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thelinguist.uberflip.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017 The Linguist 11 AWARDS FOCUS was one of growth, as CILT was established first in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and then Wales. Successive governments showed some commitment to languages but the "watershed" moment came with the Blair Government in 1997. King found himself working on the development of a national languages strategy – the first of its kind in the UK. Part of the proposal was to have a National Director for Languages, and King was appointed to the position when the strategy was introduced in 2003. Despite unprecedented investment in languages, there was a major handicap in the government's decision to end compulsory languages education from age 14. "After that, on every occasion things didn't go as expected, people would say, 'Well it was because they stopped compulsory languages post-14'. And I think that has some validity, because if languages are not regarded as being as important as other subjects then people will draw lessons from that." The Languages Review followed in 2006, which Lord Dearing researched and wrote with King. They offered a comprehensive set of proposals, including compulsory language education from age 7. Though this was finally implemented in 2014, there have been retrograde steps in other areas. While the review recommended more flexible assessment methods, rigorous testing has become the norm. "Unfortunately, the conclusion to testing not working seems to be to test more. I'm afraid our society's become a bit like a strict school that doesn't work." Another problem identified by the report is the "lockstep approach" whereby instruction is "offered in small doses over a long period". In one research project, King found that ordinary secondary school students, including many who were struggling with language, made more progress in two weeks of full-time language teaching, than they had in two years at school. "We know this," he says. Yet the same model continues. It is, in fact, something he has know since he was a boy. Growing up first in Stafford and then in Croydon, by way of a two-year stay in Kenya, he failed to learn any Welsh but a few swear words from his Welsh grandmother. Though he studied French, Latin and Ancient Greek at school, it was immersion in a foreign country that brought him greater fluency and interest. When he was 10, his father, who was in the Air Force, was posted to France. Living in South London with his mother and 3-year- old sister, King would spend holidays in France and have to speak for the whole family there as no one else could speak French. "That began the fluency and more serious interest in language," he says. Unusually for the 1960s, he did an exchange with a Greek boy, who he remains friends with today. Staying in Greece for most of the summer, he began to learn modern Greek and later did a doctorate in modern Greek history, only becoming a French teacher because there wasn't much demand for Greek teachers. He then met his wife, Anny, who is French, and they became a bilingual family. Though largely based in England, King's childhood has that international dimension commonly associated with language aptitude in the collective British consciousness. This misconception posits that only those with a privileged or 'international' upbringing can learn other languages – that they are the preserve of a "foreign elite". It is something King rails against: working in schools in often challenging circumstances, he became acutely aware of the value of language, openness to other cultures and intercultural understanding for all. "That's probably even more the case now when we see where inward-looking ideas and appeals to sentimental nationalism can lead," he adds. Since the Languages Company lost government funding in 2011, it has been run as a limited non-profit enterprise, bidding for funding for individual projects and often working with partners in Europe. Two recent projects address some of the most pressing issues of the day, looking at how multicultural cities function on the one hand, and hate speech on the other. The Multilingual City (published by Multilingual Matters last year), emerged from a growing awareness that "cities were a kind of bulwark" to this rise in xenophobia across Europe. In a parallel study, King is now investigating online hate speech directed at migrants. It marks a new direction for him, but one that is no less important than his work in education. I wonder what he feels are his biggest achievements of the last 40 years. "I was proud of the national review and of what CILT achieved. But it could just be a simple thing like one child learning something or growing or suddenly opening their eyes – which is what you want to do but a million times over," he replies. "And you hope that the other things, which are more policy related, systems related, are enabling that to happen." Dr Lid King was awarded the IoLET David Crystal Trophy for outstanding contribution to the field of languages in 2016. INTERNATIONAL APPROACH Lid King speaking at an event in Ghangzhou (left); and on a mountain outside Sofia, Bulgaria (far left)