The Linguist

AUTUMN 2026 The Linguist 7 Chartered Institute of Linguists NEWS & EDITORIAL The latest GCSE statistics showed a noticeable drop in entries for modern foreign languages (MFL). This appeared to confirm fears that abandoning the contested Ebacc performance measure for schools last year, which encouraged schools to prioritise MFL, has already led to lower uptake. In contrast, the numbers taking A levels rose – albeit from a low base. The 2026 Language Trends report showed 34% of schools have just five or fewer post-16 students studying languages, while 18% have none at all. FFT Datalab published an overview of the intersectionality of MFL uptake, underscoring known inequalities along lines of gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background, while also highlighting new complexities and differences between some of the groups. Woe for school languages The Ministry of Justice confirmed its new interpreting contracts for an October 2026 start, with pay linked to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), a new supplier structure and AI-collaboration clauses. It awarded the contract to a mixture of incumbent and new suppliers, including reappointing thebigword as the primary provider of interpreting services. The change will bring in new qualification standards. Interpreters will require a level 6 qualification, such as the DPSI (Diploma in Public Service Interpreting) Law, to work in legal settings including police, prisons, immigration, courts and complex hearings. Professionals who are currently working without a relevant level 6 qualification are being urged to take steps to qualify as soon as possible. A lower (level 3) qualification will still be accepted in some settings. For more details see https://cutt.ly/MoJ26 and https://cutt.ly/DPSI Legal interpreting action required The Council of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) agreed new external policy principles this year. As a not-for-profit dedicated to the advancement of languages for the public benefit, CIOL has a 'public purpose' and its policies relate to some of the themes in its Royal Charter, principally 'international goodwill', 'knowledge dissemination' and 'professional standards'. The organisation meets these obligations by encouraging the effective study and practice of languages that facilitate cross- cultural communication; contributing to international understanding and cooperation; and promoting the exchange and dissemination of resources on languages. CIOL sets out and supports standards for professional practice and provides frameworks for recognising qualified linguists across different sectors, including for translators, interpreters, educators, academics and people who use their languages in business, the professions and government. One of CIOL's Royal Charter objects commits the organisation to: "the interchange with other societies and associations performing similar work or with Departments of State (i.e. Government Departments), universities and institutions engaged in similar work." In terms of policy and advocacy for linguists and for languages, the institute works with other associations, universities and language stakeholders, and engages with government departments all the time. This is vital to gather and share evidence and research, and organise knowledge – especially on the impact and risks of AI, the value of languages in education and the impacts on linguists of current approaches to the contracting and procurement for language services in the UK. CIOL external policy update A new study has found that 20,000-75,000 languages were spoken across the world between 1000 BCE and 1000 CE in what researchers have dubbed a linguistic 'golden age'. The team at Harvard and Yale used tools including computational modelling and ethnographic data to track the fate of global languages over the last 14,000 years. Published in Science in July, the findings transforms our understanding of language decline, which was previously thought to have begun about 500 years ago with the rise of European colonialism. In fact, it was the earlier spread of large imperial powers such as the Roman Empire that saw a dramatic fall in the number of languages worldwide. As such, the approximately 7,600 languages that survive today present just a small sample of human language, biased towards the languages of empire. "We show that language isn't isolated from political currents and that this dynamic has been a facet of human history for much longer than previously thought," said co-author Claire Bowern of Yale University. https://cutt.ly/GAge 'Golden age' discovered IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

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