Linguistics at school
Dick Hudson
Sheffield, May 2006
1
My main message
• Linguistics can and should be taught in
primary and secondary schools.
• In fact, it is already being taught there
under other names:
Knowledge About Language
Language Awareness
• Linguists should be working hard to build
bridges to education.
2
Recent developments in England
• National Curriculum for England: English
(1988, 1995, 1999)
– The National Literacy Strategy (1999)
• The Primary National Strategy (2003)
• The Secondary National Strategy (2005)
• National Curriculum for England: Modern
Foreign Languages (1999)
– Languages for All: Languages for Life – a
strategy for England (2002)
3
Some terminology
• Primary
– Key Stage 1 = Reception + Year 1-2, age 5-7
– KS 2 = Year 3-6, age 8-11
• Secondary
– KS 3 = Year 7-9, age 12-14
– KS 4 = Year 10-11, age 15-16
– Advanced Level = Year 12-13, age 17-18
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A sample page of the National
Curriculum for England: English
5
Language variation
“Language variation
Pupils should be taught about how speech
varies:
a. in different circumstances (example: to
reflect on how their speech changes in more
formal situations)
b. to take account of different listeners
(example: adapting what they say when
speaking to people they do not know).”
6
Language structure
• Pupils learn to pay attention to structure:
– In reading
– In writing
– In speaking and listening
• Structure is divided into three parts:
– Word level – morphology, spelling,
vocabulary
– Sentence level - syntax
– Text level – cohesion, genre
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Reading at KS2
“Knowledge, skills and understanding
Reading strategies
To read with fluency, accuracy and understanding,
pupils should be taught to use:
• phonemic awareness and phonic knowledge
• word recognition and graphic knowledge
• knowledge of grammatical structures
• contextual understanding.”
8
Writing at KS2
“Language structure
Pupils should be taught:
• word classes and the grammatical functions of
words, including nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, …
• the features of different types of sentence,
including statements, questions and commands,
and how to use them (example, imperatives in
commands)
• the grammar of complex sentences, including
clauses, phrases and connectives”
9
Spelling at KS3 and 4
“Pupils should be taught to:
• increase their knowledge of regular
patterns of spelling, word families, roots of
words and derivations, including stem,
prefix, suffix, inflection
• apply their knowledge of word formation”
10
More precisely
• The National Curriculum for English is
supported by ‘frameworks’ for
– ‘Literacy’ at KS1 and 2
– ‘English’ at KS3
• These define details of the
– content
– method
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Overview of primary literacy
12
E.g. Year 3, Term 1:
13
For example
“Pupils should be taught:
• the function of verbs in sentences through:
– noticing that sentences cannot make sense without
them;
– collecting and classifying examples of verbs from
reading and own knowledge, e.g. run, chase, sprint;
eat, consume, gobble; said, whispered, shrieked;
– experimenting with changing simple verbs in
sentences and discussing their impact on meaning;”
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Method
•
•
•
•
Noticing patterns
Collecting examples
Classifying examples
Experimenting with new combinations
• For example, in Year 3, Term 3, they might
study conjunctions.
• See “Grammar for Writing”:
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16
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Is it linguistics?
• It’s the study of language.
• It’s explicit, using technical terms.
– Even determiner and phoneme!
• It aims at understanding, not rote learning.
• Children discover and explore patterns.
• The facts are integrated into a simple model of
language.
• It’s descriptive, not prescriptive.
So yes, it is linguistics.
18
Did it come from linguists?
• Ultimately, yes:
– Randolph Quirk and Michael Halliday (19601970+) sowed the seeds in schools.
– A few linguists watered them in schools and
committees during the 1980s.
– A few linguists harvested the crop recently.
• But the seeds grew in the minds of school
teachers, some of whom are now leaders.
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KAL outside primary literacy
• Literacy at KS3 (and KS4) continues KS2.
• Foreign language teaching at KS2 and
KS3 now builds on English.
• Advanced-level English Language
– Since 1975
– Linguistic approaches to language
– 25,000 students per year!
• Advanced-level linguistics is being
considered.
20
KS3 English
21
Foreign Languages
• Are in crisis.
Declining uptake at A-level and BA
But increasingly popular in University
Language Centres and Adult education
• Why?
The Universal English Myth: everyone else
speaks English, so why bother?
Or boring syllabuses?
22
The TES view (11/6/04)
23
The diagnosis
• “Boring GCSE courses are to blame for
putting pupils off languages …”
• “Some high-flying children find it a bit
trivial to order ice cream in French when
in chemistry or history they are doing so
much more sophisticated work” (Nat Assn
of Lang Advisers)
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The solution: KS3 MFL
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The aim
“… not merely to inform the teaching of
languages but also to create language
learners. Pupils … should develop an
understanding of what it means to learn a
foreign language … They should thus be
well placed to learn other languages later.”
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How to achieve it?
• Focus the teaching.
• Provide challenge.
• Make concepts and conventions
explicit.
• [Make learning structured, active, etc.]
• Build reflection.
27
The role of grammar.
• “… grammar is to be presented not as a
separate issue but rather as a system or
set of underlying operational principles
that support learning about words,
sentences, texts and communication.”
• But: “The Framework should not be seen
as a dry menu of linguistics. Imaginative
and creative work …”
28
Linguistics has an image
problem…
29
Some principles to be learned
• About words: “Often small words/concepts (me,
that, for, to, of) are more difficult to transfer to
the foreign language than ‘bigger’ words
(September, station) but are more important to
master.”
• About sentences: “Words in a foreign language
may well be in a different order from the English
equivalent, but there will be a system behind the
order of words: learning that system is to learn
the grammar of a language.”
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For example, sentences:
• Year 7: “How to recognise and apply
typical word order in short phrases and
sentences” (+ 8 more)
• Year 8: “How the main elements of simple
and complex sentences are usually
sequenced.”
• Year 9: “That emphasis in a sentence can
be changed by positioning words,
phrases and clauses.”
31
A revolution in FL teaching
• The five language strands “challenge teachers
to pay fresh and urgent attention to language
at every level. A foreign language is more than a
huge vocabulary, a phrase book, an elaborate
guessing game or a dry academic discipline …”
• “For some departments, the emphasis on words
and sentences may represent a shift of focus
…”
• “… pupils themselves have identified the need
for such work.” (KS3 Framework)
32
Building on the Literacy revolution
• “The Framework [for FL] is deliberately
similar to the National Literacy Strategy
and the KS3 English Framework and
attempts to build on the linguistic skills
which pupils bring with them to the study
of a modern language.” (Baroness Ashton)
33
Primary FL teaching
• MFL is now optional at KS4
• But obligatory at KS2 (from 2010)
• Even more ‘linguistic’ than KS3
Framework
• Great stress on Knowledge About
Language
34
KS2 MFL
“The Objectives comprise three clearly progressive
core strands of teaching and learning,over the
four years of KS2:
– Oracy
– Literacy
– Intercultural understanding.
In addition, two cross-cutting strands are included:
• Knowledge about Language (KAL)
• Language Learning Strategies (LLS)”
35
L1 meets FL
• L1 English (KS1-3)
– the Literacy Strategy
• FL (KS2-3)
– Linked explicitly to the Literacy Strategy
• For the first time we have “language” in
the school curriculum!!!
• This link builds on linguistics
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A-level English Language
• In 2003 English Language or Lang and Lit were
taken:
At A-level (A2) by 25K candidates
At AS
by 36K
• QCA’s requirements:
– AS and A level specifications in English Language
should encourage students to develop their interest
and enjoyment in the use of English, through learning
more about the structures and functions of English,
drawing on their experience and knowledge of
language change and variation. …
37
A-level Linguistics
• Why not?
• Consolidates KAL from:
English/literacy
MFL
• Good education:
– Relevant to language skills and personal
development
– Develops analytical thinking
• A working group is developing a syllabus.
38
Possible topics for Linguistics Alevel
•
•
•
•
IPA
sound systems
writing systems
comparison of languages
– foreign languages
– community languages
• data-sets, e.g. ...
39
Lithuanian diminutives
3 syllables
2 syllables
arklys
degtukas
juosta
merga
uoga
+ 11 more
arklelis
horse
degtukélis match
? juostelé
ribbon
???
?
girl
uogelé
berry
Task 1. Fill the gaps.
Task 2. What can you say about the
pronunciation of uo in Lithuanian? Explain.
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Linguistic brain-teasers
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The Linguistics Olympiads
• Started in Russia for school children.
• Now international, hosted in:
– Russia, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Estonia
• Based on grammar puzzles
– including word formation
– e.g. Lithuanian diminutives
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A career for linguistics graduates?
• Primary teacher
– general, including literacy
– FL specialists are being recruited
• Secondary teacher
– English teachers are becoming specialists in
language or literature (or media or drama)
– Route in via PGCE English
• Linguistics is a good basis for either
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How can linguists help?
• This is the topic for a discussion at the
next LAGB meeting
– Newcastle, August 31 or September 1
•
•
•
•
A-level English Language (Julie Blake)
Phonics (Sue Barry)
The rest of English (? Janet White)
Foreign Languages (James Burch)
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Thank you
• This slide show:
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/talks.htm
• Educational links:
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/lagb-las.htm
• Papers about linguistics in education:
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/papers.htm
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