Applied Languages

 Young children speaking English as their first language are in a minority in almost one-in-10 local authorities, according to official figures. In 14 council areas, more than half of primary school pupils speak other languages in the home, it was disclosed.

Nationally, English is no longer the mother tongue for a record 900,000 schoolchildren, around double the number a decade ago. It follows a significant increase in the migrant population coupled with rising birthrates.

In the London borough of Tower Hamlets, only 22 per cent of five- to 11-year-olds speak English as their first language. Teachers’ leaders insisted that the additional effort shown by many pupils speaking other languages acted as an “inspiration” to native speakers. But it is also feared that the rise is putting a strain on school resources as large numbers of children with a poor grasp of English dominate teachers’ time.

Anastasia de Waal, head of education at Civitas, the think-tank, said: “We need to be honest about the impact on schools. There is a constant stream of prescription and targets coming out of Whitehall but little of it takes account of the fact that language barriers may be holding back many children.

“Unless significant investment is made in language classes we are left with a situation in which young people struggling to speak and understand the teacher are disadvantaged while their peers who speak English are unable to progress.”

Figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families show almost 15.2 per cent of children in English primary schools – 500,000 – speak other languages at home this year. This compared to 14.3 per cent a year earlier. In secondary schools, 11.1 per cent of pupils – 364,280 – speak English as a second language, against 10.6 per cent in 2008.

The latest figures show numbers differ significantly across England. In 14 councils, primary school pupils speaking other languages are in the majority. Most are in London. They also make up more than a third of the primary school population in 31 local authorities, including Blackburn with Darwen, Leicester, Birmingham, Luton and Bradford.

London has by far the largest concentration of pupils speaking other languages. Some 77.7 per cent of pupils in Tower Hamlets, which has a large Bangladeshi population, do not speak English at home. The rate is 73.2 per cent in Newham and 69.5 per cent in Westminster.

The Government said the amount of money being spent on pupils with weak English was increasing to £206m by 2010. A DCSF spokesman said: “The fact is, being an English as an Additional Language (EAL) pupil doesn’t mean you don’t speak English. It only indicates the language to which the child was initially exposed to early on at home, irrespective of whether they speak English fluently later on.

“The language of instruction in English schools is and always has been English. “We have listened to concerns of headteachers and are increasing funding in the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant to £206m by 2010, to bring students weak in English up to speed. We also equip schools to offer effective EAL teaching for new arrivals, with a comprehensive support package.

“This support is helping to close the historic achievement gap between EAL and native learners at all levels of the school system and it is only relatively few, about a fifth of all EAL pupils, who are recent arrivals for whom communication problems are acute.”

Read more: Telegraph

Tasheena Sarazin lost her native language at the age of 10. But she’s determined not to let the same thing happen to her two boys.

“I know some words, but my partner knows Cree and I get him to speak it around our children as much as he can,” she said Sunday at the Nipissing First Nation Traditional Powwow on Jocko Point. “I may not be able to understand what he’s saying, but I really want them to learn it.”

Sarazin, of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan near Golden Lake, Ontario, Canada said she spoke the language regularly until she turned 10. “When I started to go to school I lost it completely. My mother tried desperately to save it, she would even put labels on everything, but (it didn’t work).”

Language was the theme at this weekend’s gathering where more than 3,000 people attended, including 160 native dancers from across the province.

Coun. Perry McLeod-Shabogesic, powwow committee chairman, said a language strategy is being put together to find ways to save it. “If we lose our language we become a shell, because we’re missing an important part.“

“The ones who use the language are getting older and dying. We have to immerse our little ones in it and try to stop it from disappearing.”

McLeod-Shabogesic said his 18-year-old son Falcon Skye is attending school to become an Ojibway language teacher and plans on returning to his community to teach.

Nipissing First Nation Chief Marianna Couchie said she was hoping the Prime Minister’s apology to First Nations people about the treatment they endured in residential schools would come with some money to help people relearn their language. Couchie said no funding has been delivered yet, but she is remaining optimistic.

Peter Beaucage, a teacher at Canadore College, said he’s seeing a revival of the lost languages amongst young people, however the damage done to four or five generations from the residential school system will be hard to reverse.

He said about 99% of native people don’t speak their languages anymore, which poses a real challenge in getting it back. “Parents and grandparents don’t have the language to pass on. They were disciplined harshly (in residential schools) and told not to follow their culture.”

Read more: North Bay Nugget

Plans to stop translating speeches from English into Welsh in the assembly’s written record of proceedings could be investigated. The Welsh Language Board has warned that the move could breach the assembly’s own Welsh language scheme. But the Assembly Commission, which says the move will save £250,000 a year, has denied the board has any authority to mount such an investigation. The board has said it is taking further legal advice before responding.

The proposals, revealed in August, are in line with existing arrangements for assembly committees. They mean the words of AMs speaking English in the assembly chamber would no longer be translated into Welsh in the written record, but Welsh speeches would continue to be translated into English.

In a letter to Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis Thomas, language board chief executive Meirion Prys Jones suggested the board could investigate the decision under a section of the 1993 Welsh Language Act which allows it to examine language schemes which have been breached.
Replying on behalf of the commission, assembly chief executive Claire Clancy said she did not accept the change would go against the assembly’s Welsh language scheme.

She insisted the Welsh Language Board had no power to investigate the matter because the language scheme was the responsibility of the Welsh assembly, not the Assembly Commission. The commission provides property, staff and services for the assembly.

Ms Clancy added that, for its part, the assembly was not subject to the Welsh Language Act, but admitted the institution’s policy on the translation of assembly proceedings was “not expressed as clearly as it should have been”. She asked the board to agree to a rewording of the policy, based on a version which went out to consultation in February 2007, rather than the one approved by AMs five months later.

Concluding the letter, she said: “I look forward to your confirmation that you accept that any reference to statutory sanctions is inappropriate and that we can engage in dialogue on the basis of voluntary co-operation for the good of the language”.

The Welsh Language Society, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, has written to the commission to complain about the decision. Spokesman Dafydd Morgan Lewis said the plans “emphasised the weakness of present Welsh language legislation when Welsh language plans drawn up by various bodies can be rubbished and ignored.”

“Their decision set a bad example to other bodies and institutions.” The plans to end the written English to Welsh translation of proceedings in the assembly chamber are part of draft budget proposals for the commission for the financial year beginning in April 2010. The proposals will go before the commission again later this month before being submitted to AMs. The commission is considering exactly when the changes to its written translation arrangements would be implemented.

Read more: BBC News

Shina (also known as Tshina) is a Dardic language spoken by a plurality of people in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. The Karakorum International University (KIU) has stepped in to rescue Gilgit-Baltistan’s major dialect – from extinction.

Shina, the dominant language being spoken by approximately 60 percent people of this region, and also spoken in parts of Indian Kashmir, is facing danger of extinction because of lack of patronage by the government and the civil society’s insufficient contribution in the erstwhile Northern Areas, where a package of political reforms unveiled recently by the Prime Minister upgraded its status and made it equivalent to that of a province.

Interestingly, Shina has no recognized alphabets in published form, though some of the individuals did try to invent and establish them. This widely spoken dialect has never been part of a school curriculum in Gilgit-Baltistan, inhabited by about two million people – and it is feared that the influence of other languages such as Urdu is diluting it, even threatening its existence.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the university management recently decided to get involved and initiate work on its preservation. In this connection KIU in collaboration with SIL, an international NGO and ‘Language and Culture Promotion Society’, a regional NGO, held a workshop in the university to look at the option as to what best could be done to promote Shina.

The workshop will end September 7 with certain recommendations coming from the participants who are none but professionals, students and researchers from KIU, the lone university of Gilgit-Baltistan established during Pakistan’s military dictator Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharaf regime in 2002.

Currently, KIU is catering to educational needs of about 3500 students, besides having more than 150 teaching and over 250 administration staff.

Last year, the ‘Shina Language and Culture Promotion Society’ launched some books in Shina language including “Dadii Shilooke” meaning grandmother’s precious stories, “Folktales in the Shina of Gilgit”, “Shina Urdu Angreezi Boal Chaal” and “Alkhaanoo Bijoon” with an objective to promote Shina among the youth.

Shakil Ahmad Shakil, a well respected linguist of Gilgit had authored the rare books but a number of linguists say that the attempt was good but unlikely to bring a drastic change vis-à-vis Shina status unless the cause is supported by the government.

As for KIU efforts, the new initiative of the university has raised people’s hopes who believe that this will at least lay foundations for further progress of the dialect. Titled “Linguistics and Socio-Linguistics – base of Orthography Development” the workshop was addressed by Dr Najma Najam, KIU Vice-Chancellor who replaced Dr Aziz Ali Najam this year. The VC said they would establish a research centre in its campus and the Modern Languages Department of KIU would spearhead the joint efforts.

Read more: Rising Kashmir

Inma Gonzalez Puy, president of the Cervantes Institute in Beijing, said China is in demand of more Spanish-speaking talents with professional background under closer ties between China and Spanish-speaking countries.

“As China is having more cooperation in trade and tourism with Spain and many Latin American countries, Spanish begins to enjoy a more eminent position as a foreign language for international communication in China,” said Inma Gonzalez Puy at a meeting to promote Spanish culture and language, adding that the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Expo both underscore China’s demand for Spanish-speaking talents.

Cervantes Institute is the world’s largest official organization to promote Spanish culture and language education. It has 70 branches in more than 40 countries across the world.

Inma Gonzalez Puy said currently China was in need of people who could speak both Chinese and Spanish and have professional knowledge, and the institute was doing what it could to nourish such talents.

Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world with about 400 million users. However, in the past, not many people in China could speak the language, regarding Spanish as a “minority foreign language” – a general Chinese term given to all foreign languages other than English.

The meeting was part of the five-day 16th Beijing International Book Fair which runs from 3rd September. Spain is a guest of honour in this year’s event.

Read more: Chinaview