Citizens of a Multilingual World

Rationale

Why are Languages Important?

Introduction

The Action Group for Languages was established in 1998 by Helen Liddell, then Minister for Education, to consider the place of modern language education in Scottish schools. One of the first issues addressed by the Action Group was the development of a rationale for language learning which is published here as a separate document, most suitably identifiable with the rest of the Report, Citizens of a Multilingual World, but equally relevant as an independent document.

One of the recommendations made by the Action Group for Languages was that the arguments and justification for learning a language should be widely disseminated. This information is useful and relevant not only to schools and teachers of modern languages, but to pupils, parents, guidance teachers, business and many others.

Why Languages are Important

Members of the Action Group held the view that for a proper consideration of how to secure the place of modern languages in Scottish education, it would be necessary to develop a rationale which presented coherent and cogent reasons for supporting languages education in Scottish schools. The Group noted the lack of a rationale in previously published national statements on the state of languages in our schools and considered that the presence of a rationale would be of benefit not only to languages teachers but also to parents, guidance staff, senior management, staff in post-school education, in business and in the wider society. This section then sets out the Action Group's Rationale for Languages. Although many languages teachers are aware of why languages are important, the research evidence in Scotland suggests that parents and other important categories of staff (e.g. in guidance and in senior management) do not always understand these arguments. The evidence also suggests that languages teachers themselves are not always successful in communicating these arguments to their students. There are traditional reasons for learning other languages but we consider it essential to interpret these in relation to the fast-changing modern world. In particular, we consider it essential to provide all students at school in Scotland with the knowledge, transferable skills and human qualities that will enable them to be internationally mobile. Languages, particularly when reinforced through ICT, can help them feel at ease with other cultures and with the knowledge economy, and to make their mark both here and abroad as citizens of a diverse, multilingual, global society.

The conventional reasons for learning a modern language in Scottish schools have been:

• to develop an ability to communicate in the language,

• to access other cultures through the language, and

• to enhance awareness of what language is, how it is structured and how it is used, by comparing the language with English or other first languages.

These reasons still apply today. However, despite the best efforts of many teachers to make them as relevant as possible, we acknowledge that many students across the full range of attainment find language-learning a somewhat de-motivating experience which they do not perceive as strongly relevant to their immediate prospects in life.

In the modern idiom

Accordingly, we place 'motivation', 'relevance' and 'lifelong learning' at the centre of our 'rationale for languages'. In doing so, we seek to associate the learning and use of languages with the major changes that are sweeping across Scottish and international society. This implies a significant 're-imaging' of languages so that they are associated with key signposts of our contemporary society such as 'mobility', 'information and knowledge', 'ICT', 'economic regeneration', 'quality of life', 'marketability', 'diversity', 'equity', 'inclusion' and perhaps above all with 'opportunity'.

Opportunities for modern languages in the modern world

Mobility in Europe and further afield within the emerging Europe, opportunities for study and employment are not confined to one's country of origin. We accordingly believe that Scottish education has a major task in preparing young Scots for 'mobility'. Our partners on the continent of Europe already enjoy the fruits of mobility by coming to Scotland for study and employment. They also come for reasons of culture and tourism. Even from their homes they enjoy 'virtual' mobility by using their second or third language in order to hit Scottish web-sites in very large numbers - and in doing so they learn an enormous amount about us that will be of advantage to them.

In order to maintain our reputation for providing a world-class education for students at school, we believe they must be prepared for mobility, particularly within Europe's 'vast multilingual space'. Soon there will be over 20 different national languages in the EU alongside many others that may be lesser used but that are nonetheless fundamental to the identity and everyday life of particular communities.

If young Scots leave school in a state of entrenched monolingualism or faltering and apologetic bilingualism, they will not enjoy equality with their more 'mobile' peers elsewhere in Europe when it comes to opportunities for further study, training, work experience or employment. 'Mobility' does not necessarily imply doing a full course of study or obtaining a permanent post in another country. It implies being able to 'move around' in order to benefit from short-term as well as longer-term opportunities, making it a priority for Scotland to promote the notion of 'languages for lifelong learning' since it is not possible to predict exactly what languages a mobile citizen of the future will need, or when. Opportunities for a semester's study abroad or a work placement will be enhanced if the person concerned is comfortable with languages, even if they have to take a short course in the particular language of the country as their third or fourth language.

Social inclusion, citizenship and democracy

It would be unacceptable if the opportunities arising from 'mobility' were to be available only to elite groups within the population. Advice received from the business community suggests that there are opportunities and needs for languages both here and abroad across a wide spectrum of achievement and activity: not only for the high-powered international manager, the MEP, the diplomat or the international news reporter but also for the lorry-driver, the secretary, the shop assistant, the receptionist and the taxi-driver. In this sense it is encouraging to learn of one Scottish town in which the taxi drivers are receiving basic modern language instruction, and of a well-known distillery in which all employees, including those who put the bottles of whisky in their boxes, are required to possess some modern language competence.

We consider that education in languages at school has an essential role to play in preparing all students for citizenship of the wider society. If it helps them become sensitive to the languages and cultures of others and develops in them sufficient confidence and competence to be able to use their languages, however modestly, in their interactions with other citizens, then we believe they are more likely to understand others and to be respected by them. In this way the wider society becomes more open, democratic and inclusive.

In respect of 'social inclusion' it is appropriate that languages teachers at school should play their part along with teachers of other curricular areas. They can do so by helping all young people - and not only the highest achievers - to develop positive aspirations and to perceive and grasp the opportunities that are now becoming available within the wider Europe.

The age of information

A feature of present-day society is its move towards a post-industrial phase characterised by the rapid growth of high technology, the rise of service industry and a substantial reduction of repetitive tasks. The challenge to our educational system will be that it should produce young people who are able to handle information, acquire new types of knowledge, think flexibly and communicate confidently with correspondents ('real' and 'virtual') from other countries. Although the main language of the Internet is English, there is a vast amount of potentially relevant information available in other languages. The Action Group does not possess the expertise to predict how languages will be used on the Internet but we note a large-scale survey of 29,000 Internet users around the world in which the investigators state that at present 72% currently prefer to surf in English but predict that this will drop to 64% by 2003.

The ICT now becoming available will facilitate new forms of modern language use. There is already evidence to suggest it has considerable potential both for enhancing learners' motivation and for engaging them in new forms of modern language interaction with a variety of native-speakers on topics that are relevant to them and up-to-date. The potential for intercultural enrichment is enormous but things will only really 'fly' if the partner-students express themselves and their cultures (in part at least) in their own languages and Scottish students develop a capacity to understand other cultures (in part at least) through the languages in which these cultures are expressed.

An implication of the above is that students at school are likely to perceive more relevance in Reading and Writing than at present, as they access the Internet and use e-mail. At the same time, Listening and Speaking will receive a parallel boost through video-conferencing, enabling them to engage in regular 'live' face-to-face interaction with their counterparts in schools elsewhere in Europe. This has already been shown to have had a positive impact on students' confidence and aspirations but also on their development of more autonomous strategies for learning and communication.

Language, cultural diversity and identity

In Scotland there are two indigenous heritage languages - Scottish Gaelic (with the 1991 UK census indicating just under 66,000 speakers) and Scots (with a much larger though not systematically quantified number of speakers). There are also several community languages such as Urdu, Cantonese, Bengali, Polish, Arabic, Italian and Japanese. In fact Scotland is and always has been a linguistically diverse country. However, today's Scottish public are not fully persuaded of the benefits of linguistic diversity. This leads us to believe that public attitudes to languages - to Scottish Gaelic and Scots, to the community languages now spoken in Scotland and to modern European languages such as French, German, Spanish and Italian - require to be addressed. The continuing vitality of our lesser-used heritage and community languages is important not only for the communities who speak these languages. It also enriches our entire society and makes it more socially inclusive. We congratulate the Gaelic community in having achieved much success in Gaelic-medium primary education and in making Gaelic culture accessible to a mass audience. We also welcome the advent of the Excellence Fund initiative in Glasgow which will promote community as well as modern foreign languages.

Children from heritage and community language backgrounds going through school will in many cases bring aspects of their culture with them, including their language. For them a modern language such as French, German, Spanish or Italian may be their third or fourth language, and English not necessarily their first. In line with current policies favouring respect for ethnic diversity and social justice, it will be important to provide opportunities for linguistic development and accreditation for those who wish to continue to develop their skills in a heritage or community language or who wish to develop a language which is a significant part of their cultural identity, including British Sign Language. In this sense, the advent of a Standard Grade in Urdu is welcome as a first step towards more and higher-level national certification in community languages. It should be noted that Urdu is not only a community language in Scotland but also a major international language and as such has a double benefit to offer.

Teaching a modern language then fits into a broader framework of 'languages and learning' at school. It has a central role to play in helping all students connect the notion of linguistic and cultural diversity in Scotland with the notion of linguistic and cultural diversity in the wider Europe where many millions of people speak a language (whether an indigenous language such as Breton, Catalan, Basque, Frisian, Friulian, Ladino, Sorbian or an indigenised language such as Turkish in Germany or Portuguese in Luxembourg) that is not the majority language of the country in which they live.

But what of English as global language?

The rapid emergence of English as global language poses a problem but also offers opportunities for modern languages.

Problem

The problem is that, since most students in Scotland speak English, which is the main language of global communication, they may ask whether it is really necessary to learn any other language. However, in his 1999 Reith lectures on globalisation, Anthony Giddens argues that: 'Globalisation is the reason for the revival of local identities in different parts of the world.' (Giddens, 1999: 12-13). Local languages are often an essential ingredient in local identities. There is no doubt that the epicentre of globalisation is the United States, yet even there the Spanish language has a substantial and increasing population of speakers. Indeed, Giddens argues that globalisation has led to the 'latinisation' of Los Angeles.

Opportunity

The 'opportunity' arises from the increased mobility that global English offers. It can take people from Scotland all over the world, thereby enabling contacts to be established that otherwise might not have occurred and from which opportunities and needs for modern languages may arise. This applies to contacts elsewhere in Europe as well as in the wider world, whether for business, pleasure or other purposes.

Most people in the world speak more than one language and as a result of global English as a second or foreign language the proportion is increasing. Those who are monolingual in English may run the risk of being perceived by others as having a limited and possibly arrogant outlook on life. 'Seeing ourselves as others see us' is a Scottish tradition. Do native speakers of Scottish English wish to be patronised as being largely monolingual when the rest of the world is not? A monolingual mentality is not the same as a multilingual one. There is therefore an educational reason for learning a modern language which is that it can allow students to operate two or more different systems of representation and thereby acquire the flexibility of perspective shared by the rest of the world who speak more than one language.

Although global English enables people from Scotland to communicate with many people abroad, particularly those who are well educated, this is not always the case. If the intention is to communicate or do business with those in other countries who do not belong to the educated middle classes, then English-alone is unlikely to suffice. John Trim, former Director of the Council of Europe languages project, has stated: 'Each country lives its national life through its national and in some cases regional languages. Foreign visitors or residents who know nothing of that language ..... are likely to find themselves marginalised, even isolated. They will have access only to that information which is directed to the outsider.' (Trim, 1997: 7). He also claims there is 'little awareness among British or American people of the dangerous resentments which can be built up by unequal conversation'. There is little evidence to suggest that our counterparts elsewhere in Europe will passively accept the emergence of English as the dominant lingua franca across the European Union and they tend to welcome it when we attempt to speak their language. Moreover, the DTI have claimed that: '... there are increasing signs of linguistic nationalism; e.g. France and Germany increasingly want to retain their cultural identity in the single market.'

What sorts of modern language competence will students need in this changing world?

It cannot be stated with confidence how the 'languages game' will be played in European and international society of the future. The rise of English as global language means that students, businesspersons and others from Scotland will increasingly find themselves in fluid and changing rather than predictable and fixed situations of language use. In particular, they may find themselves increasingly in situations abroad where more than one language is used within the one event. This is potentially encouraging for

English-speaking learners of other modern languages. It means they need not aspire to reach the inaccessible pinnacle of the native speaker (which has been an implicit though unattainable aim of traditional language teaching to an elite minority) but instead may require new and more pragmatic types of competence in communication in which they draw on such languages as they possess, ensuring that these work together in order to achieve a desired effect. If so, this will have important consequences for the education system which will seek to develop in students the following pragmatic sorts of competence:

• to communicate entirely in international English in certain contexts;

• to communicate entirely in their modern language in other contexts;

• to communicate in 'mixed mode' in other contexts, using both English and one or more other modern languages.

We should add that communication in international English is not straightforward and to be taken for granted as something that native speakers of English are automatically able to achieve. They may be attempting to communicate with speakers of English as a foreign language from different cultures in other parts of the world who may bring with them very different cultural understandings of words used in common. An English-speaking person from Scotland will in fact need to use very much the same strategies of communication across cultures when using international English as will be needed when using another modern language.

Communication in 'mixed mode' may take several forms. When abroad, persons from Scotland may for example find themselves in situations where:

• participants speak one of two or three languages that are sanctioned for use at the particular event. This may mean a person from Scotland not needing to speak any language other than English but needing to understand one or more other languages - 'passive bilingualism' of this sort is an increasingly common feature of international meetings;

• participants speak and understand the two or three languages in use, but not in equal measure. This may mean participants from Scotland reserving their main statements for those parts of the discussion that are conducted in English, while still being able to make a less major contribution to the discussion when it is happening in the other languages. Their (albeit more limited) use of the other language may well make the event more socially cohesive.

Conventions governing 'mixed mode' communication of this sort tend not to be fixed and it may be that the levels of use of particular languages will 'float', depending on how well participants speak them and what the constraints of the particular situation are. Mixed mode communication offers persons from Scotland when abroad an opportunity to 'show willing' in order to avoid a drift to monolingual communication entirely in English and it allows for greater parity of status across languages, an aspect that may be of great importance to speakers of other languages.

Mixed-mode communication underlines the importance of analysing as best one can the ways in which languages are actually used in different sorts of context, so that the aims, curriculum and assessments in respect of modern languages at school may be attuned to how language is pragmatically used in real life rather than to some ideal that is in fact not attainable.

Benefits to society

Benefits to economic regeneration

Languages can benefit the Scottish economy. Surveys of business need for language suggest that UK exports would be improved if our national capability in modern languages were greater. The Scottish Council Development and Industry survey of Scottish Manufacturing and Exports (1998/99) shows that of the top twelve countries to which Scotland sends manufactured exports, only one (the USA in third position) is primarily English-speaking. France and Germany are ahead in the top two places, with Italy challenging the United States for third place, and ten of the top twelve are in western Europe. The survey showed that the share of Scotland's manufactured exports destined for the European Union increased from 61% in 1997 to 63% in 1998, with a decline of 24.4% in export sales to the Asia Pacific markets in 1998. While the United States was identified as the top new market of interest, thirteen of the top twenty new markets of interest were in Europe.

Although of course global English will help Scottish firms greatly in exporting their manufactured goods and in maintaining export markets, modern languages also have a role to play, e.g. for product localisation and cultural empathy, which may give a competitive edge. Moreover, as the service sector of Scottish industry expands, there is a greater need for international communication skills both in Scotland and abroad. The clear view expressed by members of the business community at Action Group meetings has been in favour of modern languages. They have not always claimed that a particular language is needed for a particular business initiative or product, but they have consistently told us that a capacity in an additional language is an indicator of the flexible, mobile, communicative and culturally aware talent that they are seeking to recruit. At the launch of the Nuffield Inquiry report in May 2000, a leading international banker on the Nuffield Inquiry team stated that the English language no longer gave its native speakers a competitive edge in the world. If they wished to maintain a competitive edge they would have to develop communication skills in more than one language.

One of the factors affecting low uptake of languages at Higher was a perception that languages are not particularly useful for obtaining employment, and indeed some public figures have reinforced this view, claiming that languages graduates have high unemployment rates. The facts however tell a different story. The Marshall report which is derived from the statistics for first destinations of students leaving Higher Education institutions in 1996-98, shows an average unemployment rate of 4.3% for French, 5.5% for German and 5.6% for all modern languages. Only medicine/dentistry/vet science (0.4%), law (3.8%) and education (4.4%) fared better. Modern languages were superior to mathematics (6.0%), computing (6.7%, English (7.4%), psychology (7.8%), business/administration (7.4%), engineering/technology (7.6%) and creative arts/design (10.5%). The Marshall report also dismisses the myth that the only jobs available to those with a languages degree are teaching, translating, tourism and diplomacy. It identifies as key areas of employment for languages graduates: business services (26%), manufacturing (12.7%), wholesale/retail services (11.6%), health/community/social services (11.1%), banking/finance (10.4%), transport/communications (9.4%). The report claims that 35%-40% of graduate jobs are open to people from any discipline, and that graduates with a languages qualification are particularly well qualified in cultural knowledge and communication skills, an area to which employers give high priority. It does not necessarily mean that a modern language will always necessarily be used in the job, but it contributes to the packages of qualities that make applicants employable. This coincides exactly with what the business representatives said to the Action Group at its consultative meetings.

Although the Action Group's main concern is schools rather than universities, we believe that these figures on graduate employment in languages are directly relevant to students at school in S3 and S4 when considering whether or not to proceed to a Higher in a modern language. At present there is uncertainty in Scotland as to the precise role of languages for business. Needs are not always perceived and opportunities may not be grasped. Languages education at school followed up by further study post-school can help to produce an outward-looking workforce with excellent cultural knowledge and communications skills that perceives opportunities to exploit languages in ways that will enhance their firm's business objectives.

ICT, commerce and languages

In order to attract inward investment it is increasingly accepted that high levels of ICT and language skill are advantageous. This applies not only to jobs in senior management but also across a wider spectrum and serves to reinforce our view that an ICT component should be built into all modern language courses from P6 to S4. There is a need to raise the profile of languages and ICT in Scotland to help make the country aware of e-business, e-commerce, e-call and e-procurement. While priority must go to developing skills in using the Internet, the rapid expansion of opportunities for e-business within a shrinking world is driving a need for languages ability. Customer expectations and the high stakes of winning or losing business require competence to deal in a customer's language. French or Spanish combined with ICT for example allow firms to seek and conduct business not simply with France and Spain but also with speakers of those languages in several countries across the world, all of them - near and far - accessible at the press of a button.

Benefits to quality of life through cultural and linguistic diversity

Modern languages at school should also make an important contribution to cultural and linguistic diversity in Scotland. For four reasons, we do not consider it makes sense for Scotland as a country to rely exclusively on one modern language (probably French) as the sole first modern language of all students at school.

Many languages have a claim

First, France and Germany are the top two countries to which Scotland exports manufactured goods. There is no clear reason for favouring French over German or vice-versa as the country's sole first modern language. Spanish is the second most widely spoken first language in the world (after Mandarin, and ahead of English in third place). Italian has fewer speakers than Spanish but Italy is a major receiver of manufactured Scottish exports, receives large numbers of tourists from Scotland each year and Scotland possesses a thriving community that is of Italian origin. Moreover, some students may have strong cultural reasons for maintaining Scottish Gaelic, Urdu or some other community language as their first language or for learning it as their second, and it may make sense for them to do so before taking another European language as their third language.

A nation receptive to the thoughts and attitudes of other nations

Second, it is in Scotland's interest to have within its native population significant numbers who speak or understand one or other of the main languages of the European Union and of other parts of the world. This makes us as a nation more receptive to the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviours of our partners and competitors, it enables our population as a whole to be widely mobile and it gives a positive signal that in as diverse a structure as the European Union Scotland takes diversity seriously. This conveys a more positive image of Scottish diversity than would be possible if we allowed one modern language to dominate all others. We believe that diversity of this sort can have practical benefits. By the summer of 2000 for example Scotland's tourism industry was judged to be seriously under-performing. We do not claim that this industry would be turned round if everybody in the Scottish tourist industry was able to communicate in more than English, but we do believe that an increased national capability in languages would enable people from Scotland to achieve greater success in going abroad to many different countries in order to 'sell' Scotland for tourist purposes and would also allow those in Scotland to extend courtesies to larger numbers of tourists in their languages.

Diversity of modern languages as a reflection of diversity in Scotland

Third, global inward investment and Europeanisation are generating new linguistic and cultural communities in Scotland e.g. through foreign nationals who come for business or other purposes and who may remain and become indigenised. This begins to create opportunities for schools to develop languages links with local businesses, groups or individuals and thereby respond to community needs.

Diversity of first modern language and second modern language uptake

Fourth, diversity of first modern language encourages the uptake of a second modern language. If French for example were to increase its already substantial dominance as first modern language in Scotland, students wondering if they should take a second foreign language such as German, Spanish or Italian would have only limited access to other students in Scotland learning these languages and to their teachers. If on the other hand French, German, Spanish or Italian were taught as first modern language in a rather more balanced distribution, then students considering whether to take a particular second modern language would have access to students and their teachers who were studying or teaching that language as a first modern language. Scottish society will be richer, and public attitudes to languages better informed, if its body of students are encouraged to share their experiences of different languages and thereby to acquire motivation for widening their linguistic and cultural repertoire.

Diversity at national level

It should be emphasised that these arguments in favour of modern languages diversity are expressed in relation to Scotland as a country. Without it, Scotland as a country would be the poorer. It does not follow, however, that there should necessarily be diversity of first modern language in every secondary school. The issue of how local authorities and schools might plan for diversity in order that the country as a whole enjoys and can sustain a diversified modern languages provision is discussed in Section 6 of our report: Catering for more than one language.

Benefits to schools

Schools as brokers of intercultural exchange

Languages departments have for long made an important contribution to the intercultural ethos of Scottish schools, not only through language teaching but also through school visits abroad and reciprocal school exchanges. The foreign language assistant has been a cultural ambassador valued by many staff beyond those who teach languages.

It is gradually becoming more possible through ICT and through projects funded by the European Commission for schools in Scotland to develop fruitful contacts with schools in other countries. If these contacts are maintained exclusively in English, the richness of their potential will be greatly reduced. Contacts of this sort are of potential benefit not only to students but also the whole school community, affording them opportunities for actually putting their language skills to use, encouraging teachers for example to blend a modern language into their own subject knowledge and gradually to promote a concept of Scottish schools as brokers of intercultural exchange.

Benefits to students

All of the preceding sections of the rationale bear primarily on the one group that is at the centre of our concerns: students at school in Scotland. We believe that in a multilingual world a modern language has enormous benefit to offer all students at primary or secondary school, regardless of their age or their aptitude, their starting- or their finishing point, and including those with special needs.

The benefit arises from their being enabled to access and interact with real people who speak and use other languages; and to engage with relevant, interesting and up-to-date information presented by modern means.

We see this benefit as being fulfilled both as they proceed through their schooling and also in the longer term through their further study, leisure and employment.

Benefits to students' personal and educational development while at school

As students progress through their education at school, a modern language will be of benefit to their personal and educational development in a variety of ways. It will allow them to establish contact with people of their own age who speak other languages and to access information from other cultures. It will help them thereby to understand that experience of the world through another language can be just as 'real' and 'valid' as experience of the world through English. It will offer them the positive experience of developing an entirely new mode of understanding and expression and an opportunity to acquire an explicit understanding of what the components of language are and how these may be manipulated for different purposes. It will allow them to derive cognitive benefits through problem-solving, memorisation, recall, making connections, attending to detail and pragmatic strategies.

All of these are basic transferable skills that can be activated or enhanced through a modern language. Learning a modern language will help students to develop strategies for learning and using language that will assist them not only with their current modern language but with others also that they may subsequently learn. It will encourage them to appreciate and participate in cultural and linguistic diversity, both in Scotland and across the world, and in new and up-to-date ways it will bring languages into Scottish family life at home.

Benefits post-school

By the time they leave school, students will be able to derive further benefits from modern languages in the longer-term. They will associate languages with opportunity for further study that is not necessarily confined to Scotland. They will feel they have acquired an initial capacity for international mobility that will enable them to think internationally when they consider how they wish to make the best of their careers. They will have the confidence to learn other languages as needs and opportunities arise. They will be able to pursue their present leisure and cultural interests in greater depth and to acquire new and unpredicted interests. They will feel that languages are a gateway and not a barrier to the world and that they are in the process of becoming 'citizens of a multilingual world'.

Implications for action

Having sought to clarify why languages are important, we believe that:

• these arguments should be made available to all with an interest in languages education in Scotland, including students and their parents, languages and guidance teachers, education managers in local authorities and their schools, staff and students in teacher education, policy makers and members of the business community;

• national bodies should collaborate to produce and disseminate versions of the rationale which are adapted to suit the needs of the different audiences listed ;

• local authorities, teachers and students should take steps to develop their own texts that exemplify and further develop the general principles of the rationale in terms of their own everyday experience;

• national bodies in education and business should continue to gather and disseminate up-to-date information on national and local needs for languages;

• languages stakeholders in Scotland should exploit the opportunities arising from the fact that 2001 has been designated by the European Commission and the Council of Europe as the European Year of Languages (EYL). As the EYL co-ordinating body for Scotland, Scottish CILT will be seeking the collaboration of a wide range of bodies representing different interests.

Cross-reference to the Recommendations text

Key points from this section are summarised and integrated into Recommendation 1 of the Recommendations text entitled The Relevance of learning other languages