The Linguist

6 The Linguist Vol/65 No/2 ciol.org.uk/thelinguist NEWS & EDITORIAL Languages key to UK defence In the media PHILIP HARDING-ESCH In national news, there were more bad headlines about university cuts, as Leicester, Essex and Hertfordshire announced closures of their offers in modern languages and/or linguistics. Times Higher Education ran a piece analysing why English and modern languages are hardest hit by university cuts. In England, Schoolsweek reported that 29% of teachers say their schools have reduced languages provision since the Ebacc schools performance measure (which included a language GCSE) was abandoned last November. Meanwhile, The Herald rang alarm bells after finding a 50% drop in the number of language teachers in Scotland since 2009. The BBC reminded us that it's not all bad news. In Wales, MFL Mentoring has led to two consecutive years of higher languages uptake at GCSE. Regional success stories included heightened interest in Manx on the Isle of Man, and in Jériais on Jersey. In Northern Ireland, a surge in parents wishing to send their children to Irish Medium Education schools has led to a shortage of places: "We are victims of our own success," said one Irish language advocate. Several headlines covered the struggles public services have with providing adequate interpreting. Northern Ireland's police service was criticised for using Google Translate due to a lack of court interpreters; while a hospital in Birmingham apologised for "repeatedly using children to interpret critical medical information for their deaf family members", including a case where a teenage boy had tell his deaf mother that her father might die. Finally – the burgeoning debate about whether WhatsApp voice notes are a good or bad thing made it to BBC InDepth. The UK is among the countries where people use voice notes the least, whereas in India over half of people prefer voice notes – likely driven by the ease with which translanguaging and informal language can be used this way. Philip Harding-Esch is a freelance languages project manager and consultant. The UK Government has launched a Defence Diplomacy Strategy that will improve language capacity among the British armed forces and wider diplomatic core. Announced in March in response to a "new era of threat", the strategy includes improved training in languages and negotiation techniques for a broad cohort of defence staff, with military personnel training alongside diplomats and language experts. It comes out of the Strategic Defence Review, which recommended strengthening collaboration with key global partners. A unit will be created to support the 102 foreign defence sections accredited in the UK, with defence attachés given additional language training "to help them better engage with partners in their own language," said the Defence Minister Lord Coaker. According to the public summary of the strategy, the Ministry of Defence "will review our hospitality and protocol policy to ensure it showcases the value we place on our international relationships". This will also include a new Defence Diplomacy Cadre to train "international-facing" civilian professionals. A Defence Diplomacy Doctrine, replacing the 2015 Defence Engagement Doctrine, will follow. https://cutt.ly/MODStrategy PETTY OFFICER JOEL ROUSE / UK MOD © CROWN COPYRIGHT 2023 Bilingual forms boost recovery A new study has found that bilingual consent forms significantly improve understanding of cancer treatment among patients with limited English proficiency. Conducted by researchers at UCL and Queen Mary University of London, the study focused on Bengali- and Sylheti-speaking adults in the UK. It found that comprehension of the limits of a myeloma treatment rose from 35% to 60% when a bilingual form was used alongside a supported consultation with a professional interpreter. The study, which was published in Supportive Care in Cancer, also compared professional translation with machine translation using Google Translate, finding that the latter produced meaning- changing errors. UCL Professor Federico M Federici, a co-author of the study, said: "This is a simple, practical step that can significantly improve understanding, confidence and equity in cancer care." More than one million people in the UK report limited English proficiency. Language barriers are associated with poorer cancer outcomes, delayed diagnosis and misunderstanding of critical treatment decisions. https://cutt.ly/UCLBilingualCancer

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