Why is research needed into the history of modern language education in the UK?
Modern language education (MLE) - the basis for building the UK's capacity in translation and interpreting at the highest levels of international cooperation - has, over the last century, never matched the UK's need to represent its interests in European and global communication. The number of pupils taking German at 16 is now lower than in 1985, and for French as low as in 1965. Spanish, predicted since the 1918 Leathes Report to take off because of its economic importance, has begun to do so only in the last decade. Russian - introduced into some schools during the Cold War - has remained a niche subject, despite the fact that it has 150 million speakers. Chinese - with over a billion speakers - is still merely listed under 'other modern languages' in GCSE statistics.
Modern language educators, who bear a heavy responsibility in developing the needed capacity, are experiencing a sense of crisis in the face of this mismatch between strategic needs and the realities of modern languages provision and take-up. In the face of this crisis, it is our contention that history can provide useful lessons and a valuable sense of perspective - policy, curricula and methods/techniques all need to be developed with an awareness of the history of modern language education in mind, which can tell us what measures have been tried, and with what success, to promote particular languages or particular approaches to language learning in primary, secondary, tertiary and lifelong educational settings.
Indeed, some historical awareness of how and why modern languages have been taught and learnt has long been argued to be an important part of the training of language teachers (cf. Stern 1983; Hawkins 1987). Yet, in the UK at least, the history of the teaching of modern languages remaiuns severely under-researched, a situation which contrasts markedly with that elsewhere in Europe. In Germany, for example, the history of language teaching is a substantive field, complete with its own subject bibliographies. Elsewhere, there are separate associations for the history of teaching in specific countries (APHELLE and SEHEL for Portugal and Spain, CIRSIL for Italy, PHG for the Netherlands) and for the history of teaching individual languages (notably, SIHFLES for French). This infrastructure is so far lacking in the UK.
In order to address these lacks, we aim to bring together researchers in the UK with either a potential or a concrete interest in the history of Modern Foreign Language education - historians, applied linguists, and MLE specialists - and we aim also to introduce them to colleagues already active in the field in Europe, with two objectives in mind for achieving the overall goal of informing future MLE policy and capacity development:
1. sharing methodologies and findings, with the long-term goal of writing the history of modern language learning in the UK, and
2. working towards histories of European modern foreign language education that transcend national and subject boundaries.
Two workshops (2012, 2013) and a conference (2014) are currently planned which are intended to further these objectives and which will result in several publications. Please contact Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith using the contact form on the home page if you are interested in taking part and we will add you to our mailing list.
Modern language educators, who bear a heavy responsibility in developing the needed capacity, are experiencing a sense of crisis in the face of this mismatch between strategic needs and the realities of modern languages provision and take-up. In the face of this crisis, it is our contention that history can provide useful lessons and a valuable sense of perspective - policy, curricula and methods/techniques all need to be developed with an awareness of the history of modern language education in mind, which can tell us what measures have been tried, and with what success, to promote particular languages or particular approaches to language learning in primary, secondary, tertiary and lifelong educational settings.
Indeed, some historical awareness of how and why modern languages have been taught and learnt has long been argued to be an important part of the training of language teachers (cf. Stern 1983; Hawkins 1987). Yet, in the UK at least, the history of the teaching of modern languages remaiuns severely under-researched, a situation which contrasts markedly with that elsewhere in Europe. In Germany, for example, the history of language teaching is a substantive field, complete with its own subject bibliographies. Elsewhere, there are separate associations for the history of teaching in specific countries (APHELLE and SEHEL for Portugal and Spain, CIRSIL for Italy, PHG for the Netherlands) and for the history of teaching individual languages (notably, SIHFLES for French). This infrastructure is so far lacking in the UK.
In order to address these lacks, we aim to bring together researchers in the UK with either a potential or a concrete interest in the history of Modern Foreign Language education - historians, applied linguists, and MLE specialists - and we aim also to introduce them to colleagues already active in the field in Europe, with two objectives in mind for achieving the overall goal of informing future MLE policy and capacity development:
1. sharing methodologies and findings, with the long-term goal of writing the history of modern language learning in the UK, and
2. working towards histories of European modern foreign language education that transcend national and subject boundaries.
Two workshops (2012, 2013) and a conference (2014) are currently planned which are intended to further these objectives and which will result in several publications. Please contact Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith using the contact form on the home page if you are interested in taking part and we will add you to our mailing list.