The Linguist

6 The Linguist Vol/61 No/3 2022 thelinguist.uberflip.com NEWS & EDITORIAL In the media PHILIP HARDING-ESCH The war in Ukraine has continued to make headlines with a languages angle, including articles exploring the history of the Ukrainian language itself. According to The Guardian, the war has triggered a "surge of interest" in learning Ukrainian "amongst those who once felt speaking Russian 'was enough'". There were some sobering features focusing on interpreters working in the war zone. Novelist Charlotte Hobson wrote in The Guardian about her week interpreting on the Ukrainian border, while iNews interviewed Olena Davie, a UK- based Ukrainian interpreter. Back in the UK, the TES reported that teacher recruitment in England is set to miss targets substantially, including in modern languages. The Guardian covered the news that the British language schools sector is being "devastated" by the double whammy of post-Brexit red tape and the pandemic, with revenues down by 80% and 40,000 jobs at risk. In Northern Ireland, the BBC outlined new strategies to boost Irish and Ulster Scots, with an eye-catching goal for 500,000 people to "have knowledge" of Irish within 20 years. Interesting headlines surrounded a new guide for teaching Latin by Cambridge academic Steven Hunt. His advice that teachers make use of Taylor Swift lyrics, Disney songs and video games was swiftly criticised in the Daily Mail, where Tom Utley argued for "Trojan War stories" instead. Meanwhile, the BBC noted that Google Translate had added 24 languages, including Lingala, Twi and Tigrinya. In the natural world, The Guardian reported that scientists have found that fungi "communicate with each other using up to 50 'words'". The paper also covered a scientific analysis of "7,414 sounds from 411 pigs", which has led to an algorithm able to interpret their emotions from their sounds with 92% accuracy. The researchers hope this will lead to apps enabling farmers to communicate better with their pigs. Philip Harding-Esch is a freelance languages project manager and consultant. Jersey reform Languages can delay dementia Systemic failure in UK prisons A report has found serious failings in language provision in UK prisons, including patchy delivery, a large proportion of interpreting requests being denied and prisoners acting as ad hoc interpreters. The Bell Foundation identified systemic issues that leave staff ill-equipped to support prisoners who speak English as a second language (ESL), and create significant barriers for them to access justice and rehabilitation. The 'Language Barriers in the Criminal Justice System' report calls for routine access to qualified interpreters and formal training for bilingual inmates who provide language support. "There is clearly traction in exploring how to further develop peer-led support," it states, but "this should never replace access to professional interpretation for dealing with legal or confidential health matters." In the year ending March 2022, there were 100,000 requests for interpreting services, with most denied. For Polish, interpreting was provided in just 14% of cases. Despite this, inmates can wait months for approval to support their peers, and report distrust from officers when they do. The study gives "rough estimates" of the number of ESL learners in UK prisons because information is not collated consistently, leading to a lack of "robust data on the scale of language needs". tinyurl.com/BellCJS Jersey has adopted a language policy for the first time as part of an overhaul of its education system. Providing "a consistent framework for educators", the policy includes a £500,000 fund to support multilingual learners. The overarching Education Reform Programme follows a funding review of the island's state schools and colleges in 2019, and comes with £11.6 million in funding over the next four years. Being bilingual, or learning another language, could delay the onset of dementia by up to seven years, according to an international team of neuroscientists. Their review of existing research, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, concludes that there is sufficient evidence to show that bilingualism plays a role in "fostering successful aging". Research shows that bilingualism helps to preserve grey and white matter in the brain, and is linked to better working memory, semantic memory and executive function. The authors make a strong case for using language learning to stave off dementia over other forms of brain training. tinyurl.com/aging-well © SHUTTERSTOCK

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