28 The Linguist Vol/65 No/2
ciol.org.uk/thelinguist
FEATURES
Could a video project with key figures in languages
education help stakeholders build on progress made, rather
than continually starting from scratch, asks Alan Dobson
T
here is often limited awareness of
precedents in the UK 'languages
crisis' debate. Many lessons that
might have been learned from the policies
and practice of recent decades have been
forgotten. Almost a generation of linguists
has no firsthand memory of the languages
scene before 2010, when there was a
National Strategy for Languages, innovation
was supported by national and international
networks, and take-up at Key Stage 4 had
reached 80%.
Partly as a way to combat this 'knowledge
loss' and share lessons learned in previous
decades, I began the Language Lives project
in 2022 with Mike Byram, Professor Emeritus
of Education at Durham University, and John
Daniels, a retired middle school headteacher.
Through video-recorded conversations,
1
the
project makes available the experiences of
people active in the development of
language teaching and learning in the UK
between about 1980 and 2015.
Many initiatives and policy changes of the
time had a significant impact on the
curriculum and the classroom. The interviews
throw light on what policymakers, teachers
and researchers might learn from past
successes and past shortcomings. The aim
was to develop a natural conversation,
allowing space for spontaneous testimony as
well as narrative and analysis, covering how
the interviewees became 'language persons';
what they considered to be the crucial
moments or events in language teaching and
learning as they experienced or witnessed
Lessons learned
©
SHUTTERSTOCK
/
KISELEV
ANDREY
VALEREVICH
