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Citizens of a Multilingual World: Key Issues

9. Securing a Place for Languages

This section outlines the key developments proposed in relation to the 5-14 Guidelines and the Standard Grade revisions. It outlines the cluster of factors from P6-S4 that should improve languages uptake post-16 and makes a number of recommendations for consolidating the position of languages in the upper secondary school, for learning other subject-matter through the medium of a modern language and for acquiring greater autonomy in learning additional languages by 'virtual' means.

In response to the Minister's specific comments on the need for reviews of the 5-14 Guidelines and Standard Grade assessment arrangements for modern languages, the Action Group gave priority to these activities and enlisted the support of Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority to conduct reviews.

Review of 5-14 Modern Languages Guidelines

The then Minister, Helen Liddell, required the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum to address the following priorities:

• to review the 5-14 Guidelines on Modern Languages;

• to secure the place of Modern Languages in the 5-14 programme;

• to develop exemplar materials for 5-14 Modern Languages;

• to develop assessment materials for 5-14 Modern Languages;

• to advise on attainment targets for modern languages in primary and secondary;

• to identify any staff development and training needs that will arise from the implementation of the guidelines.

Reviewing the Guidelines

Learning and Teaching Scotland attached high priority to addressing these tasks. A Review and Development Group (RDG), composed largely of practising teachers, was set up in February 1999 under the Chairmanship of Dan Sweeney, Head of Quality Development, North Lanarkshire Council. Given that the previous 5-14 Guidelines for Modern European Languages, published in February 1993, cover only S1 and S2, the immediate priority of the RDG has been to review these Guidelines and to produce advice on the nature and provision of modern languages for students aged 5 to14 in Scottish schools. The goal has been to secure the place of Modern Languages in the 5-14 programme.

Developing new Guidelines

The new 5-14 Guidelines, produced after extensive consultation with local authorities and with the profession, take careful account of the development and implementation of the Government's Modern Languages in the Primary School initiative, which introduced into most of Scotland's local authority primary schools the systematic teaching of a modern language in P6/7. The Guidelines also take account of a range of research findings into aspects of language learning and teaching, as well as the considerable range of good practice in Scottish schools and internationally, in order to embed the languages dimension of the curriculum for all stages from 5 to 14.

Accordingly the new Guidelines offer attainment outcomes across the four modes of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, emphasising the need to see these as interdependent and recommending that Reading and Writing feature in the programmes of study from the outset. Attainment Targets and exemplification are offered across all strands, or aspects of learning that students will achieve within attainment outcomes, at levels A to F, thus removing Modern Languages from its previous anomalous position in the 5-14 programme. The levels at the earliest stages are based on the recognition of the extent to which children bring prior language experience, skills and knowing about language to the learning of a modern language. This awareness and confidence is already fostered in other areas of the 5-14 curriculum and is recognised in the attainment targets at levels A and B, which are drawn from targets in other 5-14 curriculum guidelines.

The principal aims of the new 5-14 Guidelines are to ensure for all students a continuous, coherent and progressive modern language learning experience across the 5-14 curriculum, and to offer a coherent framework within which the basic entitlement (see Section 5), leading to a range of further opportunities for language learning, can be achieved.

Implementing the new Guidelines

Successful implementation of the new guidelines will be dependent upon the commitment and skills of teachers. There are clearly issues of training and staff development implicit in any such development and the Action Group recognises the extent to which implementation of the new Guidelines will be both a staged and a longer term process, requiring support at a local and national level during the transitional period.

Review of Standard Grade assessment arrangements

Reviewing the original arrangements

When the syllabus and assessment arrangements for Standard Grade Modern Languages were devised and implemented in the 1980s, their primary objective was the development of communicative competence and confidence among those choosing to continue the study of a language other than English beyond S2. In assessment terms, Speaking was double weighted in relation to Reading and Listening, and assessment in Writing was an optional extra, in recognition of the constraints on available teaching time.

Since the 1980s there have been a number of changes to the circumstances in which young people in Scotland learn languages:

• modern languages are now a compulsory part of the secondary curriculum for most students up to the end of S4;

• modern languages are now part of the primary curriculum;

• qualifications post-Standard Grade have been brought together in the Higher Still framework.

Four major areas of concern about the effects of the assessment system in Modern Languages on courses in S3 and S4 have emerged from research and inspection reports:

• the optional nature of assessment in Writing resulted in limited attention being paid to the development of writing skills in modern languages in years S1 to S4;

• some secondary courses were constructed around a series of topic studies without sufficient focus on linguistic progression;

• many students reported gaps between their expectations of what they would achieve by the end of their Standard Grade course and their actual competence;

• student perceptions were that language courses were tedious, difficult and lacking in intellectual stimulation.

Response to concerns

In the short term the Scottish Qualifications Authority responded to specific concerns about the writing component of the assessment system by amending the conditions relating to that mode.

For the longer term the Scottish Qualifications Authority simultaneously undertook a major review of the Standard Grade syllabus and assessment arrangements in Modern Languages with the following aims:

• to ensure coherence, continuity and progression in the relationship between the 5-14 Guidelines, Standard Grade and the various levels of qualification post-Standard Grade;

• to balance the intellectual content of the Standard Grade Modern Languages syllabus with that of other subject areas in the curriculum and to ensure its relevance for students;

• to include writing in the foreign language in the compulsorily assessed elements which contribute to the overall award and to create an appropriate balance in the relative weighting of the four skills;

• to provide for students and their parents detailed and clear information about the Standard Grade assessment system at each Level.

A document detailing proposals for revised arrangements in Modern Languages was disseminated nationally for consultation in the Autumn of 1999, with the consultation period running until the end of January 2000. Careful analysis of the responses showed that, while the proposals were not universally and overwhelmingly welcomed, the overall response was generally positive. At the same time, various aspects of the document were identified as requiring clarification, amplification and, in some instances, further exemplification. It has therefore been decided by the Minister of Education to delay implementation of the revised arrangements for a year, to allow time for further work to be done.

The Action Group welcomes the discussions currently underway at the Scottish Qualifications Authority which are exploring possibilities for introducing Urdu at Higher.

Languages in S5-S6

There has been much public discussion and debate concerning the declining uptake of languages at Higher, and reference has already been made to the Foreign Languages in the Upper Secondary School research which investigated the underlying reasons.

Measures to improve current levels of uptake

The Action Group believes that current uptake levels at Higher will be improved through the cumulative impact of a variety of measures taking place from P6 to S4. These include:

• establishment and delivery of a clear entitlement for all students;

• increased staffing and other support to consolidate languages at primary school;

• implementation of the new 5-14 Guidelines accompanied by the Guide for Teachers and Managers;

• implementation of revised Scottish Qualifications Authority arrangements at Standard Grade and introduction of Higher Still;

• languages innovation funding as an incentive to local authorities to develop flexible and innovative ways of delivering the specified entitlement and of going beyond this;

• introduction of ICT to promote new types of language learning and use, to make available new types of information and to give a modern image to language learning;

• improved information for students, parents, guidance and senior management staff concerning the benefits of languages for citizenship, education, employment and mobility in modern global society.

Implications for action

Higher Still puts in place a more coherent and articulated system of language levels that allows for smoother progression both within schools and between schools and Further or Higher Education. The overall system of levels is given in Appendix C. Nonetheless, despite these anticipated improvements, there are still important issues that require to be addressed in respect of languages in the upper secondary school and beyond. At our consultative meetings several voices from schools and Further Education expressed concern at what they considered to be the low profile of languages post-Standard Grade.

In keeping with our task of securing the place of modern languages at school and of promoting improved links with other sectors of formal education, we conclude that:

• there should be a Modern Languages endorsement of the Communication core skill. This would imply that the Scottish Qualifications Authority certificate stated the level of communication in a Modern Language as well as the level of Communication core skill itself. We welcome the fact that the Scottish Qualifications Authority has already begun to explore how this might be achieved;

• where possible, languages should be embedded in cohesive curricular packages that offer the beginnings of a vocational or professional orientation. This is commonplace nowadays in Higher Education degree programmes and is finding its way into vocational programmes in FE. There seems no reason in principle why the same should not apply in the upper secondary school. It is already possible to include a language as an optional component in a Scottish Group Award. We recommend that guidance, languages and other-subject staff should ensure that students are well-informed about the benefits of grouping their subjects in this way;

• group awards at Higher and Advanced Higher should not preclude the possibility of studying a second modern language at beginner's level. Again, this is commonplace in Higher Education through a range of ab initio language courses. Students taking these courses often make excellent progress. We therefore recommend that the Scottish Executive 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;

• serious consideration should be given to late partial immersion whereby students in the middle and upper secondary school learn other subject-matter through the medium of their modern languages. In this respect, ICT offers strong possibilities for 'virtual immersion'. There is indeed a good case for beginning this at an earlier point in the secondary school, as happens in many countries on the continent of Europe and elsewhere. There is no doubt that high-aptitude students in Scotland are capable of mastering intellectually demanding subject matter in this way. If so, they put themselves in a position to benefit from major opportunities for further study and employment elsewhere in Europe and beyond;

• Learning and Teaching Scotland, HEIs and other appropriate bodies possessing advanced ICT capacity should develop new modes of 'virtual' and autonomous language learning, enabling students to learn a new language of their choice by relying largely on their own capacities and ICT support. We welcome the steps that are already being taken in this direction, e.g. the Scottish Qualifications Authority's plans for development of ICT-based assessments that will integrate with ICT-based learning.

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