On the outside, looking in: learning community languages and Scotland’s 1 + 2 Language Strategy

ABSTRACT

The Scottish Government’s ambitious 1 + 2 Language Strategy has refocused attention on language education policy (LEP) and the provision for learning additional languages in Scottish schools. However, the maintenance of community languages continues to be the responsibility of minoritised parents and their complementary schools. This article reports on a national survey of complementary school providers in order to gain insights into their perspectives of community language learning during the implementation of the 1 + 2 Language Strategy. Data are analysed using a Critical Language Policy (CLP) lens and reveal a complex picture of provision for teaching and learning community languages, outside of mainstream schools, and an untapped resource for language planning and valuing the linguistic diversity of Scotland. The article concludes with a discussion to inform future developments of the 1 + 2 Language Strategy, among which is greater engagement with language communities and a more nuanced planning approach to language learning for contemporary societies.

KEYWORDS:

• 1 + 2 Language Strategy
• community languages
• Scotland
• critical language policy
• agency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Andy Hancock is Head of the Graduate School of Education & Sport and Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at the University of Edinburgh.

Jonathan Hancock is Research Associate at the Centre for Education for Racial Equality Scotland (CERES), University of Edinburgh.

Notes

1 Various terms are used to describe the languages of minority groups. In the United States (US) and Canada, the term ‘heritage’ language is commonly used, whereas in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia, the most widely used term is ‘community’ language and for consistency that is the term adopted for this article.

2 The term ‘complementary’ school (also referred to as ‘supplementary’ or ‘community language’ school) is used here to describe community-initiated schools which operate mainly at the weekend.

3 Scotland does have other language communities such as Gaelic, Scots and BSL, but for the purpose of this article examining complementary schools, community language refers to those minority languages not traditionally associated with Scotland.

4 Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia joined in 2004; Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007 and Croatia joined in 2013.

5 Attendees at the seminars included representatives from Scottish Government, Education Scotland, the Polish Consulate, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT), academics, practitioners (mainstream and complementary schools), local authority staff from across Scotland (Stirling Council, Highland Council, Dumfries and Galloway Council, City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders), NGOs and students.

6 Mixed race is a contested term but preferred to bicultural to illustrate the complexity and diversity of an individual’s cultural heritage.

7 Active learning and classroom management were also considered as priorities for teachers’ professional learning in the survey.

8 United Kingdom Federation of Chinese Schools (UKFCS) is a charity that aims to promote, through its member schools, Chinese language education and Chinese culture. Let’s Learn Chinese is a new series of textbooks designed to meet the needs of children learning Chinese as a second or foreign language.

9 Examples of languages offered by English Boards include AQA (Bengali, Chinese, Modern Hebrew, Panjabi, Polish and Urdu), Edexcel (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Modern Greek and Urdu), Oxford Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts (OCR) (Dutch, Gujarati, Persian, Portuguese and Turkish).

10 E-Sgoil is funded by the Scottish Government and Bòrd na Gàidhlig. In 2018, the Scottish Government published its Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland Enhancing Learning and Teaching Through the Use of Digital Technology (http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00505855.pdf).

11 Victoria State Government in Australia also provides advice to community language schools: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/languages/Pages/clsschools.aspx.

12 The Arabic word madrassa (plural: madaris) generally has two meanings: in its more common literal and colloquial usage, it simply means ‘school,’ but increasingly it has become the term used to describe an educational institution offering instruction in Islamic subjects including the Qur’an.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Edinburgh [Seedcorn funding].