The Linguist

Inside Parliament Following the general election in the UK, it's all change in Parliament. Over half of the 2024 intake of MPs are brand new to Parliament and the roles of many re-elected MPs have changed. The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Modern Languages was dissolved, along with Parliament, when the election was called and will re-form with newly elected officers (both MPs and peers). This is not expected to take place before September. What does this mean for language issues? At the moment the answers are mainly speculative, but we can identify some areas of interest. For example, in recent months progress has been made towards an update to the Victims' Code to ensure there is access to appropriately qualified language professionals in legal proceedings. A public consultation was announced as part of this process, but the precise plan for ensuring this important update takes place is unclear. Another key area is healthcare. The Covid- 19 Inquiry highlighted the importance of communication with communities without mentioning languages, or translating and interpreting, specifically. How the new government will respond remains to be seen. In education, the new Secretary of State, Bridget Phillipson – herself a language graduate – has announced a curriculum review for schools, and has paused previously planned reforms to post-16 and vocational education. It is unclear how this will affect languages education. The new GCSE specification for languages will, however, apply in classrooms from September (with first exams in 2026). The National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE) – comprising the British Council, Goethe-Institut and IOE UCL's Faculty of Education and Society – enters its second year of modelling schools- based leadership in languages. It applies evidence-informed methodologies to teach the new GCSE successfully and help schools tackle inequalities in take-up. Phillipson made an encouraging speech in July, in which she expressed a desire to see "cross-border collaboration on skills training. School trips and scholarships, exchange programmes and language learning, policy conversations that span the early years to learners with special educational needs. And I want our universities to work with their international partners to deliver courses across borders." This speaks to widespread concerns – from schools to universities – about the post-Brexit/post-pandemic decline in school visits and exchanges, and student mobility. 6 The Linguist Vol/63 No/3 thelinguist.uberflip.com NEWS & EDITORIAL In the media In the media PHILIP HARDING-ESCH The new UK Secretary of State for Education may be a language graduate but she will have her work cut out, as the annual Language Trends survey found there has been no real improvement in languages uptake in schools. Reporting on the survey in July, The Independent highlighted that three in five secondary schools now struggle to recruit languages teachers. One piece of good news, heralded by Schoolsweek, was Ofqual's announcement that it had aligned grading standards in GCSE French and German with Spanish, after years of complaints that they were not graded the same. Their commitment to keep making adjustments, as necessary, was widely welcomed. A series of bad news stories about redundancies and departmental closures and mergers across higher education were largely ignored by the UK press. Languages and associated social sciences were affected in institutions such as Goldsmiths, Lincoln and Queen Mary University of London. It was interesting to see coverage of innovation in the provision of BSL, with all ambulances in the North East equipped with the SignVideo app. The BBC showed how patients and crews could now interact with a BSL interpreter on screen, quoting Rachel Austin, coordinator at Hartlepool Deaf Centre, that the service "will help save more lives". Congratulations to the 16 winners of the annual PEN Translates awards, who were celebrated by The Bookseller. Covering titles in ten languages, PEN encourages UK publishers to "acquire more books from other languages, helping them to meet the costs associated with translation". The Guardian ran a great article in its long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions, in this case: 'Which language is the most beautiful?' It attracted varied responses, from personal anecdotes to more technical linguistic insights, some vigorous debate and left-field comments. Philip Harding-Esch is a freelance languages project manager and consultant. Philip Harding-Esch considers how language policy might change under the new UK government ©HOUSE OF COMMONS 15/5/24 (CC BY 3.0)

• Cover