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Language teaching (and research) in HE

Language teaching (and research) in HE. Richard Hudson UCML Jan 2008. An ideal world. At school , languages are: well taught popular BA FL graduates are: numerous enthusiastic about teaching at school well informed about school-relevant topics

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Language teaching (and research) in HE

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  1. Language teaching (and research) in HE Richard Hudson UCML Jan 2008

  2. An ideal world • At school, languages are: • well taught • popular • BA FL graduates are: • numerous • enthusiastic about teaching at school • well informed about school-relevant topics • NB: HE feeds schools, and is fed by them.

  3. The educational cycle adult researcher BA know- ledge research school teacher know- ledge Year 1-13 infant

  4. Reality in schools • Languages are deeply unpopular in state schools. • GCSE numbers fell steeply after optionality. • A-level numbers have been falling since 1993. • But languages thrive in independent schools.

  5. Reality in schools: GCSE languages

  6. A-level entries since 1938

  7. French and German’s market share

  8. Reality in HE: BA degrees in French or German

  9. UCAS applications for FL degrees

  10. But UG numbers have stabilized?

  11. A diagnosis: schools • Year 10 drop languages because they’re • difficult • boring • not because they’re useless. (Dearing)

  12. Boring and difficult at KS3-4 • MFL are the least liked subject (QCA 2007) • French is the worst-taught subject (pupil survey in TES) • MFL have no linguistic or cultural content (think-tank Civitas in Telegraph) • “… the quality of teaching … in [MFL at KS3] needs to be raised in comparison with other subjects.” (DfES) • Why?

  13. Because language is boring? No - look at AQA A-level English Language!

  14. Because good teachers are rare? Applications for French & German PGCE

  15. Why are FL teachers scarce? • Schools teach language, but little or no literature. • But in many (most?) HE courses, the dominant topics are cultural and literary. • In short, HE is not supporting schools.

  16. The educational cycle is broken adult researcher BA know- ledge research school teacher know- ledge Year 1-13 infant

  17. Schools need HE “Universities argued that HE’s role was crucial to any effective National Languages Strategy, particularly in the area of support for language-learning in schools.” (Footitt, 2004)

  18. What happened to language in HE? • Ideal: a Department of French (or English) teaches about French (or English), plus supporting subjects. • Reality: Teaching about language is sometimes (often?) weak in BA courses. • Why? • Because research on language is weak.

  19. Language research in FL depts (1) • The RAE 2001 panel for French noted: • a ‘significant drop’ in the number of entries for French linguistics since 1996. • a ‘lack of renewal’: no new names. • PhD grants by AHRB Panel 5, 2000-2: Culture: 181 Language: 11

  20. Language research in FL depts (2) • AHRC research grants 2006: French Culture: 46 Language: 8 • Academy post-docs 1996-2006: in a department of French or German Culture: 10 Language: 0

  21. Staff research interests Google’s top three French departments: • Cambridge (RAE 2001: 5*) Culture: 28 Language: 5 • Nottingham (5) Culture: 20 Language: 1 • Sheffield (5) Culture: 16 Language: 0

  22. It’s official • In 2002 the AHRB recognised the crisis. • It ring-fenced six PhD studentships per year for the linguistics of the major foreign languages. • But in 2005 there were too few good applicants to fill them. • 2006: “Modern languages linguistics expertise is under threat.” • (AHRC/UCML/LLAS Research Review)

  23. The diagnosis • Language research in HE language departments is very weak. • This harms the teaching of language in HE, • so graduates don’t choose teaching careers, • so school teaching is poor, • so language degrees aren’t popular.

  24. The cure • Raise the profile of language study in HE. • Encourage language graduates to consider • school teaching • language research • Hire more linguists in FL departments.

  25. As the MLA says (for different reasons): • “The new courses … we recommend should not be developed exclusively by tenure-track scholars trained primarily in literature.” • Fl departments should offer courses in: • second language acquisition • applied linguistics • dialectology • sociolinguistics • history of the language • discourse analysis • the history and underlying structure of the language • language and cognition • “language and power, bilingualism, language and identity, language and gender, language and myth, language and artificial intelligence, and language and the imagination.”

  26. Thank you • This slide show is available at: www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/talks.htm • The statistics (and sources) are at: www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/ec/stats.htm

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