Supporting a coherent approach to languages and multilingualism in our society
The Languages Company was set up in 2008 to support the National Languages Strategy and to implement the Languages Review of 2007.
Since 2010, reforms have moved away from implementing national strategies in England, towards local solutions led by coalitions of schools; while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have pursued their own approaches.
In these new circumstances The Languages Company continues to support a strategic approach to languages, with in the UK and beyond.
“The Languages Company strives to provide a strategic view on language policy and language teaching and learning to decision makers, researchers and teachers. It is in the unique position of being able to draw on the widest range of sources of expertise and experience.”
Lid King
Transforming languages in our country is a major endeavour. It requires the combined efforts of many partners. We must therefore do everything we can to encourage collaboration and a strategic approach – especially with national and local decision makers.
This will involve working with key players, decision makers and researchers in the UK and internationally to help develop clear policy orientations for languages in the 21st Century. We aim to help articulate a clearer shared vision and understanding of the role of languages in economic and civil life and as a force for social cohesion.
Although we have made progress in recent years, language learning in schools is still hampered by some major fault lines. These involve “provision factors” such as time allocation, the age at which language learning begins, and teacher supply; as well as “organizational factors” such as option systems, timetabling and inconsistent exam grades. As the Languages Review so clearly reported, however, there is also an issue of engagement – or the lack of it – by young people.
We need to reflect on the approaches which help learners learn and those which are obstacles to progress, and we need to work to allow language teachers to develop their professional competences. We envisage that this too will require international cooperation – with colleagues in Europe and in other Anglophone countries in particular.
So much of the debate around languages in the UK focusses on delivery: funding, regulations, structures (or the lack thereof), and incentives often defined monetarily (such as the debate over tuition fees for four-year degrees, or the value of language skills to UK exports).
It is therefore important to participate in, take note of, and integrate a wide variety of research on language learning itself; and remember that there is much we can learn from the innovative thinking of colleagues in other parts of the country, and indeed colleagues in other countries.
The Languages Company is committed to participating in research projects in collaboration with a wide variety of partners.