Learning French in the UK setting

Instructed foreign language knowledge – that is, language skills acquired exclusively in the classroom without the benefit of any significant immersion experience – remains a vastly neglected area of studies on language learning in general and language attrition in particular. There is also little consideration of foreign language attrition and maintenance as a problem for policy or pedagogy. The present talk will give an overview of what is and what is not known about second language (L2) attrition at the present time. It will then present the results from a pilot project that will hopefully serve as the foundation for larger studies of instructed L2 attrition in future years.

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Supporting foreign languages in an Anglophone world

Porter

Myles

Tellier

et al. 2020

LTYL

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Abstract Foreign language (FL) learning in English primary schools, statutory provision for most schools since 2014, has been characterised by distinct challenges. The first issue, peculiar to Anglophone settings, concerns how language learning is valued when ubiquitous English learning rationales of economic and social capital are unhelpful. Other challenges, shared globally, relate to provision and practice such as: the importance of progression, motivation, age-appropriate pedagogy and contextual factors. Successful policy implementation in England remains elusive and continues to be characterised by a lack of cohesion, coordination and forward planning. Provision and practice are problematic and linked to deficits in curriculum time, teacher linguistic expertise, planning and progression. This article will explore how both language and broader education policy in England have created conflicting forces for the sustainability of the foreign languages initiative in primary schools. It will examine how networks of researchers, teachers, educationalists and policy makers are supporting implementation through national and local education stakeholder engagement. Through collaboration and co-construction, research-informed practical suggestions are promoted, coupled with the development of solution-focused research agendas.

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Learning French in the UK setting

Cited by 9 publications

References 33 publications

Building an Oral and Written Learner Corpus of a School Programme: Methodological Issues

Building an Oral and Written Learner Corpus of a School Programme: Methodological Issues

The final frontier? Why we have been ignoring second language attrition, and why it is time we stopped

Supporting foreign languages in an Anglophone world

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