S2 E4: Reviving language learning in the UK
In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta interviews Professor Neil Kenny, Professor of French at University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow in All Souls College, and Lead Fellow for Languages for the British Academy. This episode addresses one of the central motivations for the podcast: how to increase the number of language learners in the UK. In his role as Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy, Professor Kenny has developed initiatives to encourage language learning and he describes a few of these initiatives, as well as why it is so important to learn a language.
To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We’d love to hear from YOU.
Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson
Or get in touch via email: kaitlyn.zavaleta@dmu.ac.uk and marie-josee.bisson@dmu.ac.uk
To follow the British Academy and hear more about their work, they are on Twitter: @BritishAcademy_
To read more about Professor Kenny’s work at the British Academy: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/towards-national-languages-strategy-education-and-skills/
Links to some of the resources in the podcast
The Languages Gateway: the UK’s portal for languages
Association for Language Learning: organisation for school resources
University Council of Modern Languages: organisation for higher education language learning
World of Languages and Languages of the World (WOLLOW): resources for encouraging children to learn languages
We’d love to hear your thoughts
What have you learnt from this episode? How has your attitude towards language learning been affected?