You can get into the latest online issue of the Scottish Languages Review right now!

In this edition we start off by featuring early language learning from three different perspectives. Helen Shanahan
reports on an action research project where she was trying to increase
her own use of the target language with her young charges in a French
Club class. She took inspiration from the evaluation report on Early Partial Immersion Teaching of French at Walker Road Primary School in Aberdeen, which showed that even very young learners can cope with much more foreign language input than expected.

Still staying with early language learning, Lorraine Sweeney
discusses two different models of teaching modern languages in the
primary class: delivered by the class teacher – which she terms the
‘generalist’ or by a qualified teacher who only sees the class once a
week, in other words a ‘specialist’. Lorraine has first-hand experience
of both models so feels in a strong position to argue which has more
advantages.

Finally, Elaine Pasternak
provides a detailed account of how early language learning has been
implemented in her own local authority. This is a very valuable
contribution because it allows readers to have greater insight into the
many considerations that have to be grappled with in order to implement
an authority-wide language policy.

We included a number of articles on the different language learning & teaching methods of China and Scotland in our last edition. Here, Yimei Li,
a teacher of English who is currently spending a year in Scotland as a
Comenius Language Assistant, gives an illuminating account of her
contrasting experiences.

Moving to the secondary sector, Hannah Doughty
reports on a Scotland-wide survey which investigated the ways in which
pupils in their third year of secondary schooling think about their
future career aspirations and how they relate these goals to language
learning. One of the encouraging findings from the survey is that
schools can make a difference.

Some possible
ways in which schools can market languages to their pupils through
cross-collaboration with colleagues in further and higher education are
highlighted by Murray Hill.
He also calls for increased political activity on the part of teachers.
Murray speaks from experience, having collaborated himself with
secondary schools on the award-winning Languages Work! events, and more
recently having lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament calling
for a step change in language strategy.

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