Citizens of a Multilingual World

Recommendations

Ministerial Action Group on Languages

This document:

• sets out the Action Group's key recommendations;

• explains briefly why each recommendation has been made; and

• proposes what steps should be taken in order to implement the recommendations.

It is intended to accompany the Action Group's Key Issues document which sets out the context in which the Action Group was formed, describes how the Action Group consulted a wide variety of interested parties, presents a Rationale for Languages and provides the evidence and argument on which our Recommendations are based.

Introduction

The Action Group's membership contains not only specialists in languages education but also those with more generic responsibilities at national and local authority levels in management, curriculum and professional development, examinations and inspection. It also has representation from parents and business. Given this broad base, our report does not make recommendations on how modern languages should be taught, though we draw attention to reports covering this vital area. Our task has rather been to propose a new scene for languages in Scottish schools that reflects the modern world. Since our first meeting in Autumn 1998 we have spent much time seeking and obtaining views from interested parties including students at school, parents, teachers, senior management and guidance staff, local authorities, teacher education, the business community and education post-school. Through our web-site we have implemented a forum for discussion. We have studied written reports from inspection and research and have received oral presentations and written submissions.

The importance of languages for all - but the problem of motivation

We are in no doubt concerning the importance of a modern language in the education of all students at school. However, the Foreign Languages in the Upper Secondary School research report (1999) suggested strongly that in Scotland the reasons for learning languages were not widely understood. This has led us to write a 'rationale' for languages and to articulate in detail the notion of a 'languages entitlement'. The research evidence suggests that at present some students become de-motivated by languages, particularly in S2-S3, partly because they feel they are not achieving success; and that even in the case of those who do achieve high grades at Standard Grade, many do not continue with their modern language to Higher, partly because they feel it does not reflect their immediate needs. In many countries elsewhere in Europe one or more modern languages are compulsory for longer periods of time than in Scotland. This however is because in these countries the importance of languages is widely accepted, and social attitudes to languages are better-informed. If our recommendations were to further underline the compulsory nature of languages for all in order to make us more like our counterparts elsewhere, we believe that however desirable this may be in principle, it would run the risk of adding further to the current problem of de-motivation.

A strategy of entitlement, information, innovation, persuasion and support rather than one of coercion

In our view the best way forward for Scotland at present is first to specify an entitlement to which we believe all school students should have a right and second to provide the information, argument and support that will persuade students not only to see their entitlement through but to wish to go beyond it, that will support local authorities and schools in developing their own flexible and innovative ways of delivering and indeed exceeding the entitlement, and that will help improve social attitudes to languages in Scotland by giving parents, school staff, businesses, the media and the wider public opportunities to become more 'languages aware'.

Recommendation 1

The relevance of learning other languages

1 Up-to-date information on languages should be made available both in schools and in the wider society, so that proficiency in languages is perceived as being achievable, relevant and useful.

WHY?

At present in Scotland social attitudes to languages are often confused and ambivalent and as such they are passed down through the media, community, family and school. This directly affects students' motivation for learning languages. We considered it essential to develop a 'rationale' for languages which sets out why languages are important in preparing students at school to play their full part as citizens of a rapidly changing, diverse, multilingual world. Learning another language offers students unique insight into 'language' as the main instrument of thought, expression and communication available to human beings; it affords them a wider, more inclusive view of society; it sensitises them to the value of linguistic and cultural diversity both in Scotland and internationally; it enables them to become internationally mobile; it gives them opportunities to process information from and to communicate with other cultures whether through conventional 'real' contacts or by 'virtual' means through the use of new technologies such as the Internet, e-mail and video-conferencing; and in due course it puts them in a position to support business firms in becoming more outward-looking and competitive. Senior management and guidance staff in schools will benefit if they are provided with high-quality information, so that they can offer good advice on further study and career. Parents have a potentially strong role to play in providing encouragement and support, but in order to do so they require information.

We accept that the case for learning languages other than English is not straightforward. However, a mentality of 'English alone' sells our students short, both at home and abroad, and recent UK research evidence confirms that languages graduates stand a better chance of employment than graduates of almost all other subjects. However, the old ideal of aspiring to native-speaker competence in another language needs to be replaced by a more pragmatic competence which enables students to draw on their full repertoire of language, sometimes using English, sometimes their other languages, sometimes non-verbal strategies, often all of these together.

HOW?

The arguments set out in the Action Group rationale should be made available in different forms to different readerships, not only in schools but also to parents and to other sectors of education, business, community organisations and the media. National bodies should collaborate to achieve this. Local authorities in partnership with schools should use whatever avenues are open to them - e.g. parental forums in order to ensure that parents are well-informed about languages. Scottish Gaelic provides a good example where parents make a significant contribution to Gaelic-medium primary education. The European Year of Languages (2001), co-ordinated in Scotland by Scottish CILT, and operating internationally under the aegis of the European Commission and the Council of Europe and with the support of UNESCO, offers a good opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of languages both in education and the wider public.

Recommendation 2

A Languages Entitlement for all within education 5-16

2 All students should be entitled to an experience of learning a modern language which:

• begins no later than Primary 6;

• builds on their prior experience of first and other language development, learning and use;

• is continuous and progressive in the same language;

• covers a minimum of six years of study or its equivalent of approximately 500 hours;

• develops a usable competence in the language which is sustained through regular opportunities for interaction with native speakers and for accessing information by means of modern technologies;

• is delivered effectively through high-quality programmes of study by appropriately qualified teachers;

• provides regular, reliable and helpful feedback on their progress;

• promotes positive attitudes to other cultures and develops strategies for learning other languages;

• leads to a National Qualification, thereby placing students in a framework that contains flexible routes to further qualifications if they so choose;

• allows for the study of an additional language during their period of compulsory schooling;

• provides well-informed and up-to-date guidance concerning the advantages of continuing to study and use modern languages post-16.

WHY?

Evidence from research and from our consultative meetings indicates strongly that at present provision for languages is highly variable across Scotland. This unplanned variability is creating widespread uncertainty concerning modern languages, particularly at primary school. By specifying the entitlement we reduce the uncertainty and we imply a responsibility on the 'system' to make due provision for every student who wishes to see their full entitlement through. Because of lack of exposure to languages in society outside school, learning another language at school in Scotland takes time. The 500 hours equivalent that we are recommending is not nearly enough to produce highly fluent linguists (and we believe the figure might eventually be revised upwards once Recommendation 10 on Initial Teacher Education for primary is achieving its longer-term effect) but for the moment we believe it represents a good initial base to which all students should be entitled.

HOW?

Our Main Report sets out in more detail how we believe the entitlement might be achieved. We suggest for example that at P6 and P7 classroom contact with the language should amount to not less than an average of 75 minutes per week, ideally distributed across each day.

Recommendations 3 & 4

Local innovation and ownership

3 Modern Languages should be declared a priority area for innovation and training.

4 A special Languages Innovation and Training Fund (LITF) should be established, allowing local authorities and other organisations to bid for national funding in support of local innovation and specialised training for teachers.

WHY?

In countries where English is the first language, any language other than English is likely to require special support if it is to play a strong role in education. The Scottish Executive for example provides substantial support for Gaelic-medium education and broadcasting. We do not consider that support on this scale is needed for modern languages in general, but in the short term we recommend the establishment of a LITF to combat the climate of negativity surrounding languages and to provide the support that local authorities and schools will initially need in implementing the entitlement. We suggest that local authorities and their schools should have a central role in setting their own priorities, devising their own plans and driving them forward. The LITF will encourage them to take account of local circumstances in order to promote innovation and training (subsuming existing arrangements for MLPS training). We see the LITF as an interim measure that will improve the current situation while longer-term measures as set out in other Recommendations are gradually achieving their effects. The LITF is not intended as a permanent lifeline and so it will be important that a strategy of working towards 'sustainable development' should be adopted.

HOW?

We suggest that the LITF should run for a minimum of four years, with a review taking place at the end of the third year in order to ascertain needs beyond the fourth year. We are not recommending an upper or lower limit for the fund but we do consider that the fund should be substantial and that proposals should be judged on the quality of innovation and training proposed in response to identified needs and opportunities and on the potential for achieving more sustainable development. Our Key Issues text provides examples of innovative ways of delivering or enhancing the entitlement or of consolidating languages post-Standard Grade, e.g.: partial immersion at primary school; distributing the 500 hours from P6 so as to provide periods of intensive language learning and use; teaching other subjects at secondary in part through the medium of the modern language; common projects with schools abroad and/or with local businesses by means of real and virtual links; beginning before P6, thereby adding to the 500 hours; distance learning modules to support individuals learning additional languages of their choice. The LITF should support planned improvements in languages standards and proficiency, in motivation and in up-take and should include self-monitoring and -evaluation. There should be an element of built-in externality agreed with SEED to enable the outcomes, benefits and other lessons of local innovation and training to be shared nationally. National bodies should provide courses and other support for staff in schools, local authorities, Teacher Education Institutions and other bodies on key aspects of languages innovation and training, including their management, monitoring and evaluation. Scottish CILT should provide information from research on successful languages innovations conducted elsewhere.

Recommendations 5 & 6

Diversification of languages

5 At the national level, a variety of languages rather than French alone, and including heritage or community languages such as Scottish Gaelic and Urdu, should be taught as first modern language.

6 Local authorities should generally be responsible for ensuring a diversified provision of first modern language within the authority if not within each school.

WHY?

The dominance of French as first modern language is increasing, mainly for reasons of administrative convenience in schools. Although French will justifiably continue as the most widely adopted modern language, our Rationale argues it is in the interests of Scottish society that as a nation we should have working contacts with our European and international partners through a range of languages. Diversification should be further enhanced through the promotion of learning two modern languages before reaching school-leaving age.

HOW?

We do not believe that diversification can be imposed top-down according to a national plan; but equally we consider that if all decisions are left to schools, then the drift to French is likely to continue. We suggest that in many cases diversification may be catered for at local authority level in consultation with major local stakeholders, e.g. schools, parents, students, former students, businesses, Further and Higher Education institutions and Teacher Education Faculties. We believe it could be particularly rewarding to consult local businesses, both in order to respond to needs and opportunities for particular languages that may have been identified there but also in order to help these organisations become aware of the potential international benefits becoming available to them through a continuing supply of recruits covering a range of languages. Local authorities have a key role in ensuring that cluster arrangements across primary schools and liaison with secondary schools are supportive of diversification. Where there is sufficient demand, we recommend that local authorities should support the teaching of Scottish Gaelic, Urdu and possibly other heritage or community languages, and this should be reflected in SQA arrangements. These languages are valuable not only because of their heritage nature but also because they can contribute to Scotland's tourism and export profile and they establish Scotland as a cosmopolitan multilingual society in which social inclusion is taken seriously.

While we argue in favour of diversification, we do not consider it should happen at any price. Some submissions have argued that in some cases students should switch languages from P7 to S1 in order to ensure that diversification takes place. We do not support this view. In our view the 'time factor' is vital and we consider that priority should be given to students receiving continuity of learning the same language within the 500 hours to which we believe they should be entitled. A better basis for diversification is through the development of agreed cluster arrangements that link primary into secondary provision.

Recommendations 7 & 8

Virtual and real content

7 Information and Communications Technology should have a central role in supporting language-learning and -use from P6 onwards.

8 Opportunities should be greatly increased for pupils to put their languages to real use in contact with native speakers, including with foreign language assistants.

WHY?

Students in Scotland receive minimal exposure to modern languages out of school and therefore have little opportunity to acquire them naturally. ICT, implying a range of technologies and not simply those based on computers, can create a 'virtual' language environment that allows learners in Scotland to receive extensive language input and to interact with native speakers in ways otherwise not possible. It allows them to access information of their choice (within approved parameters) that is up-to-date, something by definition lacking in published languages course-books and materials. It also enables learners to consolidate their knowledge of grammar, structure and vocabulary in new and motivating ways. There is already evidence that ICT can transform students' motivation for learning and using languages. It is essential however that students should also have direct 'real' contact with native speakers. This not only increases input and interaction but also contributes to the international ethos of schools. It reminds schools of what languages are for, supports learners in their motivation and helps teachers keep their language up-to-date.

HOW?

Local authorities should ensure that pupils from P6 onwards have regular access to ICT for language learning and use, both in and out of normal class time, and that all languages teachers have access to computers not only for teaching but also for their own professional development. National bodies should ensure that languages teachers, local authorities and Teacher Education Institutions are kept fully informed of the most up-to-date developments in software and hardware for languages, and with relevant research findings on multiple media and language learning from other countries. This information should be made available through databases that can be downloaded. Local authorities should set targets for all of their primary and secondary schools to develop 'virtual' and real working links with schools in countries where the school's modern languages are spoken. Where possible, such links should be enhanced through association with local businesses or other community organisations that have links with other countries. Local authorities and Teacher Education Institutions should similarly set targets for themselves in order to further promote an international ethos. National bodies should ensure that teachers and other stakeholders have opportunities for participating in electronic discussion forums, as has been the case in the Action Group's website. Where the foreign language assistant scheme has been abandoned, we recommend that either the decision to do so should be reversed or that local authorities should make other provision for ensuring that students at school have regular opportunities for real contact with native speakers.

Recommendation 9

Languages in the upper secondary school

9 The place of languages should be made more central and secure in the curriculum and in examinations arrangements for the upper secondary school.

WHY?

'Languages for all' has led to large numbers of learners demonstrating a basic knowledge of their modern language at Standard Grade, but much smaller numbers take their language to more advanced levels in S5 and S6. Current regulations for Higher Still do not make it easy for students to begin learning a second modern language. These factors mean reduced input into Further and Higher Education of recruits from school with good languages qualifications and contribute to an eventual lack of languages graduates who are available for the teaching profession or who are able to exploit a confident and competent languages capability in pursuing an international business career.

Although the remit of the Action Group is concerned with schools, we received many representations from other sectors of education, in particular Further, Higher and Continuing Education. There is an overall national structure of awards that bridges schools, FE and HE, but there was recognition of the need to make language learning a more coherent and continuous process from one sector to another. More 'joined up' thinking about languages was advocated, beginning at pre-school or primary levels and proceeding through all sectors and forms of education, in order to maximise continuity from one sector to another.

HOW?

SQA should offer a Modern Languages endorsement of the Communication core skill. The Design Rules for Scottish Group Awards should be

re-visited in order to make it easier for students to maintain or take up modern languages, and in particular SEED should review its earlier decision not to allow attainment in a second modern language at Intermediate 1 to count to a Scottish Group Award at Higher. More encouragement should be given to students to learn aspects of other subjects through the medium of their modern language, and for this to be recognised in national examination arrangements. More encouragement should be given to students to learn other languages of their choice. National bodies and institutions in Higher or Further Education should be encouraged to collaborate with local authorities and schools in order to develop on-line support for language learning and use in S5/6, especially of a second modern language. The LITF should be available to support these initiatives.

Recommendation 10 & 11

Initial teacher education for languages

10 All Initial Teacher Education courses for primary school teaching should include a core modern language component that is coherent, progressive and sufficient to deliver the revised 5-14 Guidelines.

11 All Initial Teacher Education courses for languages for primary teachers and for secondary modern languages teachers should provide students with knowledge of children's first and second language development, substantial training in ICT for languages and strategies for promoting the benefits of language learning.

WHY?

We propose that the provision of MLPS will best be secured through a radical alteration in Initial Teacher Education programmes for primary school teaching. Although most modern language teaching will take place during P6 and P7 there is at present no specialist Initial Teacher Education route that enables intending teachers to become qualified for teaching particular primary school year-groups. As a result of our Recommendation 10, all recruits to primary school teaching will have been educated for promoting 'language to languages' (5-14 Guidelines) and will be able to include a modern language in their teaching as appropriate from P1 onwards. In due course this will solve the problem of teacher supply for languages at primary school. It will give all primary school teachers a shared basic, assessed and accredited language competence that can be further extended through professional development, and it will make it easier for primary schools to acquire an international ethos and for staff as well as pupils to link with their counterparts in other countries.

HOW?

We suggest that Teacher Education Institutions should work together to review their provision of modern languages for intending primary school teachers, with the aim of making provision at the national level more coherent than it is at present, to begin the preparation of programmes for modern languages which will meet our recommended requirement, and to develop plans for an optional second modern language for teachers who are particularly interested in teaching at P6 and P7. The major stakeholders in Initial Teacher Education should consider the implications of our Recommendation 10 for the overall structure, balance and content of Initial Teacher Education programmes for primary. We believe that entry to Initial Teacher Education for primary school education should minimally require a pass at Credit 2 or equivalent in a modern language and perhaps eventually a pass at Higher. The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council should be consulted as to the funding implications, e.g. for enabling intending primary school teachers to gain experience abroad as part of their Initial Teacher Education programme. We also suggest that all intending teachers of modern languages at secondary should undergo a period of school experience in a primary school, and that their courses should help them become aware of children's first and second language development during the primary years and of the ways in which primary and secondary schools might collaborate in order to ensure continuity and progression.

Recommendation 12

Supporting teachers

12 In order to deliver the pupils' entitlement to languages through high-quality courses, all those teaching languages in primary and secondary schools should in turn be entitled to receive substantial and continuing material and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) support from national and other bodies.

WHY?

Teachers in the classroom will remain a major source of language input and interaction, explanation, evaluation, encouragement and advice. The McCrone Report has identified modern languages at primary school as an area warranting particular support for teachers' professional development. Primary teachers with the 27 days MLPS training will require further training to enable them to teach to the new Guidelines. Substantial and continuing support will be required for both primary and secondary teachers in: up-dating of their languages skills and cultural knowledge; helping their students exploit ICT in order to learn and use another language; exploiting new materials and software, drawing on the 5-14 'Guide for Teachers and Managers' in order to develop classroom and other techniques that will maintain and enhance the motivation of all students, including those with learning difficulties and special needs; developing appropriate 'marketing' approaches in respect of languages; developing well-focused innovative approaches to language teaching, learning and use; managing the processes of monitoring and evaluating, including self-evaluation, of innovations in which they are taking part; up-dating their knowledge of relevant research and policy.

HOW?

The proposed LITF should be available to help meet the CPD needs of teachers participating in approved local innovations. Learning and Teaching Scotland in collaboration with other bodies should review the need for new materials appropriate to Scotland. It should co-ordinate the provision of these across the country with particular emphasis on supporting schools in meeting the students' basic languages entitlement (Recommendation 1). Local authorities and Teacher Education Institutions should organise CPD events around the 5-14 'Guide for Teachers and Managers'. They should take account of the areas of good practice identified in the 1998 HMI Standards and Quality report on modern languages and should support schools in making good use of the MLPS CD-ROMs now available for French and German (and comparable material should be made available in support of Spanish and Italian). Scottish CILT should disseminate information covering national and international research findings and the availability of good websites and CD-ROMS for language learning and use, and should put on conferences and courses in order to support teachers in the key areas that have been identified. The Central Bureau, local authorities and national bodies should collaborate in order to maximise teachers' opportunities for gaining professional experience abroad, e.g. exchange schemes, customised or other courses, work experience. Universities, including Teacher Education Institutions, in collaboration with local authorities should encourage current MLPS teachers to maintain their modern languages through the provision of certificate courses for which credit-value is given for the voluntary MLPS training programme that they successfully completed. The Scottish Executive Education Department should consult the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council on how this support from universities should be financed.

Recommendation 13

Contributing to economic regeneration

13 Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and local enterprise bodies should audit and publicise the country's needs and opportunities for languages in respect of employment, training and career.

WHY?

Business respondents to the Action Group considered it was beneficial if young people applying for jobs had languages within a portfolio of transferable skills and qualities. However, there is insufficient knowledge at present concerning the extent to which the language competence that staff possess is actually made use of by business firms. This uncertainty was clearly contributing to the low level of instrumental motivation for language learning at school. Some representations to the Action Group suggested that business firms were not always aware of and did not always value the languages skills that the education system had developed in their workforce when at school. The Action Group did however encounter a small number of case studies in which business firms had given strong support to schools and local authorities in raising the vocational profile of languages and in linking them with up-to-date developments in ICT. No information from research appears available on how potential foreign clients perceive monolingual English-speakers from Scotland when they try to do business in countries where English is not a first language, though research of this sort is currently being undertaken through the SCOTLANG project.

HOW?

National and local enterprise organisations, the National Centre for Education for Work and education-business partnerships should give a clear lead in encouraging firms to audit, publicise and make use of the languages skills available to them, to audit their needs and opportunities for languages and to provide accordingly. Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise should support research on the needs and opportunities for languages in respect of the Scottish economy.

Recommendation 14

Lifelong language learning

14 There should be widespread promotion of lifelong language learning in formal and informal education, leisure and work, building on the full entitlement that will have been delivered during the compulsory period of education at school.

WHY?

While we have argued for a 'languages entitlement' during the compulsory period of schooling, it will also be important to promote lifelong language learning. An increasingly mobile workforce will not be able to predict its precise needs for particular languages, but will need to feel comfortable about learning other languages in order to move around, particularly within the extended Europe. If parents can be encouraged to maintain the languages they learnt at school and to develop their own virtual and real contacts with native speakers, this will help create favourable social and family attitudes to languages and will reinforce their children's language learning at school. Adults in Scotland who live in areas of social disadvantage may feel socially excluded from and unable to participate meaningfully in the wider European society. As local authorities develop their community learning strategies, learning a language may help adults in areas of disadvantage acquire a greater sense of self-confidence, a wider view of European society and a feeling of greater social inclusion, citizenship and democratic participation.

HOW?

The media and Further/Higher Education institutions should give a lead in promoting lifelong language learning, exploiting the potential of the European Year of Languages in 2001. National bodies and local authorities should support language and guidance teachers at school in preparing pupils for lifelong language learning. This should include helping them understand what will be involved in: learning and using languages when they leave school; supporting younger learners (including potentially their own children); encouraging their own parents and relevant other adult persons; and gaining practical experience of lifelong language learning approaches such as distance learning using ICT.

Local authorities, Teacher Education Institutions and schools should assess their own staff's needs and opportunities for lifelong language learning, in order to ensure that all aspects of the Scottish curriculum in primary and secondary education are appropriately internationalised and that undue reliance is not placed on information sources coming from the English language alone. Scottish CILT should convene a working group drawing on all sectors of education and vocational training in Scotland that will consider how understandings across sectors may be improved and greater continuity promoted, e.g. through exploring the possible application of the Common Framework for Languages devised by the Council of Europe.