fostering collaborations between cities,
experts at the universities of Warwick and
Portsmouth, and national agencies such as
ALL (the Association for Language Learning).
Manchester City of Languages
4
, which has
superseded Multilingual Manchester,
5
includes a focus on research, international
partnerships, dialogue and an ambition to
foster grassroots activism to achieve and
celebrate multilingualism in cities. Its founder,
Yaron Matras, recently published Speech and
the City, which considers the forging of a
new civic identity in cities that embraces
diversity and multilingualism, and can act as
a counterweight to prevailing – often
monolingual – national policies and discourse.
Finally, representatives from Hackney
shared their experience of implementing a
borough-wide language strategy.
6
This
includes focusing on one language (Spanish)
in all primary and secondary schools, leading
to a smooth primary-secondary transition,
while celebrating and supporting bilingual
students, and providing cultural learning and
international experiences to underprivileged
communities. Their efforts have led to a
significant boost in GCSE languages take-up.
It was enormously impressive to hear all of
the aspects of this work and the success that
can be unlocked by strategic, city-wide
SUMMER 2024 The Linguist 7
@CIOL_Linguists
NEWS & EDITORIAL
The cross-party group hears about city-wide language initiatives
In April, the All-Party Parliamentary Group
(APPG) on Modern Languages hosted five
'Cities of Languages' initiatives, joining up
local experts and leaders, universities,
schools, teachers and community groups to
celebrate multilingualism and support
language learning. Newcastle City of
Languages
1
bills itself as the first city-wide
initiative in the UK, focusing on improving
language learning, take-up and teaching.
Over many years, its founder, Declan
Baharini, has developed a model combining
partnerships, international experiences, travel,
support for language educators and the
annual North East Festival of Languages
(pictured, right). Last year, the festival involved
over 37,000 children from 419 schools.
Newcastle shared its approach nationally,
supporting other cities to develop their own
initiatives. Among these, Coventry,
2
led by
Anna Grainger, and Portsmouth,
3
led by Liz
Lord, shared their stories with the APPG.
They spoke about the focus on supporting
students' home, heritage and community
languages, upskilling primary teachers, and
thinking. It was also great to see several MPs
attending the APPG to support their
respective cities.
The meeting has led to these cities
planning to work collectively to support
each other and include other burgeoning
initiatives in the hope that more Cities of
Languages will spring up around the country.
A truly inspiring example of grassroots
excellence stepping up to meet national
policy and guidelines, which so often
struggle to be translated into the desired
outcomes on the ground.
Notes
1 https://cutt.ly/NewcastleCoL
2 Email Anna Grainger for details:
coventrycityoflanguages@gmail.com
3 https://cutt.ly/Portsmouth
4 https://mcrcityoflanguages.org
5 http://mlm.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/
index.html
6 https://cutt.ly/9ewJwhtF and
https://cutt.ly/HackSpanish
Inside Parliament
Philip Harding-Esch works on behalf
of CIOL to provide the secretariat
to the APPG on Modern Languages.
TL
Baroness Coussins, Co-Chair of the APPG
and Vice President of CIOL, made two
significant interventions in the House of
Lords. One was a debate on international
exchanges and visits for schools, pressing
the government to act more proactively
to iron out some of the more onerous
barriers facing schools post-Brexit, which
have led to a drop in the number of
school trips.
The other was to secure an
amendment to the Victims Code, which
sets out the rights of victims of crime, to
include specific reference to the right to a
professional, qualified interpreter. The
measure is a milestone in shoring up the
rights of victims in legal proceedings.
Interventions in the Lords
