The challenge of the new
English is not enough Helen Wood sees challenges and opportunities for independent schools in language acquisition Being a bit of a languages and politics nerd led me to pick up a collection of essays recently, entitled Languages after Brexit: How the UK speaks to the World. The contributors suggest that the referendum result, by shifting Britain’s relationship to both its European neighbours and the rest of the world, has brought our interaction with other languages into very sharp perspective. My job as Head of School Partnerships at Password means that I am very aware of how many UK boarding schools have students from Europe and the rest of the world. It would be easy in the circumstances, therefore, to see Brexit as a simply another threat to the commercial viability of those schools most dependent on growing international pupil numbers and, ultimately, to my own job. Yet, having digested the arguments within the collection and combined them with my knowledge of teaching EAL pupils, Brexit seems, in fact, to present a golden opportunity to reframe school approaches to second (and third or more) language acquisition, whilst simultaneously transforming the quality of relationships between international and British students and addressing a huge skills gap in the UK economy. So, what would it require for the visionary leaders among you to seize this moment? Developing a better understanding around the processes of second and third language acquisition, and debunking some of the myths around language learning that are prevalent among pupils, teachers and parents, both British and international, would be a good place to start. The first among these myths might be that English is the most important language to know and will be sufficient in the future. Obviously, within an English medium instruction school, proficiency in English will be a prerequisite for academic achievement in the short term. However, in the longer term, focusing on purely one language is likely to be detrimental to a pupil’s outcomes academically, socially and economically. On the academic front, there is clear evidence that pupils who are literate in more than one language will out-perform monolingual speakers. Among the advantages conferred are better metacognition and conceptual thinking, which leads in turn to quicker problem solving. According to Viv Edwards, Professor of Language in Education at the University of Reading, multilingual children also tend to demonstrate, ‘greater sensitivity to the social nature and communicative functions of language’. This improves their ability to see situations from different perspectives, making them more astute operators in group settings. This is perhaps of greatest significance when translated to the workplace. Here, research has consistently demonstrated that monolingual English mother-tongue speakers are at a disadvantage in settings where English is the lingua franca, such as multinational businesses. They lack the skills required to adjust their language, because they are less aware of the kinds of linguistic features that a non-native speaker might find difficult to understand. What is more, while their multi-lingual
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counterparts may choose to slip in and out of one or more languages other than English to negotiate a point of confusion, the mono-lingual English speakers are unable to do so in the transcultural environments in which many of them hope to be employed. Economic research estimates that this lack of linguistic skills among the UK workforce costs around 3.5% of GDP – demonstrating starkly that the ‘English is enough’ mantra really needs to be debunked and language learning given a genuine boost. Who better placed to do this than the independent school sector, where language learning for all is still encouraged, at least to GCSE? Against this background, not only are British pupils potentially subject to greater extrinsic forces motivating their language learning over the longer term, but international pupils, who are frequently speakers of more than one language, become excellent role models. These learners, having often been made to feel that their level of English is a deficit, are now empowered by their capacity to share their language learning skills and cultural knowledge with the wider community. This will enrich the process of language learning across the school and provide opportunities for improving the intercultural skills of the British pupils as well. As cultural awareness across the student body improves, and self-esteem among the international pupils rises, collective sense of belonging will increase and community cohesion will also improve (as, incidentally, will grades). While the first step in this process is about communicating a shift in perspective regarding the importance of language learning, the latter is more about developing a shared vocabulary for talking about language and celebrating skills acquired at whatever level. Creativity is required – such as the Mother Tongue Other Tongue initiatives put forward by the Scottish branch of the University Council for Modern Languages. These included poetry competitions whereby pupils write in their mother tongue and/or a language they are learning, and spelling competitions for learners of French, German, Spanish and Gaelic in early secondary education. What is important is that such initiatives are not just cultural tokenism such as putting on a special menu for Chinese New Year. Instead they demand planning and input from teachers across the curriculum regarding which activities will foster shared language goals among the learners involved (whatever the language) and afford valuable linguistic and cultural learning opportunities. It is not only pupils that benefit from this adjustment in approach. The teachers of English as a Second Language, who in my experience often feel undervalued in terms of their professional skills, can now see themselves on equal footing with the Modern Foreign Languages and English department. Moreover, an increased awareness of language learning across the curriculum and a shared language for talking about
