Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 24 May 2012
24 May 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Languages (Improving Opportunities)
Members will be delighted to hear that I will attempt no linguistic feats—it took me long enough to rehearse my affirmation last year. I have enough difficulty with the English language some of the time.
My starting point is what the languages working group took as its starting point:
“the confident belief that learning another language has positive educational benefits”.
It is perhaps worth taking a moment to examine that belief, which is based on the “Study on the Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity”, which was written for the European Commission in 1999. That study has been quoted by, among others, the languages working group and the modern languages excellence group, and the minister alluded to it.
The study set out a wide range of benefits of language learning, which apply not just to the ability to master languages but across the curriculum. It was led by a Finland-based—although Anglophone—academic and it summarised 30 years of research in about as many pages. It also included primary attitudinal research about attitudes to language learning. It will come as no surprise to anyone here that people in English-speaking Europe—which I presume means the UK and Ireland—were the least convinced of the benefits of multilingualism. That is a cultural problem that is recognised widely—by the languages working group’s report, by the modern languages excellence group and by everybody in civic society who has commented since the working group’s report was published. Unless we are united in challenging such beliefs head on, we might as well not even bother being here.
However, there is one thing that we must accept. Skirting round it or pretending that it is not the case will not help. Much of Europe has one automatic first foreign language to learn—English. All the research on success in language learning schools that I have come across—whether it is from the Carleton board of education in Canada in 1996, from SCILT, Scotland’s national centre for languages, in 2001 or the 2008 study on Walker Road primary in Aberdeen, which undertook an early immersion project—links effectiveness in language learning to exposure.
The playground and classroom-immersion school has better results than the language-medium school, which in turn has better results than the traditional subject-teaching approach. When we consider that, it becomes clear that, although being endlessly bombarded with Hollywood films or Anglophone pop music might be one person’s cultural imperialism, it is another person’s head start in multilingualism.
The reverse is simply not the case. We do not turn on the television and trip over Deutsche Welle, and the average exposure in pop music is an occasional line in French or German in a Lady Gaga song. That is not the stuff on which fluency is built or maintained.
My starting point is what the languages working group took as its starting point:
“the confident belief that learning another language has positive educational benefits”.
It is perhaps worth taking a moment to examine that belief, which is based on the “Study on the Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity”, which was written for the European Commission in 1999. That study has been quoted by, among others, the languages working group and the modern languages excellence group, and the minister alluded to it.
The study set out a wide range of benefits of language learning, which apply not just to the ability to master languages but across the curriculum. It was led by a Finland-based—although Anglophone—academic and it summarised 30 years of research in about as many pages. It also included primary attitudinal research about attitudes to language learning. It will come as no surprise to anyone here that people in English-speaking Europe—which I presume means the UK and Ireland—were the least convinced of the benefits of multilingualism. That is a cultural problem that is recognised widely—by the languages working group’s report, by the modern languages excellence group and by everybody in civic society who has commented since the working group’s report was published. Unless we are united in challenging such beliefs head on, we might as well not even bother being here.
However, there is one thing that we must accept. Skirting round it or pretending that it is not the case will not help. Much of Europe has one automatic first foreign language to learn—English. All the research on success in language learning schools that I have come across—whether it is from the Carleton board of education in Canada in 1996, from SCILT, Scotland’s national centre for languages, in 2001 or the 2008 study on Walker Road primary in Aberdeen, which undertook an early immersion project—links effectiveness in language learning to exposure.
The playground and classroom-immersion school has better results than the language-medium school, which in turn has better results than the traditional subject-teaching approach. When we consider that, it becomes clear that, although being endlessly bombarded with Hollywood films or Anglophone pop music might be one person’s cultural imperialism, it is another person’s head start in multilingualism.
The reverse is simply not the case. We do not turn on the television and trip over Deutsche Welle, and the average exposure in pop music is an occasional line in French or German in a Lady Gaga song. That is not the stuff on which fluency is built or maintained.
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick)
NPA
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-03004, in the name of Alasdair Allan, on why languages matter—improving young people’s opportunities.09:16
The Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages (Dr Alasdair Allan)
SNP
Bonjour. Guten Tag. I am delighted to open the debate on why languages matter—improving young people’s opportunities. This is a welcome opportunity to discus...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (Lab)
Lab
I welcome the key messages in the report. The report says that in most European countries children start to learn a second language between the ages of six a...
Dr Allan
SNP
I thank the member for that considered point. The situation varies very much not just from country to country, but from school to school. We would be realist...
Liam McArthur (Orkney Islands) (LD)
LD
Will the minister take an intervention?
Dr Allan
SNP
I have just taken one. Give me a moment.
Liam McArthur
LD
It is on that point.
Dr Allan
SNP
Well, why not?
Liam McArthur
LD
I thank the minister for relenting. My comment relates to Malcolm’s Chisholm’s point. A lot of the evidence suggests that, by the time that children reach th...
Dr Allan
SNP
I readily agree with that. The younger that we introduce language learning, the more receptive children are likely to be to it. Implementation of the recomme...
Kezia Dugdale (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
Will the minister give way?
Dr Allan
SNP
I am in my last minute.In the meantime, we will provide £120,000 to fund pilot projects to be run in the 2012-13 school year by Education Scotland and Scotla...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Before I call Neil Findlay, I ask members who speak in a second language during the debate—I do not mean just saying “Bonjour” or “Guten Tag”—to provide a tr...
Neil Findlay (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
Merci, Presiding Officer. I can provide that to the official report if you require, but I do not think that I will worry the interpreters much more in my spe...
Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
In recent weeks politicians, including many in this Parliament, have been on the receiving end of some very blunt advice from employers in Scotland, much of ...
Dr Allan
SNP
I appreciate many of the sentiments that the member has expressed. On her last point, does she also agree that, for pupils who are perhaps challenged by lite...
Liz Smith
Con
Yes. I do not deny that for a minute. However, the point that the language teachers are making is that it enhances pupils’ ability to learn the structures of...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
We have a bit of time in hand for the open debate, so members will have a generous six minutes for speeches. If members take interventions, I am sure that we...
Marco Biagi (Edinburgh Central) (SNP)
SNP
Members will be delighted to hear that I will attempt no linguistic feats—it took me long enough to rehearse my affirmation last year. I have enough difficul...
Neil Findlay
Lab
As the member will know, we are about to have the Eurovision song contest, so maybe his horizons will be expanded.
Marco Biagi
SNP
As a passionate Eurovision fan—that might not come as a surprise—I can say that it is noticeable that since the language restrictions of the 1990s, whereby a...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
I remind members that I will give them a generous six minutes. I call Claudia Beamish.09:54
Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Thank you, Presiding Officer. If I translated my speech into French, I would need a lot longer than your generous six minutes.
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Feel free.
Claudia Beamish
Lab
I will stick to my own language. I rise today to speak in support of the Government’s motion and our amendment, which concern the ambition to improve the opp...
Maureen Watt (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP)
SNP
I am delighted to take part in the debate. Many members in the chamber already know of my passion for language learning and how knowledge of languages certai...
Stuart McMillan (West Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
When I was listening to Claudia Beamish’s closing comments about Italian, I was taken back to the time when I studied in France and Germany. As a vegetarian ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott)
Con
You have seven minutes.
Stuart McMillan
SNP
Thank you, Presiding Officer. In the time that I have, I have struggled to cut down some of my real-life experiences that show why languages matter but, towa...
Kevin Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (SNP)
SNP
Folk have talked about exchange trips, but it strikes me, as I listen to the debate, that people do not take advantage of what we have here at this moment. W...