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modern languages, Page 27

Modern languages staff win students’ union “Excellence in Teaching” awards

At a stylish ceremony held in the Students Union building on 2 May, the outstanding teaching of Modern Languages was recognised at the first ever students’ union “Excellence in Teaching” awards ceremony. James Minney, Principal Teaching Fellow in Modern Languages (French) and now also Associate Dean Education for the Faculty of Humanities, won the overall university award for “Outstanding Lecturer”. Continue reading →

Developing contacts in Thailand

Postgraduate students from Thailand already study at Southampton Humanities Graduate School in some numbers, mostly following programmes in applied linguistics/English language education. Following this trend, a group of 11 lecturers from the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University, Thailand visited the Department of Modern Languages on Monday 22 April. The group included Southampton alumna Dr Sasikarn (Fon) Konsak. Continue reading →

Institute for Language and Culture blog site live

The Institute for Language and Culture blogging site, developed by Modern Languages at the University of Southampton, is now live. Designed to highlight current research in Modern Languages, the site has space for research stories, media content arising from research activities, and links to sites that have collected research materials. There is also blogging space for additional contributors to blog about their research. Visit the website to find out more. Continue reading →

A new tool developed to reconstruct ancient languages

The BBC has reported on a new tool that has been developed that can reconstruct languages that are long-dead. The software, created by researchers at the University of California, is able to rebuild protolanguages – the ancient tongues from which our modern languages evolved. The team tested the system using 637 languages currently spoken in Asia and the Pacific to recreate their early ancestor language. Their full work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Continue reading →

British Academy report on the state of languages

The British Academy published its latest report entitled “Languages: The State of the Nation, Demand and Supply of Language Skills in the UK” on 14th February 2013. The publication, based on a survey of UK employers, a wide-ranging appraisal of language policies across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and a synthesis of existing evidence on language skills aims to deepen understanding of foreign language use in the UK and identify key priorities for action. Continue reading →

Languages in the 2014 National Curriculum

On 7th February 2013, the government announced its latest thinking on the National Curriculum / GCSE reform. Studying a foreign language will become compulsory in Key Stage 2 (ages 8-11), and will continue to be compulsory in Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14), but will now continue to be optional in Key Stage 4. For full details of the new proposals, plus details of a consultation on the new national curriculum, see the DFE website. Continue reading →