The place of language learning in a liberal education: implications for curriculum policy in Ireland

Abstract

This article attempts to expand, and to add to, one important aspect of the rationale for including the study of languages as part of a liberal education. Following criticism of the profile of the vocational rationale for language learning in Irish curriculum policy, the article develops recent research on the work of L. V. Shcherba to defend the role of language learning as part of a liberal education. The principal argument advanced and illustrated is that language learning has the potential to increase intellectual resources and, secondarily, to enhance literacy. This it achieves by introducing learners to new worlds of thought through revealing different linguistic maps for representing the world and by making them are aware of the nature of language. The argument is supplemented by reference to research in neuroscience that shows that knowledge of languages contributes to cognitive empowerment.

Keywords:

• vocationalism
• cognition
• neuroscience
• Shcherba
• grammar

Notes on contributor

Kevin Williams is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection, Dublin City University, and a former president of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland. His books include Why Teach Foreign Language in Schools: A Philosophical Response to Curriculum Policy and Education and the Voice of Michael Oakeshott.

Notes

1. I am grateful to Professor Orla Hardiman for drawing my attention to this research and to Patrick Williams for discussions about relating it to the present article. This article has also benefited from the stylistic improvements of Premkumar Nandhakumar and team.