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Towards a Language Policy at LSE

Towards a Language Policy at LSE. Nick Byrne Academic and Professional Development/Language Centre. Why a language policy now?. British Academy: Language Matters http://www.britac.ac.uk/reports/language-matters/index.cfm Worton Review: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2009/09_41/

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Towards a Language Policy at LSE

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  1. Towards a Language Policy at LSE Nick Byrne Academic and Professional Development/Language Centre

  2. Why a language policy now? • British Academy: Language Matters http://www.britac.ac.uk/reports/language-matters/index.cfm • Worton Review:http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2009/09_41/ • Feeling that we should have a policy is shared by senior management andlanguage centre

  3. The quote of the year (2009) • David Lammy MP, Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property: • “A university without languages is a university without universality.” Taken from David Lammy’s introductory speech at British Academy, 3rd. June 2009 • http://www.davidlammy.co.uk/da/101469

  4. LSE – the international dimension • 9000 students • 30% UG • 70% PG • 50/50 UK and non-UK • International • Multinational • Students • Workforce • Multi-lingual • London

  5. The present situation for languages at LSE • 250 students study a language as part of their degree: French, German, Mandarin (from 2010/11), Russian, Spanish • 1500 learn a language as a certificate course (as above + Arabic, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Turkish) • www.lse.ac.uk/languages

  6. What is the UK picture? (1) AULC www.aulc.org survey on students taking language courses • 2007/08: 49% take a language as an extra-curricular activity • 2007/08: 51% take a language as an assessed module • 2007/08 (56 institutions) • Degree module: 33257 • Extra-Cur: 31965 • Total: 65222 • 07/08: Female 66% Male 34% • 07/08: PG 25% UG 75% • EU-UK: 75% EU-other: 14% • Non-EU: 11% • 07/08: 49% • take a language as an extra-curricular activity

  7. What is the UK picture? (2) Most popular languages taken as an extra-curricular activity in across UG & PG in English HEI’s in 2007/08 • French 23% • Spanish 24% • German 13% • Chinese 11% • Italian 7% • Japanese 7% • Russian 6% • Arabic 5% • Others 4%

  8. What is the UK picture? (3) Usefulness of a knowledge of languages in career goals (2007/08) • A great deal • 28% • Quite a lot • 21% • Some help • 39% • No difference • 12%

  9. What is the UK picture? (4) Planning to work abroad? (2007/08) • UK-EU students • Don’t know: 31% • No: 8% • Yes: 61% • Other-EU students • Don’t know: 14% • No: 0% • Yes: 86% • Non-EU students • Don’t know: 20% • No: 0% • Yes: 80%

  10. What is the UK picture? (5) EU goal of mother-tongue + 2 (2007/08) • Necessary • UK-EU: 30% • Other-EU: 49% • Non-EU: 43% • Achievable • UK-EU: 44% • Other-EU: 63% • Non-EU: 83% • Desirable:96%

  11. Zero-cost measures… • Endorsement from the top • Buy-in from academic departments • Buy-in from employers • Greater profile in all publicity • Advantages more clearly shown • Multi-national branding extended to multi-lingual • LSE language champions

  12. £££ measures… • Language awards • Study trip bursaries • Language Week • Free language courses for any UK student who doesn’t have a GCSE…highly recommended but not compulsory

  13. Towards national policies? • Yes and No… • Universities are developing policies which fit their own profile • Momentum to get this done now • Competitive edge • Positive picture could emerge • AULC will place all policies on their website

  14. Towards a European consensus • Wulkow Memorandumhttp://www.sz.euv-frankfurt-o.de/de/startsite_news/news1/Newsdoc/The-Wulkow-Memorandum.pdf is being adopted by national associations of university languages centres and by CERCLES www.cercles.org • European universities could start to cross-market their language offer based on or using existing models such as UNIcert or agreed “kite-marking” accreditation procedures http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~unicert/e/index.htm

  15. LSE commitment to language projects • CMC • Communicating in Multilingual Contexts The project is designed to cater for the needs of mobility students prior to exchange programmes with particular focus on academic language skills development. • EXPLICS • The aim of the EXPLICS project is to improve language competence of students by preparing models of best-practice in how to exploit Internet case study and simulation templates

  16. Contact details • Nick Byrne • n.byrne@lse.ac.uk

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