24 January 2022 (SCILT)
SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, is delighted to support Languages Week Scotland 2022. A week of events and activities taking place across the country from 31 January - 4 February, Languages Week Scotland will showcase the wide range of languages used and learned in Scotland.
This year’s theme is "The 'Rights' Approach - incorporating learners' rights within Scotland's languages landscape". The aim is to amplify the voices of people, organisations and events that celebrate multilingualism and the many ways it supports the rights of children as embodied in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Languages Week Scotland is a national celebration and will be marked by educational establishments, community-based groups, arts and sports organisations, social enterprises and businesses.
MSPs Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, and Jenny Gilruth, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, support Languages Week Scotland.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills says: “Learning additional languages can improve children and young people’s overall aptitude and attainment and strengthen literacy skills - Languages Week Scotland gives us the perfect opportunity to celebrate this.
“Learning another language can also make us all more confident in speaking with other people from around the world and gives us a greater understanding of the variety of communities and cultures at home and abroad.”
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills will issue a series of daily language-related challenges on Twitter throughout Languages Week Scotland. The SCILT website includes suggestions of activities that schools, families and other partners can use to celebrate languages during the course of the week. A social media campaign #ScotlandLovesLanguages will run through the duration of Languages Week Scotland.
On 25 February, SCILT and Education Scotland will co-host a knowledge exchange event bringing this year’s celebrations to a close. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills will open this event, which will provide an opportunity to explore how Scotland’s education community amplifies, supports and furthers the rights of Scotland’s youth: their right to retain, use and learn spoken and signed languages in their families, communities, schools and beyond.
Fhiona Mackay, Director of SCILT, states: “Languages Week Scotland offers the opportunity to celebrate the languages – spoken and unspoken – that are being learned and used in Scotland’s schools, families, communities, and business places. It puts a spotlight on the benefits to people and society that language skills bring, and amplifies the voices of tens of thousands of language learners, teachers and users across the country.”
SCILT has been tasked by the Scottish Government to deliver Languages Week Scotland. SCILT is Scotland’s National Centre for Languages, based at the University of Strathclyde. SCILT is working with LANGS (Languages Network Group Scotland) and Education Scotland to deliver Languages Week Scotland.