< Previous | Contents | Next >

Citizens of a Multilingual World: Key Issues

12. Languages For Life

Although Further and Higher Education fall outside the Action Group's remit, we have become aware of strong interest from these sectors in our work. Contributions from these sectors at our consultative meetings have indicated a strong desire for a more coherent overall provision of languages, with better understandings across sectors and smoother pathways for learners bridging from one sector to another. In order to respond to this, we propose the development of a cross-sectoral working forum for languages. As local authorities develop their policies for community education, we believe that they and schools have a strong role to play in promoting lifelong language learning within an overall policy of social inclusion.

The importance of lifelong learning, which enables our society to respond to the demands of a changing and increasingly complex world, is widely recognised. We understand the term in its broadest sense as covering learning at the pre-school, school and post-school stages. In earlier Sections of our report we have discussed the school stage in detail, so in the present section we will concentrate on the post-school stage and on the role of schools in preparing students for this.

Languages in formal education post-school

We acknowledge the strong interest taken in the Action Group by staff in Further Education, Higher Education and Continuing Education, including their participation in the open parts of our meetings.

Becoming more coherent

At these meetings we became aware of a widespread view that languages in Scottish education ought to be more 'joined up' than they are at present, implying a clearer view of the key processes and outcomes of each sector (Primary, Secondary, Further, Continuing, Higher) and of how these might relate to each other.

Among the concerns expressed was lack of throughput from schools in view of declining numbers at Higher including loss of some of the best potential languages students, with recruitment to specialist degrees in languages suffering as a consequence. There were representations from Further Education that languages did not play a sufficiently prominent part in vocational qualifications even when they had the potential to do so, and that where they were included their role was often limited to a single module at basic level. There was also a feeling that more might be done nationally in order to develop a more coherent national framework for languages. There can be no doubt that increased uptake of modern languages at Higher and Advanced Higher will benefit not only the individuals concerned but will also give languages in formal education post-school a much-needed boost.

The uncertain situation of languages in Further and Higher Education undoubtedly has some influence on students' subject choices for Higher at school. Although the remit of the Action Group is concerned mainly with schools and does not extend directly to Further, Continuing or Higher Education, except in respect of Initial Teacher Education, we believe there is a case for developing stronger possibilities for languages within Further Education vocational qualifications and we welcome the advent of a Scottish branch of UCML (Universities Council on Modern Languages) that has already begun to address the problems associated with modern languages in Higher Education.

These representations lead us to conclude that better working links between national bodies, schools and other sectors of education should be established in respect of languages. We recommend therefore that Scottish CILT in collaboration with those bodies from each sector that are most directly involved in languages should establish and maintain a working forum at which they would make appropriate plans and recommendations for developing a clear, coherent and publicly available languages overview for Scotland that embraces all sectors of education. In this, the Council of Europe's Framework specification might provide a useful starting point, as will the 'benchmarking' research¹⁶ in Higher Education that is being supported through the SCOTLANG project.

This languages overview for Scotland would:

• articulate the key contribution of each of the sectors of education to Scotland's overall capability in languages, showing how these relate to each other;

• encourage ICT networks of innovative practice across sectors, e.g. Higher Education and primary schools collaborating in order to support languages at primary school; or Further Education and secondary schools collaborating in order to extend languages at Higher Still so that they are integral to a vocational qualification with built-in work experience; or Continuing Education and secondary or primary schools collaborating in order to encourage the concept of parents and the local community as language learners and users;

• set out the main pathways that students might follow in order to extend their languages proficiency for entering employment or further study.

Lifelong language learning

Adult language learners differ from younger language-learners in a number of ways. Generally they learn another language by choice and therefore probably have some purpose in mind. This purpose may create specific needs, e.g. to learn a language quickly because of an impending stay abroad. They tend to have more cognitively mature learning strategies at their disposal, some of these arising from their experience of the world and from their first-language education and literacy. In many cases however they experience higher levels of 'language anxiety' than do younger learners.

Already in this brief statement about adult language learners there are clear implications for languages at school. Schools might help students to think of what their later purposes in language learning might be; to learn basic principles of learning any language, so that subsequent language-learning as an adult may be as time-efficient as possible; to acquire strategies for countering the 'language anxiety' which is known to have a more inhibiting effect on older than on younger language learners.

Adults might decide to begin learning another language in order to go abroad for a variety of reasons that may include taking a holiday, pursuing a particular hobby, or for engaging in study, training or work. Increasingly, languages will be learnt in part at home, possibly with ICT creating a virtual home-based language environment. In this, the National Grid for Learning may be as relevant to adult language learners as it is to learners at school.

Another key role that adult language learners may have is as parents of children who are educated at home during their first five years and who eventually learn another language at school. If they are to fulfil this 'language education' role well, parents may need advice and encouragement in respect of understanding and supporting their children's first- as well as second-language development, including how a process such as the acquisition of first-language literacy might support the learning of a second language.

There is a substantial social agenda here in order to help adults in their dual role of moving further into their own language learning and in supporting that of their children. Two key social factors have to be taken into account:

First, for many adults in Scotland change has to be viewed as intended 'emancipation' and 'empowerment' supported by the Scottish Executive's agenda for social inclusion. The explicit aim of social inclusion is to attack the root causes of poverty and the disempowering effects of racial, social, educational and religious prejudice. The agenda therefore includes encouraging disadvantaged adults to find the confidence to come forward and express their own views as to what their needs and interests are. We see the learning and use of another language as having a potentially beneficial effect in this regard. It can help disadvantaged adults broaden their horizons, gain a new sense of personal identity and purpose, re-locate the self in new notions of community and raise their levels of aspiration. Since social inclusion implies promoting inclusion not only in Scottish society but also in the wider society including the European Union, we see languages as conferring benefits to disadvantaged communities as well as to individuals. Through ICT and transnational projects communities in one part of Europe can be put in touch with communities in another, with languages playing a supportive role in promoting intercultural understanding and solidarity.

Second, Higher Education is exploiting ICT in order to access adults living in remote or disadvantaged areas who otherwise would be unable to study at university. ICT then can help adults move from no formal learning post-school to accredited learning in Further or Higher Education. In respect of languages it can help them bridge the gap between being at home on an island in the Hebrides and accessing information of their own choice on what is happening today in Berlin, Bordeaux, Barcelona or Bologna. However, distance-learning using new and constantly up-dated modes of ICT, is not a straightforward business. Schools have an important task in preparing students for this eventual role by introducing students at school to concepts and techniques of distance-learning for languages.

Supporting lifelong learning at school

Schools have an important role to play in developing a potential for successful further learning as an adult:

• in helping students recognise the value of their linguistic abilities;

• in ensuring that, in addition to the skills they have acquired in a particular language, students are also aware that they have learnt how to learn languages;

• in giving students confidence to use their languages and to return to language study when they need to do so.

In addition, language learning at school is one of the ways in which students can develop the skills, capabilities, dispositions and values with which to deal effectively with change and to engage with learning throughout their lives. These qualities, which are fundamental to the success of a society that depends on relationships, are at the heart of modern languages learning. They include the development of:

• ICT skills relating to language-learning and -use;

• strategies, skills and perseverance needed for autonomous learning at a distance;

• communicative and intercultural competence;

• personal and interpersonal skills;

• the ability to work well with others;

• self-confidence and an empathetic understanding of other people and cultures.

Experiences in modern languages classrooms can help young people acquire the ability to change and adapt, and to recognise that learning is not just a matter of acquiring new information, but of making new connections and meanings -central aims of learning any language. This is one of the principal reasons why languages are a key component of the school curriculum.

Developing in young people and adults a commitment to learning, the habits of mind that underpin an understanding of themselves as constant learners, in both formal and informal contexts, is a challenge. Many perceive learning as something that happens only in institutional settings and that is not connected to their lives as a whole. Others are discouraged by their apparent lack of achievement in school settings and see further learning as an irrelevant and unappetising option.

Schools then have a central role not only in preparing students for lifelong learning but also in acting as a stimulus for lifelong learning actually to take place, as is illustrated by the following examples:

It is of course not only languages teachers who have a role to play in enabling students to recognise the lifelong value of their abilities to learn and use languages. Guidance staff for example can underline the importance of being well-informed about the range of educational and career opportunities for people who can claim language skills in addition to other skills and qualifications desirable in prospective students or new employees. School managers can endorse the value of a language qualification in conjunction with a range of other subject qualifications, and can devise flexible timetable arrangements which allow a wide range of subject + language combinations. Local authorities can make funds available for the use of open and distance learning opportunities in order to ensure that all students who wish to continue language learning, at whatever level, or start a new language, are able to do so.

Implications for action:

We conclude that the following measures would be appropriate:

• schools should seek to develop in their students not only those qualities and strategies that will benefit their language learning in the short term but that will also prepare them for subsequent language learning and use as adults;

• encouragement should be given in Further Education to raising the profile of languages in modular vocational qualifications;

• a national working forum should be established through Scottish CILT, with representation from all sectors of education and training, that will work towards an overview of languages across the entire sector, drawing on the Council of Europe Framework in the process;

• as local authorities develop their strategies for community education, encouragement should be given to adults to explore the possibilities of language learning within an overall policy of social inclusion.

< Previous | Contents | Next >