The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL APRIL/MAY The Linguist 15 LOCKDOWN LEARNING to operate safely, legally and as effectively as possible in unprecedented circumstances. As the February deadline for entering students for this summer's exams approached, the system for issuing grades was still under review. It is therefore unsurprising that a great number of mainstream schools decided that they were unable to enter candidates. Some took the decision of withdrawing students who were already registered. One school explained: "Whilst the government is yet to define how the assessment process will work for public examinations, it is likely to rest on school- based assessments and we would not be able to take responsibility for these in Turkish as we do not have the specialist teachers." This leaves candidates with the prospect of looking for private centres, which often charge hundreds of pounds and cannot provide a degree of certainty about the process for assessing students and providing a CAG. A lost generation? This is not a niche concern. There are well over a million 'bilingual' students in our schools, 1 and around 30,000 students take qualifications in 'other languages' every year. 2 When CAGs were used last year as a basis for awarding grades, the number of entries collapsed, with entries in Gujarati A level falling by 97%. Teresa Tinsley calculated that "nearly 5,000 pupils have been denied the opportunity to obtain a qualification that could have been critical to their future careers." 3 It is a similar story at GCSE: while entries for all languages remained stable, entries for 'other languages' fell by 28%. 4 It is not acceptable or fair to students to offer retakes in the autumn or the following year. Once the opportunity is missed, the risk that they will miss out on their qualification increases dramatically, as they move on to another programme of study or institution. After his Turkish A level exam was cancelled last year, one student explained: "This really stressed me out as it affected my university choices. I am determined to complete my Turkish A level, however I am afraid that if I am not able to do it this year I will have other priorities such as my degree." Our education system has a moral duty to provide a solution for these students, and all young people studying for qualifications this year. Collectively we must find a way to facilitate exam entries. According to Baroness Coussins, CIOL Vice-President and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages (APPG ML), "It is vital that students with a variety of language skills are not disenfranchised this year from entering examinations. All schools need to ensure that this can happen. A truly global Britain needs to nurture and recognise the great diversity of language skills that we do have." What is the solution? First, this summer's entries must be facilitated. In its response to Ofqual's consultation on this issue, the APPG ML called for an urgent extension to the deadline for registering, 5 which was extended to 21 March. It also called for awarding organisations (AOs) to give clear advice on how a student's performance can be collated and interpreted by teachers and assessors; and urged AOs to devise a process that will support mainstream schools to provide a grade based on this advice. Second, longer term work is required to ensure mainstream schools support these students and develop working relationships with supplementary schools. There are examples of this. Gladesmore Community School in Tottenham, London has an inclusive approach to the languages of its student body and developed a robust, evidence-based declaration form which allowed CAGs to be issued last summer. It is in mainstream schools' interests to facilitate these qualifications: students on their roll can be entered for languages which they do not study in school and the grade will count towards the Ebacc school performance measure. Finally, there is scope for a larger number of supplementary schools to become examination centres – although this will not be possible for many. The National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education (NRCSE) is acting as an examination centre for Turkish and Arabic this summer. This situation reflects, and risks entrenching, a systemic undervaluing of these students. There is already relatively low take-up of these qualifications among bilingual learners, a situation which has endangered the viability of these qualifications in the past, although this could be turned around if supplementary schools receive targeted support and training. Last year, the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML) detected an increasing number of universities discounting GCSEs or A levels in these languages in their admissions policies. This is arguably discriminatory, and likely to depress uptake further. A level 2020 entries Decline from 2018 Chinese 1,617 29% Italian 669 19% Russian 621 18% Polish 537 54% Arabic 397 48% Turkish 270 54% Urdu 241 41% Portuguese 195 63% Panjabi 105 48% Japanese 94 56% Persian 77 55% Greek 56 67% Hebrew 36 36% Bengali 12 57% Gujarati 1 97% Dutch 0 100% Total 4,928 49% It is vital to counter the myth that these students are advantaged and their qualifications matter less. They typically study these languages in their own time. Even if they have some degree of oral fluency they are unlikely to have the grammar, vocabulary and literacy required for academic examination. The standard or official form of the language in the exam is often different to the form they may be familiar with at home. In addition, many pupils studying the language as part of their heritage were born in and/or are growing up in the UK. Indeed, they might be several generations removed from native speakers in their family history, and therefore do not necessarily speak the language regularly. It is in the national interest to encourage take-up in all languages. As the APPG ML and others have stated, not only are these languages important for social mobility and the educational achievement of thousands of students, including English as an additional language (EAL) pupils, they are strategically important for economic growth, exports, security, defence and international relations. 6 By Bernadette Clinton, Philip Harding-Esch, Suzanne O'Farrell and Pascale Vassie Notes 1 NALDIC 2013 'EAL pupils in schools'; cutt.ly/naldic 2 alcantaracoms.com/gcse-languages-entries-2019 3 cutt.ly/alcantara 4 cutt.ly/alcantaragcse 5 bit.ly/APPGMFL-Ofqual-Jan21 6 See, e.g. 'National Recovery Programme for Languages', APPG MFL (2019); 'Languages for the Future', British Council (2017)

• Cover