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Citizens of a Multilingual World: Key Issues

1. Establishing the Action Group

This section explains why and when the Action Group was formed and sets out its central aim.

The Action Group was established in October 1998 by Helen Liddell, then Scottish Education and Industry Minister, in response to concerns about provision for modern languages in Scottish schools. When Minister for Children and Education, Sam Galbraith subsequently confirmed his commitment to the work of the Group and his recognition of the importance of modern language education in the curriculum.

The Group was chaired by John Mulgrew, Director of Education, East Ayrshire, and membership was drawn from representatives from teaching, education management, the inspectorate, industry, parent groups and national bodies with an interest in languages education.

In setting up the Group the then Minister emphasised that she regarded the effective teaching of modern languages as vital to the future economic prosperity of Scotland. She considered the findings from research and from school inspections indicated that provision for language education was unacceptable, and that immediate action was required to ensure that Scottish students were given the opportunity to learn a language from P6 to S4.

Aims of the Action Group

The broad aims of the Action Group were:

• to secure the place of modern languages within the curriculum;

• to improve the quality of modern languages at Standard Grade; and

• to ensure a greater degree of continuity in language learning in schools.

To achieve these aims the Action Group was charged with working with the (then) Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum and the Scottish Qualifications Authority to review the 5-14 Modern Languages Guidelines and the syllabus and assessment arrangements for Standard Grade examinations in modern languages, and with Scottish CILT to ensure that appropriate information from research was fed into the Group's deliberations.

In addition, it was expected that the group would address the need to make sustained provision of appropriately trained teachers to ensure that every pupil in P6 and P7 received education in a modern language.

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