TML Case Studies

The TML team has been working within Higher Education, with schools and in the wider community.

In HE, we are promoting a reframing of MLs that, instead of focussing on self-contained national traditions, concentrates on the study of languages, cultures and their interactions. Bringing together an extensive team of researchers, we are producing a series of books with Liverpool University Press that will provide resources for teaching. The series, Transnational Modern Languages, articulates a vision of MLs which is attentive to linguistic and cultural specificity but which does not confine the study of languages and cultures within national borders.

Through intensive work with schools in the UK, and especially in Scotland, TML has promoted an interdisciplinary approach to language education, exploring the re-location of MLs in the curriculum and its integration with other subjects. By engaging with teachers, educational advisers and policy-makers, we promote approaches that invite learners to identify the richness of their local environment as well as their own personal and family history.

Through curriculum development and the creation of teaching resources for subjects such as History and Visual Arts, we promote pedagogical practices which aim to make the presence of all languages evident.

The aim of the TML approach is to:

• valorise the role of languages beyond the language classroom;

• highlight the diversity already present in local communities;

• and reward learners’ ability to move between languages and cultures

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TML has engaged with local communities and voluntary associations in the UK, South America, Australia and Italy, paying specific attention to how individuals and groups experience migration and the legacy of migration on subsequent generations. Through workshops on multilingual creative writing, we have engaged directly with community languages (ranging from Arabic to Croatian, Italian, Somali and Yoruba) and seen first-hand how creative processes encourage greater awareness of the linguistic and cultural practices which are part of everyday life.

Global Challenges and the example of Namibia

From 2016 TML has worked collaboratively with the University of Namibia (UNAM) and Cardiff University’s Phoenix Project. Since independence in 1990, Namibia has aimed to sustain its diverse linguistic and cultural heritage, which encompasses both indigenous and ex-colonial languages. The country has also promoted English as the official language and the main vehicle of education.

Today Namibia faces the challenge of maintaining its heritage while also producing a new generation of professionals whose training matches international standards. Creating a sustainable linguistic and cultural ecology is a key goal in order to ensure the country’s continuing development, economic growth, social cohesion and wellbeing.

The ways in which Namibia is addressing language education provide examples from which the UK can benefit. Through co-research and co-production, TML has investigated the role of multilingualism in primary education and in the training of health professionals in Namibia.

The project’s activities have highlighted the need for cross-sector and trans-disciplinary collaborations. The collaboration is producing educational resources aimed at promoting a co-ordinated approach to language policy and education across all levels and age groups, and sensitizing trainees as well as professionals in medicine, law, the media and other key industries about the importance of multilingualism in their fields.

How can we reform language education?

We need joined-up thinking across the educational sector and effective messaging targeted at as broad a spectrum of groups and institutions as possible, focusing on four challenges:

Creating a sustainable linguistic ecology. This entails an effort to make the rich diversity of linguistic and cultural capabilities already present in our societies visible and audible. It also means documenting the value of those capabilities as a resource for individuals and communities.

Building a better narrative for language education. We need an approach that promotes language learning and a heightened understanding of intercultural awareness as a route to social cohesion, creativity, cultural as well as economic growth and well-being. To sensitize both individuals and key stakeholders to the social role played by languages and linguistic practices, we need good stories, convincing data, and better definitions of the interaction between language and culture.

Creating a more flexible approach to language learning. Not everyone needs to attain a high level of fluency in another language, and no one can master all languages. Yet (almost) everyone needs to develop their sensitivity to the variety and significance of language practices. Approaches to language education need to be both responsive to and effective in sustaining existing multilingual capabilities and promoting further language acquisition.

Countering ‘language indifference’. We need to make the work of language and of translation visible. And we need to stress that languages are not neutral but deeply connected to the cultural, political and economic dimensions of social life. We should pay attention to languages across our educational systems and in our everyday practices.