Terry Lamb

Language policy in multilingual UK

As recent reports have confirmed, the UK is becoming more and more linguistically diverse, especially in urban areas. This article explores ways in which educational policy might respond to these changes. It begins by reporting on a small-scale research project designed to find out from a number of community language teachers in Nottingham what they consider to be the linguistic needs of their children and how these might be fulfilled in both mainstream and supplementary schools. Having identified these needs, the article then turns to a description of the Sheffield Multilingual City Project. An analysis of this project serves to identify some useful principles for the development of a coherent policy which would include the voices of the various community language speakers. The article concludes by arguing that there is a need for a national policy framework designed to promote appropriate language policies in all areas, and that this should ensure that the linguistic needs of all of our children are met, regardless of where they live.

Families’ roles in children’s literacy in the UK throughout the 20th Century

This paper explores the changing roles of families in children’s developing literacy in the UK in the last century. It discusses how, during this time, understandings of reading and writing have evolved into the more nuanced notion of literacy. Further, in acknowledging changes in written communication practices, and shifting attitudes to reading and writing, the paper sketches out how families have always played some part in the literacy of younger generations; though reading was frequently integral to the lives of many families throughout the past century, we consider in particular the more recent enhancement of children’s literacy through targeted family programmes. The paper considers policy implications for promoting young children’s literacy through work with families.

Towards a plurilingual habitus: engendering interlinguality in urban spaces

Abstract This article focuses on the potential of the multilingual city to create spaces in which monolingual hegemonies may be challenged, inclusive, intercultural values may be nurtured, and plurilingualism may be valorised. Following a contextualisation of linguistic diversity in theories of globalisation and superdiversity, discourses of deficit and power are addressed, arguing that the problematisation of multilingualism and pathologisation of plurilingualism reflect a monolingual habitus. Bringing about a shift towards a plurilingual habitus requires a Deep Approach, as it involves a critical revaluing of deep-seated dispositions. It suggests that the city offers spaces, which can engender interlinguality, a construct that includes interculturality, criticality and a commitment to creative and flexible use of other languages in shared, pluralistic spaces. It then proposes critical, participatory and ethnographic research in three multidimensional spaces: the urban school and a potential interlingual curriculum; networks, lobbying for inclusive policy and organising celebratory events in public spaces; and grass roots-level local spaces, some created by linguistic communities to exercise agency and maintain their languages and cultures, and some emerging as linguistically hybrid spaces for convivial encounter.