The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/425024
FEATURES January The year begins with a kick-start to the 1000 Words campaign, which rewards school pupils and adult learners for mastering their first 1,000 words in a foreign language. An online platform is launched to help participants complete the challenge at www.vocabexpress.com/speaktothefuture. In the US, a multilingual advert, in which 'America the Beautiful' is performed in various languages, causes 'outrage', as the hashtag #SpeakAmerican trends on social media. February It is revealed that cuts of more than £100m over three years have forced nearly half of all sixth-form colleges in England to axe A-level courses in core subjects, including languages. The Sixth Form Colleges Association survey blames a diversion of funds to free schools. March The British Council and CfBT Education Trust publish the 12th annual Language Trends survey. It confirms that GCSE take-up has improved, but finds that language lessons are the first to be sacrificed when pupils need extra literacy and numeracy support, and that transition to secondary is woefully inconsistent. Although the majority of teachers support compulsory languages from age 7, many schools are not ready for the new requirement (see http://bit.ly/111IBMB). 'Bestie', 'Old Etonian', 'wackadoodle' and 'chugger' are among the new words admitted to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary). April The number of students taking a full-time language degree hits its lowest point in a decade, with a fall of 22% from 2010-11 to 2012-13, and of 48% for part-time students. Released on 10 April, the Higher Education Funding Council for England report attributes the decline almost entirely to UK students; intake from EU countries remains stable. Scientists learn that people are more calculating in a foreign language: participants in a study were more likely to throw a fat man in front of a train to save the lives of five others when asked in a non-native language. While in the world of animal-human communication, the Wild Dolphin Project reports the success of a human-to-dolphin translator – even if they can't be certain that their subject said the word for 'seaweed' intentionally. Also in the tabloids comes news that One Direction's Harry Styles has set up Twitter accounts in Spanish and Italian, with tweets translated in real time by human translators. May The world gears up for video-calls with machine translation in real-time, as Microsoft announces it will launch Skype Translator. June Summer sees celebrities celebrating their passion for language learning. British comedian Eddie Izzard performs three shows in three languages in three hours during his multilingual world tour; while actress Audrey Tautou speaks 'fluent Mandarin' in the comedy Chinese Puzzle, released on 20 June. The UK Government agrees to part-fund an initiative to introduce Mandarin to thousands of state school pupils, with the aim of doubling the number taking 'the language of the future' at GCSE within 10 years. 1,360 teachers will be trained at the Institute of Education's new Confucius Institute in London. BEYONDTHE BARRICADE PHOTOGRAPHY, 'H ARRY STYLES' VIA FLICKR (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0); SHUTTERSTOCK; CAROLINE BONARDE UCCI, 'H ELENMIRREN2007' VIAFLICKR (CC BY 3.0); ANNAFISCHER, 'T HE WILDPLACES OF NEWMEXICO' VIAFLICKR (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) JUNE JANUARY APRIL Have you been paying attention? Find out with our round-up of the year's top languages stories That was the year that was 2014