̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Wendy Ayres-Bennett

Investment in languages education could return double for UK economy

ta385 — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 09:45:00 +0000

A new study from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the not-for-profit research institute RAND Europe shows that investing in languages education in the UK will return more than the investment cost, even under conservative assumptions.

By quantifying the wider economic benefits to the UK economy of extending languages education in schools, researchers found that the benefit-to-cost ratios for increasing Arabic, Mandarin, French or Spanish education are estimated to be at least 2:1, meaning that spending £1 could return about £2.

Researchers used a macroeconomic model to examine UK economic performance between now and 2050 if more pupils aged between 11 and 16 – Key Stage 3 (KS3) and Key Stage 4 (KS4) – learned to speak one of four different languages so they could later use it effectively in business. ̽��ֱ��modelling was based on the Government’s successful Mandarin Excellence Programme, in which extra hours are devoted to language learning without affecting other EBacc subjects, and lessons are fast-paced and engaging.

̽��ֱ��analysis showed that a ten percentage point increase in UK pupils learning Arabic in KS3/KS4 could cumulatively increase UK GDP by between £11.8bn and £12.6bn over 30 years, compared against a baseline scenario in which the current levels of language provision in schools do not change. This corresponds to about 0.5% of the UK’s GDP in 2019.

An increase in pupils learning Mandarin would increase GDP by between £11.5bn and £12.3bn. For French, the benefit is between £9.1bn and £9.5bn, and an increase in Spanish is estimated to be between £9.1bn and £9.7bn.

Wendy Ayres-Bennett, the study’s lead author and Professor of French Philology and Linguistics at Cambridge said: “Languages play a significant role in international trade, and having a common language can, all else being equal, reduce trade barriers and foster trade. This study provides a new economic estimate for some of the UK’s untapped language potential.”

“However, the UK has experienced a sharp decline overall in the uptake of languages since 2004. At a time when the UK Government seeks to reset its global economic relationships, such a decline in language skills could impact on the UK’s ability to compete on a global stage.”

Researchers calculated the benefit-to-cost ratio by applying a range of education cost estimates per pupil per year for each of the four languages under consideration: £600 to £800 for Arabic; £480 to £720 for Mandarin; and £240 to £600 each for French and Spanish.

̽��ֱ��resulting findings of a 2:1 benefit-to-cost ratio for each language demonstrated that there are identifiable returns for investing in languages education, not just in economic terms but also in producing workers with the language skills needed for the UK to compete internationally.

̽��ֱ��report notes that while the UK does have a comparative advantage because of the global nature of English as a lingua franca, English is not the sole driver in certain key trade sectors such as mining and energy and services – and other languages matter equally, if not more, in reducing trade barriers.

UK exports are predicted to rise if there is an increase in the number of languages shared with its trading partners. ̽��ֱ��report shows that the removal of language barriers with trading partners in Arabic-, Chinese-, French- and Spanish-speaking countries could increase UK exports annually by about £19bn.

Marco Hafner, report co-author and senior economist at RAND Europe, said: “ ̽��ֱ��analysis presented in this study demonstrates that investing in languages education could recoup its cost. But the idea behind the analysis was not in any way to substitute or diminish education in STEM or other EBacc subjects and replace them with languages. ̽��ֱ��intent is to demonstrate the value of improving the quality and quantity of languages education of secondary school pupils across the UK.”

Reference

W Ayres-Bennett et al., ' ̽��ֱ��economic value to the UK of speaking other languages', RAND Corporation (2022).

An increase in secondary school pupils learning Arabic, Mandarin, French or Spanish could boost the UK economy by billions of pounds over 30 years, according to new research. ̽��ֱ��study warns that the ongoing decline in language learning in UK schools is undermining the country's ability to compete internationally.

This study provides a new economic estimate for some of the UK’s untapped language potential

Wendy Ayres-Bennett

dendoktoor via Pixabay

A container ship

Funding

This study was funded through a research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (grant AH/V004182) awarded to Professor Ayres-Bennett.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Discovering a world of languages

cjb250 — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 08:23:48 +0000

A Cambridge-led team seeks to revitalise languages in the UK with a series of interactive pop-up exhibitions and an online game designed to set tongues wagging.

̽��ֱ��menace of monolingualism

mjg209 — Fri, 18 May 2018 09:41:48 +0000

Is monolingualism harming us, both as individuals and as a society? Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Professor of French Philology and Linguistics, is leading a major interdisciplinary research project which looks at the value of languages for everything from health and well-being to social cohesion, diplomacy and conflict resolution.

̽��ֱ��MEITS project (Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies) is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Open World Research Initiative and seeks to transform the health of the discipline of Modern Languages in the UK, attitudes towards multilingualism and language policy at home and abroad. ̽��ֱ��motivation for the project comes from an awareness that language learning in the UK is in a very difficult state. “There is a sense that modern languages are in crisis,” says Professor Ayres-Bennett, “and that traditional motivations to get people studying languages are not working. We need exciting new reasons to learn languages and to demonstrate the value of speaking more than one language.”

̽��ֱ��project, which finishes in 2020, involves around 30 non-academic partners including schools and voluntary groups and has six interlocking research strands which investigate how the insights gained from stepping outside a single language, culture and mode of thought are vital to individuals and societies.

Professor Ayres-Bennett will speak about three areas of the research in a talk at the Hay Festival for the Cambridge Series, now in its 10th year. ̽��ֱ��first involves health and builds on research which shows that if you are bilingual dementia onset is on average delayed by up to five years compared to people who are monolingual, and that stroke victims who are bilingual recover cognitively twice as well as monolingual ones. What is more exciting, says Professor Ayres-Bennett, is that even those who learn a language later in life can enjoy certain cognitive benefits. One experiment conducted as part of the project involved a group who learnt Gaelic intensively for a week and were monitored to see if there was any impact on their cognitive abilities. ̽��ֱ��results were positive. “ ̽��ֱ��kind of mental gymnastics that learning a language involves is good for us and for our ageing society. They help us to stay mentally active a bit longer,” says Professor Ayres-Bennett. “It’s a benefit that is little known, but learning a language is better than any drug currently available for delaying dementia.”

A second area she will speak about is how languages can bring people together and create greater social cohesion. Language is at the heart of some of the current political problems in Northern Ireland, with Irish tending to be viewed with suspicion by the Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist (PUL) community. ̽��ֱ��MEITS project has been working with two charities in Northern Ireland to enhance understanding between the Catholic and Protestant communities. It has been teaching former paramilitaries and future PUL leaders basic Irish. Professor Ayres-Bennett says: “ ̽��ֱ��Irish language doesn’t have to be associated with sectarianism; the aim is to normalise it and show how it is part of everyone’s culture. In addition, demonstrating the origins of Irish place names can show that Irish is part of PUL heritage as well.”

̽��ֱ��third area she will touch on involves the work the project is doing with a number of schools in London and East Anglia to change attitudes to languages. It is comparing language learning for children who are monolingual and started learning a language at school with those who have English as an additional language. ̽��ֱ��students are being tracked over a two-year period. “We want children to value the languages they speak and schools to think consciously about what it means to be multilingual and to see children with more than one language as a resource rather than an inconvenience,” says Professor Ayres-Bennett. She mentions one Polish student who placed himself near the monolingual end of a scale which asked children to consider how multilingual they were because he was just starting to learn French. “He didn’t value his ability to speak Polish. We need to get away from the hierarchy of good and bad languages,” she states. She adds that looking at multilingualism in a positive way improves social cohesion in the classroom as well as potentially improving students’ motivation for learning and their proficiency.

̽��ֱ��MEITS project’s findings will be widely disseminated with the aim of raising awareness of all the different areas of policy which language learning affects. “Language is so central to who we are, to our identities, that it has to have a higher profile across all government departments,” says Professor Ayres-Bennett.

Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett will speak at the Hay Festival about her research into the health and social benefits of multilingualism.

̽��ֱ��kind of mental gymnastics that learning a language involves is good for us and for our ageing society. They help us to stay mentally active a bit longer.

Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett

MEITS project

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Opinion: Brexit and the importance of languages for Britain #4

ta385 — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 07:00:46 +0000

Cambridge, in partnership with the Universities of Edinburgh, Nottingham and Queen’s Belfast, has recently been awarded a major AHRC grant under the Open World Research Initiative to promote modern languages in the UK. ̽��ֱ��project, Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies, which will look not just at modern language learning but also at the role and value of the community and heritage languages of the UK, has a strong policy dimension.

Whereas questions of language policy have long been at the heart of French Government thinking, for instance, with legislation and policies to protect the French language at home and to promote it internationally, the UK lacks a coherent policy on languages and champions for languages either at ministerial level or within Whitehall. ̽��ֱ��Scottish Government is to be applauded for adopting the EU’s policy that everyone should speak their mother tongue plus two other languages, yet there are serious concerns about its implementation, not least in the light of severe shortages of trained modern languages teachers.

One of the major themes of the project will be the role of languages in social cohesion, a theme which has gained renewed urgency in the light of the Brexit vote. Multilingualism can clearly benefit individuals, enhance communities and enrich cultures. But there is a real danger that it can be perceived as diluting culture, dividing communities and fragmenting societies, as is evident in some of the areas we have chosen for our case studies: Catalonia, the Ukraine and Northern Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, for instance, language policy has been developed within the context of a fractured community, and the heritage languages of the two major ethnic communities are treated as a separate political issue to that of modern foreign languages. Yet, there are positive signs as to how language learning can promote social cohesion and peace-building.

̽��ֱ��team will be working with Co-Operation Ireland (the all-island peace-building charity) and particularly its LEGaSI project which seeks to develop leadership skills and confidence in disenfranchised loyalist communities. ̽��ֱ��alienation of these two communities from Irish language and culture is being tackled in two ways: first, through the study of place names. In showing that Irish is part of the shared ‘linguistic landscape’ of Northern Ireland, greater awareness of the rootedness of the linguistic traditions is promoted across the whole community. Empowerment of loyalist communities, including former paramilitaries, is also being facilitated through language training in Irish. This allows them to feel some ownership of the language as well as developing the soft diplomatic skills which will help them to negotiate respectfully across the community divide.

Learning modern languages, then, is not just about being able to order a coffee in a Parisian café. Languages are central to many of the key issues of our time, including national security, diplomacy and conflict resolution, community and social cohesion, migration and identity. Understanding linguistic and cultural diversity, which comes with learning modern languages, is important not just for individuals, but also for developing more effective and respectful policy.

Professor Ayres-Bennett is the co-author of the ̽��ֱ��’s 2016 report ̽��ֱ��Value of Languages which makes the case for a UK Government strategy on languages across a number of fronts including business, education and diplomacy. On 17th October 2016, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages welcomed the report's contribution and called on the Government to make language education a key policy issue.

In the fourth of a new series of comment pieces written by linguists at Cambridge, Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Professor of French Philology and Linguistics, argues that the UK Government needs a coherent policy on languages as the country prepares to leave the EU.

Languages are central to many of the key issues of our time, including national security, diplomacy and conflict resolution, community and social cohesion, migration and identity.

Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett

Who wants to talk?

Studying languages at Cambridge

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge offers undergraduate courses in Modern and Medieval Languages; History and Modern Languages; Asian and Middle Eastern Studies;Linguistics; Classics and Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic.

Inspiring events for prospective students for these subjects are run by the ̽��ֱ�� and the Cambridge Colleges throughout the year:

More information and advice for prospective students and teachers of Modern Languages and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Upcoming events organised by ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Language Centre are listed here

More information about Cambridge's Widening Participation programmes is available here

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Opinion: How the British military became a champion for language learning

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 14:07:04 +0000

When an army deploys in a foreign country, there are clear advantages if the soldiers are able to speak the local language or dialect. But what if your recruits are no good at other languages? In the UK, where language learning in schools and universities is facing a real crisis, the British army began to see this as a serious problem.

In a new report on the value of languages, my colleagues and I showcased how a new language policy instituted last year within the British Army, was triggered by a growing appreciation of the risks of language shortages for national security.

Following the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military sought to implement language skills training as a core competence. Speakers of other languages are encouraged to take examinations to register their language skills, whether they are language learners or speakers of heritage or community languages.

̽��ֱ��UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Centre for Language and Culture also offers training to NATO standards across the four language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. Core languages taught are Arabic, Dari, Farsi, French, Russian, Spanish and English as a foreign language. Cultural training that provides regional knowledge and cross-cultural skills is still embryonic, but developing fast.

Cash incentives

There are two reasons why this is working. ̽��ֱ��change was directed by the vice chief of the defence staff, and therefore had a high-level champion. There are also financial incentives for army personnel to have their linguistic skills recorded, ranging from £360 for a lower-level western European language, to £11,700 for a high level, operationally vital linguist. Currently any army officer must have a basic language skill to be able to command a sub unit.

A British army sergeant visits a school in Helmand, Afghanistan. Defence Images/flickr.com, CC BY-NC

We should not, of course, overstate the progress made. ̽��ֱ��numbers of Ministry of Defence linguists for certain languages, including Arabic, are still precariously low and, according to recent statistics, there are no speakers of Ukrainian or Estonian classed at level three or above in the armed forces. But, crucially, the organisational culture has changed and languages are now viewed as an asset.

Too fragmented

̽��ֱ��British military’s new approach is a good example of how an institution can change the culture of the way it thinks about languages. It’s also clear that language policy can no longer simply be a matter for the Department for Education: champions for language both within and outside government are vital for issues such as national security.

This is particularly important because of the fragmentation of language learning policy within the UK government, despite an informal cross-Whitehall language focus group.

Experience on the ground illustrates the value of cooperation when it comes to security. For example, in January, the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit urgently needed a speaker of a particular language dialect to assist with translating communications in an ongoing investigation. ̽��ֱ��MOD was approached and was able to source a speaker within another department.

There is a growing body of research demonstrating the cost to business of the UK’s lack of language skills. Much less is known about their value to national security, defence and diplomacy, conflict resolution and social cohesion. Yet language skills have to be seen as an asset, and appreciation is needed across government for their wider value to society and security.

Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Professor of French Philology and Linguistics, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

̽��ֱ��opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Wendy Ayres-Bennett (Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics) discusses the impact of the military's new language policy.

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A British army sergeant visits a school in Helmand, Afghanistan.

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Urgent action needed to close UK languages gap

sjr81 — Tue, 24 May 2016 09:36:38 +0000

̽��ֱ��findings are included in a new report, ̽��ֱ��Value of Languages, published by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge this week, after wide-ranging consultation with government bodies and agencies including the MoD, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, GCHQ, and the Department for Education.

̽��ֱ��report argues for the full contribution of languages to the UK economy and society to be realised across government, rather than falling solely under the remit of the Department for Education, thereby allowing a centralised approach in how language impacts the UK in almost every sphere of 21st-century life.

Recent independent research, highlighted within the report, indicates the language deficit could be costing the UK economy billions of pounds per year.

̽��ֱ��Value of Languages draws on discussions at a workshop held in Cambridge, co-chaired by Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, and Baroness Coussins, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Languages. ̽��ֱ��workshop was attended by representatives from across government and is likely to inform future policy decisions in this area.

Professor Ayres-Bennett said: “It is vital that we communicate clearly and simply the value of languages for the health of the nation. English is necessary, but not sufficient. We cannot leave language policy to the Department for Education alone.

“We need a more coordinated cross-government approach which recognises the value of languages to key issues of our time including security and defence, diplomacy and international relations, and social cohesion and peace-building. Our report aims to raise awareness of the current deficiencies in UK language policy, put forward proposals to address them, and illustrate the strategic value of languages to the UK.”

̽��ֱ��report also suggests:

Education policy for languages must be grounded in national priorities and promote a cultural shift in the attitude towards languages.
Language policy must be underpinned by organisational cultural change. ̽��ֱ��report highlights how cultural change is being achieved, for example, in the military with language skills being valued and rewarded financially. Military personnel are encouraged to take examinations to record their language skills, regardless of whether they are language learners or speakers of community or heritage languages.
Champions for languages both within and outside government are vital.

“Whereas the STEM subjects are specifically highlighted under the responsibilities for the Minister of State for Universities and Science, and there is a Chief Government Scientist, languages lack high-level champions within parliament and Whitehall,” added Ayres-Bennett. “Modern languages also need media champions. Figures such as Simon Schama for history or Brian Cox for physics and astronomy have helped bring the importance of these subjects to the public’s attention.”

Imminent or immediate problems for government to address include the decline of languages and language learning in the UK from schools through to higher education, where language departments and degree courses are closing; business lost to UK companies through lack of language skills; and an erosion of the UK’s ‘soft power’ in conflict and matters of national security, which are currently limited by a shortage of speakers of strategically important languages

̽��ֱ��report finds that the UK is also under-represented internationally, for instance in the EU civil service or in the translating and interpreting departments of the UN – and that the community and heritage languages spoken in the UK are often undervalued.

“A UK strategy for languages would mean that UK businesses can participate fully in the global market place using the language and communication skills of their workforce,” said Professor Ayres-Bennett.

“It would also mean that the UK is able to maximise its role and authority in foreign policy through language and diplomacy. Educational attainment in a wide range of languages brings with it personal cognitive benefits as well as the ‘cultural agility’ vital to international relations and development, as well as enhancing the cultural capital and social cohesion of the different communities of the UK.”

̽��ֱ��report cites a number of case studies illustrating the value of languages. For example, a Spanish linguist recruited to GCHQ was from her first day able to use her ‘street language’ acquired during her year abroad and her knowledge of certain Latin American countries to translate communications related to an international drugs cartel looking to transport cocaine into the UK. Comparing her analysis with those developed by two of her language community colleagues in Russian and Urdu, she was able to create a clear intelligence picture of the likely methods and dates of the imminent drugs importation. Meetings with Law Enforcement agents eventually led to the seizure of large quantities of cocaine and lengthy jail terms for the key players.

Policy workshops and briefings will be a key element of a new £4m research project on multilingualism led by Professor Ayres-Bennett at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and funded under the AHRC’s Open World Research Initiative.

̽��ֱ��full report can be seen here: http://www.publicpolicy.cam.ac.uk/research-impact/value-of-languages

̽��ֱ��UK Government needs to urgently adopt a new, comprehensive languages strategy if it is to keep pace with its international competitors and reduce a skills deficit that has wide-reaching economic, political, and military effects.

It is vital that we communicate clearly and simply the value of languages for the health of the nation. English is necessary, but not sufficient.

Wendy Ayres-Bennett

̽��ֱ��Language Centre, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

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Cambridge to explore benefits of multilingualism with new AHRC research project

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 11:46:06 +0000

At a time when more than half the world’s population speaks more than one language in their daily lives, and almost one in five UK primary school pupils have a first language other than English, what does it really mean to be multilingual, and what are the opportunities and challenges of multilingualism for individuals and society?

These questions are amongst those to be answered by a new research project at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, thanks to an unprecedented £4million grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). ̽��ֱ��project, called Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Society, aims to not only understand people’s experiences of speaking more than one language, but also to change attitudes towards multilingualism and multiculturalism throughout society and amongst key policy-makers.

̽��ֱ��project is led by Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, who will work alongside co-researchers in Belfast, Edinburgh and Nottingham as well as international partners in the Universities of Bergen, Girona, Peking and Hong Kong.

Professor Ayres-Bennett said: “Our aim for this project is to create a cultural shift in the conception and practice of language learning. To achieve this, we will consider the value of multilingualism and multiculturalism to the individual, to society and to international relations. We want to have a transformative effect on language learning, as well as influencing the structures of education, society, culture, public services and policy.”

From increased job prospects and economic growth to international relations and diplomacy, there are many clear benefits to multilingualism, yet the strong presence of diverse languages within the UK is often overlooked. ̽��ֱ��multilingualism project at Cambridge will investigate the relationship between language, culture and identity and the opportunities and challenges multilingualism presents to individuals, communities and society in order to change people’s attitudes towards multilingualism, and to stimulate interest in language learning at all levels.

Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Society is one of four projects being funded by the AHRC as part of the Open World Research Initiative, which aims to explore the central role languages play in relation to contemporary issues such as social cohesion, migration, security, business and diplomacy, and to have a substantial impact on the study of modern languages in the UK. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge project, together with other AHRC programmes at the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford, Manchester ̽��ֱ�� and King’s College London, will work with over 100 partners ranging from schools and sixth form colleges to the BBC and government departments in the UK and abroad. ̽��ֱ��combined research will span 22 languages and 18 academic disciplines.

Professor Ayres-Bennett said: “One of the strengths and distinguishing features of this project is that it will bring together researchers from a range of different subjects, from education, linguistics and literary studies to cognitive psychology and neuroscience.”

̽��ֱ��AHRC’s Chief Executive, Professor Andrew Thompson, stated: “ ̽��ֱ��Open World Research Initiative has an ambitious set of aims. As a major, multi-million pound investment, it seeks to raise the profile and visibility of modern languages and the crucial role they play – within their universities, within the arts and humanities, and within society more widely. ̽��ֱ��AHRC’s flagship Open World Research Initiative will make a vital contribution to our understanding of how modern languages in the UK can best develop to meet the needs of global society over the coming years.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge project will also examine the relationship between multilingualism at home and language learning in school and university, moving beyond the “traditional” divisions between European and non-European languages to reinvigorate interest in language education. Professor Ayres-Bennett commented “the decline in pupils taking language GCSE and A-levels is a matter of concern, whilst the number of children with English as an additional language is often portrayed negatively. Conversely, the value of community and minority languages is underestimated. We can learn much from looking at these issues together.”

Summing up the aims of the project, Professor Ayres-Bennett said: “In short, we wish multilingualism to come to be considered the norm in the UK, as it already is for speakers of community languages. We will learn much from researching multilingualism within and outside of the UK, and so our findings will have international impact and demonstrate how languages can help us respond to the key issues of our time”.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is to launch a major new research project to study the benefits of multilingualism to individuals and society, and transform attitudes to languages in the UK, as part of the AHRC’s Open World Research Initiative.

We want to have a transformative effect on language learning, as well as influencing the structures of education, society, culture, public services and policy

Wendy Ayres-Bennett

Quinn Dombrowski

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