Rethinking the UK Languages Curriculum: Arguments for the Inclusion of Linguistics

Abstract

This paper argues for a place for linguistics within the UK Modern Languages curriculum as part of a more pluralistic approach to languages study. Based on an intervention involving over 300 A-level students of French, German and Spanish, we demonstrate: 1) that it is feasible and appropriate to include linguistics topics on the A-level Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) curriculum; 2) that many of these topics are inherently interesting for A-level language students; and 3) that pupils report increased confidence in their language skills after having been exposed to a short linguistics course (four hours). In light of our further finding that there is already considerable untapped scope for linguistics within the current formal framework of the A-level MFL qualification, we recommend that linguistics topics should be included in MFL A-levels as a matter of priority. This is the case not least because linguistics has the potential to attract new pupils to the study of MFL, while also providing a crucial bridge between language skills and cultural content, which are so often kept apart in existing MFL curricula. Lastly, we argue that the introduction of linguistics into languages teaching raises awareness of the harmfulness of deeply entrenched prescriptive and standard-language-ideological beliefs in schools, and this will lead to a more inclusive discipline.

Teacher perspectives on the introduction of linguistics in the languages classroom: Evidence from a co‐creation project on French, German and Spanish

“…As we, like many others, have previously noted (see, e.g., Celce-Murcia, 2008;Crystal, 1986;Durrell, 1986;Feldhausen, 2022;Hawkins, 1984;Hodges et al, 2023;Hudson, 2020;Moulton, 1963;Mukherjee, 2006;Sheehan et al, 2021;Stevenson, 1986;Trotzke & Kupisch, 2020;Wilkins, 1972), there are many ways in which linguistics can contribute to language teaching. First, current findings in second language acquisition should feed into the pedagogical approaches taken in language teaching and learning.…”

“…Linguistic-cultural knowledge about the language of study should arguably be fundamental to the academic study of a language. This dimension is often completely lacking from language teaching in UK schools, despite evidence that it is of great interest to language students (Sheehan et al, 2021) and may empower them for further language learning. 1 An integration of the descriptive view of language and the tools of modern linguistics can empower students to investigate aspects of the language they are studying, moving beyond a fixed prescriptive view of the second language and engaging their intellectual curiosity.…”

“…In previous work (Sheehan et al, 2021), we have highlighted the great appeal of linguistics to languages students, based on pupil reactions to a free-standing four-part introductory course on French, German or Spanish linguistics devised by a subset of us (academics in UK universities). While this course provided students with an introduction to selected core areas of the discipline (phonetics and phonology, morphosyntax, sociolinguistics and historical linguistics), feedback from teachers and pupils highlighted the desire for linguistics materials to be better integrated into the existing A-level curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL).…”

“…Third, as one of the potential barriers to the introduction of linguistics in language teaching may be the prescriptivist views shared by some languages teachers, we are interested in investigating how teacher perspectives are impacted by teaching linguistics. Finally, Sheehan et al (2021) focused on pupil reactions to linguistics and so, in this contribution, we pivot to the teacher perspective to offer a complementary perspective.…”

Linguistics, teaching and the portuguese teacher perspective: a first look

“…Para a realização desta pesquisa, foi elaborado um questionário em colaboração com pesquisadores da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) e da Universidade de Birmingham 5 (Reino Unido). Esta análise faz parte de um projeto mais amplo que tem como objetivo propor ações concretas e soluções para disseminar e facilitar o acesso à linguística teórica por professores de (P) L1 e (P)L2 de todos os níveis e de diversos países (veja, entre muitos outros, CORR; SHEEHAN, 2021, O'NEILL; MASSINI-CAGLIARI, 2019;BOSQUE;GALLEGO, 2016;LARSON et al, 2019, TROTZKE;KUPISCH, 2020;SHEEHAN et al, 2021;PINEDA, no prelo). Assim, a partir da escala atitudinal Likert, foi elaborado um questionário que visava reconhecer a perspectiva dos professores em relação a temas caros à linguística teórica e ao ensino e aprendizagem de português.…”