Applied Languages

Universities are being forced to “dumb down” foreign language degrees because of a dramatic drop in the number of teenagers studying French and German at school, according to an official report.

Standards have been “betrayed” in recent years as institutions attempt to attract students from a rapidly “diminishing field”, it is suggested.
The study said some universities were ditching texts in foreign languages in favour of English translations to make them easier to understand.

The report – funded by the Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England – said that academics were being required to provide “remedial” lessons for first-year students because A-levels fail to give them a decent grounding in basic grammar or language. It comes amid growing fears over a decline in the popularity of French, German, Spanish and Italian at all ages in the last decade.

The study, by Professor Michael Worton, vice-provost of University College London, said that the number of undergraduates studying foreign languages had dropped five per cent and many departments had already closed.

A drop in the number of pupils studying languages at GCSE and A-level meant the discipline was seen as a “diminishing field”, leading to a “loss of status and often of funding”. “The absence of foreign languages from the national curriculum after the age of 14 sends out a powerful negative message, especially in comparison with other countries, be this in continental Europe, the Far East, Central Asia and so on,” the study said.

Prof Worton, professor of French language and literature, found that moves by the Government to protect funding for science and maths-based subjects amounted to an 11 per cent cut in funding for languages. A survey of universities conducted for the review said language departments felt “vulnerable and beleaguered” and the importance of the subject was not understood or recognised by the Government or potential students.

In response, he said, languages departments have been forced to alter courses. The most widely-reported trend was towards a “greater emphasis” on cultural and film studies, the report said, resulting in a decline in literary studies.

It added: “Several departments also reported an increase in the number of courses offering texts taught in translation or other options accessible to non-linguists. This was generally driven by the need to increase student… numbers (and therefore income), but was generally perceived as a form of ‘dumbing down’ or even a betrayal of the nature and aims of a modern foreign languages curriculum.”

The report said that in 2002/3 some 3.3 per cent of all full-time students were studying languages as part of their degree. In 2007/08 this figure was 2.9 per cent, despite a 9.4 per cent increase in the number of students at university overall.

The report found that, despite the overall decline in numbers, there was a rise in interest for Asian, Modern Middle Eastern, African and Iberian studies.

David Lammy, the Higher Education Minister, said: “I believe that modern languages are of real importance and value, will look carefully at the findings of the report and work closely with [the Department for Children, Schools and Families] and Hefce to take them forward.”

Read more: Telegraph

The rapidly changing language environment in Singapore poses a challenge to the teaching of both English and the Mother Tongue Languages (MTL) to students in Singapore, said Education Minister Ng Eng Hen. Calling Singapore’s language environment ‘complex’, Dr Ng sought to explain this with the aid of slides on how more students are using the English language at home today compared to the 1980s.

Speaking at the Ministry of Education (MOE) Work Plan Seminar 2009 on Thursday morning, he said only one in 10 Primary One Chinese students came from homes that used English in 1982, compared to six in 10 today.

For Indian students, it has moved from three in 10 to 6, and for Malays, from 0.5 in 10 to 3.5. ‘A seismic shift in language environment has occured in one generation,’ said Dr Ng. ‘Those above 40 years of age today would have grown up in homes that spoke their mother tongue language, either predominantly or partly, either with parents or grandparents or siblings. But increasingly, children of all races now come from homes that speak English predominantly or only.’

Despite such changes, Dr Ng said Singapore should maintain its bilingual policy as it it more beneficial to be proficient in more than one language. ‘I believe we can achieve an acceptable standard of English and also help our students gain proficiency in their MTL…but it will require different methods of instruction,’ he said.

He said the education system has begun to adapt to evolve ‘better approaches’ to the teaching of languages for ‘more effective outcomes’.
‘Effectiveness must also be measured by how students can express themselves clearly and communicate with impact, and not just a good grade on their report cards,’ added Dr Ng.

Read more: Straits Times

Cool beans! Rents, teachers and university professors have long complained that students speak a language of their own. Now, they have a chance to swot up on their baffling vocabulary to avoid looking like a total fudge or worse still, a neek, in front of them.

A new dictionary, Pimp Your Vocab, aims to demystify Teenglish which is spoken by thousands of teenagers and young people around the country. Traditionally seen as uncommunicative, teenagers have their own rich language. Author Lucy Tobin said she had been in a tutorial during her English degree, when a tutor became confused with the discussion.

A fellow student declared: ‘I was IM-ing about ways to interpret the question…’ Miss Tobin said: ‘She had slipped into Teenglish, a language tutors and teachers find impenetrable no matter how many degree-designating letters follow their name. So after we students explained IM-ing – when you ‘talk’ to friends online via instant messaging – I started to think: do adults ever wonder if it’s a good thing when a student says they ‘got owned’? Do tutors consider whether they’re being complimented when someone calls them teek? So I wrote down a guide to the language the kids use.’

Miss Tobin believes that the guide could help improve staff-student communication. She said: ‘Language changes fast – and that can scare the hell out of  parents, teachers and anyone who no longer braves the clubs on Friday night for fear of being ‘too old’.

‘In communicating with a Teenglish-speaking randomer (that’s an outsider to your social group) their words can seem like a new language. Meaning is not an exact science, but depends on mutual agreement between reader and writer, speaker and listener, teenager and adult.’

However, teachers and academics are already complaining that Teenglish and ‘textmessage speak’ are creeping into formal work. GCSE and A-level examiners have also criticised the growing trend.

But last year, John Wells, president of the Spelling Society, claimed that the informal language of texts, chat rooms and emails were the ‘way forward’. He said that people should stop worrying about ‘textmessage speak’ creeping into general usage and called for the apostrophe to be abolished.

Professor Wells said: ‘Let’s stop worrying if people sometimes spell ‘you’ as ‘u’, ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ both as ‘ur’; and ‘whose’ and ‘who’s’ both as ‘whos’. Nowadays we often see ‘light’ written as ‘lite’ and ‘through’ as ‘thru’.’

Read more: Daily Mail

Forty years after Canada adopted an official languages law, Canadians remain divided about bilingualism, according to a new public opinion poll.

While 59% believe bilingualism is a success that Canadians can take pride in, that varies widely across the country. Those in Eastern Canada generally support bilingualism, but those in the Prairie provinces don’t believe that bilingualism has been a successful, proud Canadian tradition.

Nowhere is the judgment on bilingualism harsher than in Alberta, where a majority disagree that bilingualism has been a success and 44% strongly disagree.

The public opinion poll, conducted by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies and released exclusively to Sun Media, found those in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario were most likely to feel bilingualism has been a success. “That has been the challenge from the start for the (official languages) policy, selling the policy west of Ontario,” said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the association.

Whether or not you agree bilingualism has been a success also varies with age and mother tongue. Younger respondents and francophones were more likely to think bilingualism has been a success than were older respondents and anglophones.

The poll, released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the introduction of Canada’s Official Languages Act, also examined the perceptions — and misperceptions — that Canadians have about the country’s official languages law.

One of the biggest misperceptions was that you have to be bilingual in order to work for the federal government. While 61% of respondents believe that, in fact 60% of federal government positions only require knowledge of one official language. In the National Capital region 65% of positions are designated bilingual, but only 5% of federal jobs in Western Canada and 10% of jobs in the rest of Ontario require both languages.

Jedwab said the poll shows Canadians often don’t understand the asymmetrical nature of the language policy. For example, 77% believe all federal services have to be offered in both languages across the country when, in reality, bilingual services are only offered where there is significant demand.

The poll found 92% of Quebecers believed services must be available in both languages compared to 54.6% of Albertans. In Ontario, the rate was 73.9%. The poll is based on a web-based survey of 1,366 respondents during the week of Aug. 17 and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Read more: The London Free Press

Aischa Bardoun sees herself as a trail-blazer. She is one of the first Moroccans to get a masters degree in the Amazigh language, spoken by the country’s Berber majority.

“We are very excited,” she says. “We studied the older texts that were passed down orally, but we are also writing new literature to reflect the current situation for Berbers in Morocco. It’s really ground-breaking.”

Although Berbers were Morocco’s first inhabitants and account for some 60% of Morocco’s population, they faced widespread discrimination and it is only now that the language is required to be taught in public school.

Their academic qualifications may not help them much on the job market, but the availability of a further degree in a subject that was once virtually outlawed in their North African country underscores Berber success in gaining official acceptance of the language.

As well as the University of Ibn Zohr offering degrees in Amazigh, an umbrella term for the three dialects of Berber that are spoken in Morocco, the previously oral-only language has moved further into the mainstream with the creation of a Royal Institute of Amazigh language and culture.

Although many Amazigh are illiterate, the government has put in place measures to assist schools to teach the written form of the language. The Royal Institute of Amazigh has overseen the creation of an alphabet based partly on the mystical signs and symbols of the Tuareg found inscribed on tombs and monuments.

This written form is expected to have a unifying effect. It is essentially a new form of the language which, it is hoped, all Moroccan Berbers will speak and understand.

And while Arabic remains the official language of the country, when it comes to music, young Moroccans either listen to Western music, or to rap in Amazigh.

Abullah Aourik, an artist and publisher of a magazine in Amazigh, wants to see Berber replace Arabic as the official language of the country. “We think it would be appropriate to change part of our constitution so that Arabic is no longer required for legal documents or for any official communication,” he insists.

“Most Moroccans grow up speaking Berber – why should they be at a disadvantage in having to use classical Arabic which is a foreign language whenever they brush up against bureaucracy?”

The government may not be ready yet to entertain this idea which seems far-fetched to even the majority of the Amazigh themselves, but the teaching of Amazigh in public schools and at university level could in the future lead to it being recognised as a national language – as it already is in Algeria, Mali and Niger.

Read more: BBC News