The Linguist

Inside parliament 6 The Linguist Vol/62 No/4 thelinguist.uberflip.com NEWS & EDITORIAL In the media PHILIP HARDING-ESCH This autumn, the UK government congratulated itself that the proportion of students taking the full suite of five core Ebacc subjects at GCSE (39.3%) was almost back to pre-pandemic levels. But almost all of those not meeting the criteria were missing the languages component. Schoolsweek reported that the Department for Education (DfE) would list languages alongside triple science as a "headline measure" for schools' Ebacc performance to incentivise take-up. The new national Languages Gateway portal (www.thelanguagesgateway.uk) was launched, developed by leading languages stakeholders, including CIOL. The Guardian covered AQA's announcement that its Italian and Polish GCSEs would be assessed digitally in England from 2026, spearheading plans to move towards digital assessments in all subjects. Language services in the public sector made headlines as Surrey Police appealed for information using posters and videos in Urdu, and deployed Urdu-speaking police officers, to reach Pakistani nationals in the high-profile case of Sara Sharif's murder. A couple of instances of researchers applying large-scale data to analyse language stood out. The Times ran an extraordinary story about Project Ceti, a team of scientists applying "advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art robotics to listen to and translate the communication of sperm whales". Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology tested the belief that languages with more non-native speakers tend to simplify their grammar. They analysed the grammars of 1,314 languages and found that the hypothesis is wrong. The Independent quoted Simon Greenhill, one of the study's authors: "received linguistic wisdom can be rigorously tested with the global datasets that are increasingly becoming available". Exciting times ahead for linguistics! Philip Harding-Esch is a freelance languages project manager and consultant. As artificial intelligence (AI) and technological 'solutions' to translation and interpreting take over the industry and public services, there are mixed signals about the pros and cons. The language services company thebigword announced its incorporation of AI, which it said heralded "accurate, high- speed translations at an affordable price for any budget". Meanwhile, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust adopted a remote interpreting service. 'Interpreters on Wheels' uses iPads on trolleys loaded with an app which can connect staff to live interpreters in "more than 170 languages, in less than 30 seconds", including British Sign Language. Reassuringly, the service coordinator states that "when it comes to interpreting, machine translations are not quite there yet, so we rely on actual qualified, experienced interpreters that have knowledge of medical terminology." It appears the service can access interpreters from the UK and abroad. The demand is definitely there, with regular stories of patients struggling to access health services due to a lack of language services. The hospitals hope to make the service a permanent addition to their existing team of in-person interpreters, but concerns remain that it could undermine their status and pay. AI: here for good (or bad) The summer meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was a TedX format with several presentations. The University Council for Languages (UCFL; formerly UCML) reported on its Summer Plenary, including the ATC/University of Portsmouth report 'Identifying New Roles in the Language Professions for Employability Growth', and a panel discussion included John Worne teasing out the impact of AI. The Linguistics in MFL project launched its Manifesto arguing for linguistics to be incorporated into language teaching, backed by 17 organisations including CIOL. The APPG made a submission to the Covid- 19 Inquiry about language services in health, education, justice and international relations, focusing on resilience/preparedness, healthcare systems and government procurement. For example, there is evidence that poor public health messaging in other languages, and disparities in language service provisions (e.g. Test and Trace), may have contributed to worse outcomes for asylum seekers and people of colour. The APPG sees language and communication in the NHS and public health as an emerging policy priority. cutt.ly/cwT4KRed © UNSPLASH

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