The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/1257392
@Linguist_CIOL The latest from the languages world British Council fears The future of the British Council is under threat due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Launching a campaign to save the organisation, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said its aim was to safeguard "the future of the organisation whose funding has been cut by 85% because of the closure of nearly all its schools". The British Council provides strategic support for languages in the uk at policy level, commissioning research such as the annual Language Trends survey, which offers a snapshot of modern foreign languages (MFL) teaching in schools in England and Wales, and a recent report on the gender gap at GCSE. Some of its most important work involves promoting the 'international dimension' in schools and universities through e-twinning, multilingual resource packs and the International School Award, as well as training, resources and support for language teachers. Although the British Council is a non- departmental public body, sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the majority of its income comes from its commercial activities. With around 203 of its 221 schools closed, and more than half of its test centres, it faces a huge deficit. The organisation has already furloughed 25% of its staff and announced that it will end the contracts of 15% of non-permanent and fixed-term employees. However, the FCO has called for it to adopt tougher measures, including a pay freeze in 2020 and redundancies of permanent staff. See pcs.org.uk/news/get-involved-with-pcs -save-british-council-campaign for details. NEWS & EDITORIAL JunE/JuLY The Linguist 5 In the media PHILIP HARDING-ESCH How has coronavirus been reflected in the language news? The immediate impact saw school exchanges and trips abroad banned in the uk from 12 March. The crisis spread to Erasmus+, which supports 70,000 people in uk universities every year, with FE News reporting on concerns that the year abroad would not be possible this autumn. Taiwo Owatemi MP announced she had set up an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Erasmus+. The PIE News reported closures and liquidations among English language teaching centres across the country, while The Shropshire Star said centres were calling for state help "to stay afloat". In northern Ireland, the BBC reported on a lack of Irish Sign Language interpreting during Covid-19 press briefings, and on the Education Authority's failure to publish its online school resources in Irish, despite making them available in 11 other languages. In Wales, there were concerns that homeschooling was bringing challenges for non-Welsh-speaking parents with children in Welsh-medium education. These unprecedented times have led to media reports on language itself. The Oxford English Dictionary issued a "special update" with 12 new words and phrases related to the pandemic, such as 'social distancing', 'WFH' and 'PPE'. Another interesting BBC feature reported on the disputed use of "battle terminology", with Newsnight's Emily Maitlis pointing out: "you do not survive the illness through fortitude and strength of character". One sector doing well out of the crisis is language-learning apps. As millions of people download them to put their spare time to good use, multiple articles advised on the best ones to use. Will One Direction's Harry Styles learning Italian and sign language in isolation (The Daily Mail), or the k-pop group BTS's free korean Language Series (Capital FM), lead to a spike in interest in these languages? Philip Harding-Esch is a freelance languages project manager and consultant. A legal action has been filed against the uk Government for failing to provide British Sign Language (BSL) interpreting during its daily Covid-19 press conference. The case was brought by deaf campaigners, who claim the omission is in breach of the 2010 Equalities Act. In contrast, the words of Scotland's First Minister, nicola Sturgeon, are interpreted into BSL at her briefings about the pandemic. Teacher Holly McConnell told reporters: "not all deaf people can understand English… so that caused issues because we were talking about fines and the law and health and safety." A spokesperson for Downing Street said BSL interpretation is available on the BBC news and iPlayer. Calls for C-19 briefings in BSL LuIS GARCíA, 'H OME OF THE BRITISH COunCIL In MADRID', CC BY-SA 3.0 ES vIA WIkIPEDIA