Issue 30 - Autumn/Winter 2015

It’s always great to see responses or updates to articles from earlier editions, and in this Autumn/Winter edition we’ve got four! Lindsay Dombrowski, Margaret Allan and Khadija Mohammed respond to the article by Scott on language statistics in Scottish schools from the most recent edition (Issue 29). In contrast, Karen Lindner, Heath Jeffrey and Ellen Hunt continue the story of the Chaoyang English Project, which Sarah Williams first wrote about in Issue in 2012 (Issue 25). Hilary McColl revisits her own reflections on the Scottish Government’s 1+2 language policy. In her first contribution on the topic (Issue 24) she mused upon the opportunities for language teaching in Scottish schools, but in this article she is looking more concretely into target language use in the classroom. Gwen McCrossan has also written in the SLR before (Issue 26). At that time she described the creative practices she had introduced into her own primary language classroom. In the current edition she reports on how these ideas have been developed further and applied in a number of early-years classes across her local authority. Finally, our ‘newcomer’ Katrina Price provides a vivid account of how she introduced self and peer-assessment practices into her secondary school language department.

Click on the ‘Issue 30’ tab to see more details of (and download) each individual article
Click on the ‘Selected publications’ tab for abstracts of and web-links to recent languages-related publications
Click on the ‘Selected articles’ tab for links to free-to-download articles from other academic language journals
Click on the ‘Selected events’ tab for a list of future national and international language seminars and conferences
You can also download the entire issue

Happy reading!

Call for papers

We are interested in submissions that consider aspects of language learning/teaching or language policy, not just in Scotland but also in other parts of the world. If you want your paper to be considered for the next edition, please get in touch. The SLR is read by linguists as well as educational stakeholders so your article can really make an impact!

Hannah Doughty, Editor-in-Chief

Scottish Languages Review and Digest

Learner Uptake and Attainment in Scotland: A Response Focusing on Gaelic and Urdu

L. Dombrowski, M. Allan, K. Mohammed

This article responds to Scott’s “Modern Languages in Scotland: Learner Uptake and Attainment 1996-2014” (Scott, 2015) and considers how a theoretical framework derived from the field of Language Policy and Planning can deepen our understanding of trends in uptake and attainment for Modern Languages in secondary. Using the examples of Gaelic (including Gàidhlig and Gaelic [Learners] Education) and Urdu at secondary school, this article re-contextualises attainment data and places them into a broader discussion of capacity structures and the potential impact that status (including policy and prestige) has on student choices in secondary.

Keywords:

Scotland, heritage languages, community languages, lesser-used languages, language statistics

Community Outreach in an International School: The Chaoyang English Project

Karen Lindner, Heath Jeffrey and Ellen Hunt

Community outreach projects have been integral to the work of international schools for many years. Outreach programs do not, however, always achieve the lofty goals they aim for. Beijing BISS International School is one school modelling investment in the local community through a unique English language teacher-training program called the Chaoyang English Project. This paper will introduce the project in the context of service to the host community and explore some of the associated opportunities and benefits.

Keywords:

community outreach, international schools, co-teaching, team-teaching, professional development, observation and feedback

Reflections on the Modern Languages Excellence Report of 2011: Increasing Classroom Language as a First Step towards Communicative Competence

Hilary McColl

What exactly is meant by the term ‘classroom language'? Why are language teachers in Scotland exhorted to do more to implement curricular guidelines in this respect, even though it is not an element that is tested? How might teachers develop their language programmes to accommodate greater use of classroom language? More importantly, how do we persuade our learners to actively use the target language for their daily interactions in the classroom? The author reflects on these and other related questions arising from a re-reading of the Modern Languages Excellence Report, published by Scottish Government in 2011.

Keywords:

modern language learning, target language, classroom language, motivation

French at Early Level: A Pilot Study

Gwen McCrossan

This article describes the planning and implementation of a pilot study of teaching French to Early Level Learners. It discusses suitable pedagogy and resources for teaching a language at this level. In particular it demonstrates the importance of contextualising language learning and involving young learners in multi-sensorial activities. The benefits of creating a theme around stories and songs to learn a language are also discussed. This article shares practitioner’s opinions about their involvement in delivering language teaching and how they envisage their role in future provision.

Keywords:

French, early language learning, pedagogy

Self- and Peer-Assessment

Katrina Price

This paper is an explanation and clarification of the Self- and Peer-Assessment procedures which have evolved in the Modern Languages Department at Linwood High School. It shows the culmination of months of trials, variations, adaptations and developments until we finally settled on the current model. It is by no means an exhaustive account of the hours of informal discussions we had within and outwith the department and care has been taken to explain why it works in our context.

Keywords:

self-assessment; peer-assessment, co-operative learning, language skills, learning intentions, success criteria

This work, with the exception of logos, and any other content marked with a separate copyright notice, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Licence.

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