
In Scotland the Executive is committed to developing a strategic approach to raising awareness of BSL issues and the development of communication strategies with deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing people. Due to the shortage of registered BSL interpreters in Scotland, Scottish Ministers made a commitment to look at plans to double the number of BSL/English interpreters in Scotland.
To support this commitment we provided significant funding to the Scottish Association of Sign Language Interpreters to work in partnership with Heriot-Watt University to develop and deliver a Graduate Diploma in Teaching British Sign Language Tutors. This groundbreaking course will increase the number of highly qualified tutors available to teach BSL to Deaf and hearing learners. It will also help to support linguists able to conduct research and develop learning and teaching resources.
To help us consider the issues at the heart of linguistic access for Deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing people we established a BSL and Linguistic Access Working Group in 2000. In May 2005 we published a research report entitled Investigation of Access to Public Services in Scotland Using British Sign Language, which aimed to assess the extent of access to public services in Scotland in sign language by Deaf people. The working group is considering this research along with the Scottish Training Strategy Group's report Creating Linguistic Access for Deaf and Deafblind People: A Strategy for Scotland to help inform and prioritise their future work programme and provide specific practical recommendations on improving the linguistic access of individuals.
We intend to continue to focus on increasing the number of registered British Sign Language/English interpreters in Scotland. To help us to do this we have appointed a BSL and Linguistic Access Project Manager to work with our BSL and Linguistic Access Working Group to develop a detailed plan for improving linguistic access for Deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing people in Scotland. and developing a work programme with our BSL and Linguistic Access Working Group to address priorities identified.
Other Minority/Community languages
We must ensure that existing minority ethnic communities as well as new migrants and refugees are able to access public services in their own languages where necessary. People living, working or studying in Scotland who do not understand English have the same rights to access public sector services as English speakers. We also want to create a supportive environment so that speakers of languages other than English are able to continue to develop their skills in their first language along with English.
We need to recognise that recent immigrants and speakers of community languages who are learning English have the potential to become bilingual - which is good for Scotland. We need to ensure we support communities, families and individuals who wish to achieve proficiency in their own language and that our methods for teaching English do not undermine these efforts.
We are working to attract new and talented people to come to live and work in Scotland and languages clearly have an important part to play in our success in attracting fresh talent to Scotland. It is important for in-migrants to be able to settle into their new lives including accessing language provision where required.
Several thousand asylum seekers and refugees currently live in Scotland; the vast majority are accommodated in Glasgow. Around £1.5 million has been provided by the Scottish Executive for integration projects since 2003-04. Communities Scotland has also allocated funding to improve local services and promote community development and integration in communities under stress as a result of the National Asylum Support Services dispersal system. Resources were used to benefit the wider community as well as asylum seekers and refugees. Significant funding has been awarded since the start of the programme in September 2001 which has been spent on a variety of projects addressing language development, childcare, community integration, and advice and information.
The Scottish Executive has prepared an Education Guide for asylum seekers and refugees. The guide is available in all the main languages of asylum seekers based in Scotland and provides information on how the school education system works here. We have also initiated research looking at the education experiences of asylum seekers and we will expect to see issues around languages appear in the final report.
The Scottish Executive is committed to the provision of high quality translation, interpreting and communication support ( TICS) services. We have commissioned a research project to provide a national picture of the public translation, interpreting and communication services that are currently available. This report was published in February 2006 and we are considering the recommendations and the best way to take them forward.
It is important that existing minority ethnic communities as well as new migrants and refugees are able to celebrate their language and traditions and to participate fully in the cultural life of their own community and of Scotland. Scotland is becoming more culturally diverse; and thanks to the enriching impact this has had on many aspects of every day life in communities across Scotland - not to mention its positive contributions to areas such as the Scottish arts, literature and sport scenes as well - we now have a better awareness of diversity. With this has come the growing belief that our communities - established and 'new' - have all the ingredients necessary to produce the innovative, smart and successful nation we all aspire to be. "One Scotland Many Cultures" is something Scotland should be proud of and we will continue to promote and celebrate Scotland's cultural diversity.
Our cultural public bodies also have an important role in supporting cultural diversity in Scotland. For example, the Scottish Museums Council is working in partnership with the Black Environment Network to develop access to museums and galleries for black and minority ethnic groups. And the Scottish Arts Council's Cultural Diversity Strategy 2002-07 sets out their strategy for making cultural diversity an integral element of the arts funding system in Scotland. The long-term aim is to increase the number and range of practising artists from culturally diverse communities; to improve access to a wide spectrum of arts and cultural activities for minority ethnic communities and the wider population; and to improve employment opportunities in the arts and culture for those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Language Learning
56% of citizens in EU member states are able to hold a conversation in a language in addition to their first language and 28% speak two additional languages well enough to hold a conversation. In the UK 62% of people admit not knowing any language other than their first language 2. This means that, as well as missing out on the personal and societal attributes that can develop from language learning, Scottish young people could be at a disadvantage compared to their bilingual counterparts in today's global economy.
We therefore need to ensure that people in Scotland are aware of the important economic, educational, social and cultural benefits that may be derived from learning the languages of their neighbours in Europe and beyond, and that they have adequate opportunities throughout their lives to learn a wide range of modern languages, in keeping with Scotland's growing profile around the world.
In September 2001, the Scottish Executive announced its response to Citizens of a Multilingual World, the report from the Ministerial Action Group on Languages. This report forms the basis of the Scottish Executive's current policy on teaching modern languages in schools. In May 2003 A Partnership for a Better Scotland contained the commitment to guarantee the opportunity to learn a modern European language starting in primary school.
A great deal of support has been provided to support language learning and teaching in Scotland's schools, with over £22.5 million committed to languages since 2001. This has been used to train more language teachers, to enhance learning and teaching resources, to provide foreign language assistants, to provide links in other countries and to teach languages to nursery pupils and those with additional support needs. This has had a positive impact, with very high percentages of pupils studying foreign languages in upper primary and the first four years of secondary school.
Through the Languages Fund authorities have been encouraged to widen the range of languages they provide, in particular looking towards providing more language skills that may be important in the global economy and to help pupils develop an understanding of other cultures. In offering language funding for 2006-07 the Executive asked authorities to have regard to the following priorities; to ensure that they have:
- Sufficient numbers of well trained Primary languages teachers,
- A diversified range of languages for young people in schools,
- High numbers studying languages in S3/S4 and improvements in uptake in S5/S6,
- Innovative approaches to languages teaching in their schools,
Along with languages funding for local authorities, the Scottish Executive provides core funding to the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research ( SCILT) and through Learning Teaching Scotland has developed the Modern Foreign Languages Environment website ( http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/mfle/) for the purpose of supporting languages teachers. In addition there have been a number of interesting projects developed which look at immersion techniques and the use of on-line learning to support languages.
The 3-18 curriculum review, A Curriculum for Excellence, aspires to ensure that all children develop their capacities as successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors to society. Language learning can clearly contribute to this aspiration. A Curriculum for Excellence recognises that Scotland has a rich diversity of language, including the different languages of Scotland and the growing number of community languages such as Urdu, Punjabi and Polish, and that this diversity offers rich opportunities for learning.
Guidance to be produced as a result of this review will cover experiences and outcomes in both the language the child or young person needs in order to engage fully in society and in learning (English, Gàidhlig or, for children or young people who need additional support, the form of language which enables them to communicate most effectively) and additional modern and classical languages. The guidance will encourage schools to support children and young people in maintaining their own first language.
« Previous | Contents | Next »