Newsletter the First! Language Education, Luxembourg Song Contest... and a Language Café!
Welcome to the first newsletter of many -- and this time, I'm actually going to stick with this new project... I promise!
Welcome to the first official newsletter! In this issue, I’m going to outline a) the first of my short essays, which will look at the idea of ‘best practice’ in language education, and b) introduce the first four features which will appear in all upcoming, or at least most, newsletters.
FEATURE 1: A Slice of Global Culture - Luxembourg Song Contest
In every issue, I will outline a moment of global culture that has been much talked about. It might be political, social, linguistic, artistic, historical, geographical… or even just plain silly! In this week’s newsletter, I’m going to look at the Luxembourg Song Contest (LSC), a septet of songs on 25th January, and shown by national broadcaster Radio Télévision Luxembourg (RTL), to select who will sing the country’s 2025 entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was a (perhaps surprisingly) pretty huge deal, both within and outwith that small but significant land; even though it wasn’t the year that Luxembourg had returned to the song contest (having re-joined the party last year, with the song ‘Fighter’ by TALI), 2025 does mark the 60th year since Luxembourg last won — in 1965, with the song ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’ by France Gall, at the time considered one of the only Eurovision entries to fully reflect the music tastes of the time. (This could be a self-promotion moment here… but I won’t make it so. #IYKYK, I suppose.)
In order (left to right, top to bottom) of the artists and their songs: Laura Thorn - La poupée monte le son; Luzac - Je danse; Rafa Ela - No thank you; Mäna - Human Eyes; One Last Time - Gambler’s Song; Rhythmic Soulwave - Stronger; Zero Point Five - Ride (photo: eurovisionworld.com)
One of the things that was most markedly clear about the LSC (aside from the fact it was a 2 hour 35 minute long show, and in true Luxembourgish fashion, it was FANTASTICALLY multilingual!) was a seemingly unapologetic attempt to not quite hide the fact that, right from the outset (and arguably even before the fact), Laura Thorn was the favourite to win. Let’s make no bones about it: she was my personal favourite to win too. Laura’s song effectively harks back and acts as a homage to France Gall, through lyrics and imagery, and to a slightly lesser degree, costume design, as she outlined in her pre-performance montage. That doesn’t mean that the other performers didn’t deserve to win too though; their performances were also excellent! Rafa Ela’s voice did wonders, Luzac brought some inspired optical illusion-style lighting and staging, One Last Time grunged the stage in what was arguably the most Rockhal-esque song of the night, and Mäna, alongside some powerful singing, seemed to be wearing a chandelier. Ah, Eurovision.
The most impressive part of the night was perhaps the fact that a decently huge chunk of the show was presented by Conchita Wurst. It was really pleasing to see Conchita right at the forefront of the whole thing — and knowing Luxembourg’s economy, it was worth every cent.
The full show of the Luxembourg Song Contest is available on both YouTube and RTL Play.
FEATURE 2: You should pay attention to…
As the name suggests, this feature will be looking at a major event, situation or story within language, culture and the world (or even just on a more general topic), which, well, you should pay attention to, usually on a serious matter.
Bydd Prifysgol Caerdydd (‘Cardiff University’) yn gweld gostyngiad mewn cyrsiau prifysgol. Mae hon yn broblem enfawr, yn enwedig mewn prifddinas gwlad sydd eisoes wedi'i thanddatgan yn barod! (photo: myeducationrepublic.com)
This week, I have chosen to cover the devastating news of the closure of an increasingly concerning number of Cardiff University’s courses and departments, including (but not limited to) Modern Languages, Ancient History, Music, Religion and Theology and — perhaps most alarmingly -- Nursing.
The face of academia has been hugely impacted in recent years to a level we haven’t seen in years, and it’s difficult to say precisely where the blame [if that’s the right word to use] lies. Is it with the government for their years of educational changes under the guise of ‘reform’ to try and reflect a more ‘British’-centric and traditionalist approach, which in turn creates an increasingly widened and somewhat inflexible hierarchy of subjects, and unfairly considers some disciplines and fields to be inherently more important than others, and in turn (through the increase of, for instance, student loans, living costs and monopolising of university education by interlinked shareholders, at the cost of the universities’ and academics’ growth and stability) completely undermining the role that different academic fields can play in paramount, crucial teaching and research to promote and protect knowledge and expertise for future generations centuries from now?
OK, actually, it’s probably fairly easy to see where at least some of the blame lies.
This is a far bigger problem than just understanding who is at fault though. The shutting down, reduction of departments at universities is something that we should all be concerned about. Closing down one course because of less uptake than expected is one thing, and not too much of a concern — but when tens of universities across the UK (in particular), and particularly in fields that are integral to celebrating how we (students, academics, people in general) can function as a small part of an interlinked, globalised society… then something is going wrong.
There are plenty of petitions about saving the departments at Cardiff University, and I recommend signing one. If not, spread the word. This is not a problem that affects Cardiff solely — it’s happening on a national scale.
Short Essay: Is there such a thing as ‘best practice’ in the MFL classroom?
For future reference, this will normally be the first entry in each newsletter.
Who would have thought that after writing about the risks of university department closures, I would be writing an essay? Much like Roland Barthes, I intend to write a short essay for each newsletter about something experiential that could be (and hopefully is) of interest.
Recently, I was faced with a thought about how I’m contributing to the world of modern language education; as someone currently working as a private tutor within a 50-mile radius of home, I face all sorts of different demands in teaching modern languages. When teaching a foreign language, especially in the UK, where it is safe to say that the uptake (and indeed promotion of languages, from seemingly just about everyone in every walk of life) has been decreasing at an alarming rate, we have to ask ourselves : what is our goal here in teaching languages? With staff across the board (both in languages and in a plethora of other subjects and fields) leaving the profession in their droves, we have to ask ourselves secondarily: what is going wrong right now in the profession? With the Language Trends 2024 survey showing that 60% of state and independent schools who responded face issues in recruitment of qualified MFL staff, and (very alarmingly, in my opinion) that particularly in primary schools, MFL across the board is often squeezed out of the timetable in favour of other subjects with a hugely increasing reliance on commercially produced resources (which, in all fairness, isn’t a problem in and of itself), we have to ask ourselves perhaps the biggest and most concerning question of all: what is the future?
My strong, and the more time I spend in the UK, ever increasingly stronger, belief is that many of the roots of the issues with language teaching in the UK is the reliance on this idea of ‘best practice’ in education. I should clarify that I don’t think we should completely do away with the idea of ‘best practices’, because, well, how can we teach on a national level to a national curriculum if there is little widespread consensus on what that is and what it entails? I also think that we are slowly (but steadily) shifting our perception of ‘best practice’ and ‘best practiceS’. Of course, best practices are, by and large, features of the educational environment that have been tried, tested and proven in a range of situations, many of which also apply to languages: checking understanding before moving on; ensuring not to pick on certain students or show any favouritism; utilising a range of resources that allow different learners to learn in different ways and at different rates; and many more besides. (Slight addendum: I’m often surprised by how many educators still rely on the idea of Howard Gardner’s (well-studied, but slightly oversimplified) Theory of Multiple Intelligences as gospel, especially in something so culturally differentiating as modern foreign language teaching).
Ultimately though, these are all best practiceS. Not ‘best practice’. With best practice in the language learning classroom, it is absolutely integral that we are immensely careful not to fall into the trap that I am continually concerned is just becoming part and parcel of the languages classroom, so will forevermore just be part and parcel of the languages classroom: “this has worked for me all the time before, so I’m just going to keep using it”.
There’s a reason that Linguascope is now almost obsolete in most languages classrooms. There’s a reason that rote learning je vais, tu vas, il va/elle va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont, elles vont doesn’t energise students. There’s a reason that, when I’ve been teaching English in Oxford or France, I introduce a ‘class playlist’: a singular resource onto which students can collaborate, engage and discuss, whilst continually learning language and culture!
That reason is, very simply, because the idea, the presentation, the crux, and the very concept of ‘best practice’ and teaching strategies in the MFL classroom is rapidly changing, and it is crucial that we keep an eye on it. My tuppence on the matter is that we have to make language learning (especially in the UK) an internal ‘this is how the language and culture is important to us, here, now’, and no longer an external ‘if you go on holiday to Barcelona, you might need to know how to ask for directions to the Sagrada Familia.
In essence: Modern Foreign Languages needs to stop being considered as Modern Foreign Languages. If anything, I think we should start to re-label the discipline (across the whole country, from John O’Groats to Lands End, from Sandwich to Stèornabhagh) as Languages and Cultural Studies. Because that is precisely what it is. Once we recognise that languages are all around us, and integral to not just the individual culture of the countries and communities that speak those languages, but in fact of the world’s collective culture — and once we become confident in promoting that fact of the modern world to our students -, only then can we start being confident that modern languages and cultural studies will get the interest, passion and respect that it both requires and deserves.
To read the Language Trends Survey 2024 (only for England), click here.
Final Feature: Promotion Podium
In every newsletter, I will promote (unpaid!) something, someone, some organisation, some work… just some entity which is making waves within the world of language and culture. It could be a tidal wave or it could be a little ripple — but they’re making an impact, and I’d like to shout them out.
This week: The Language Café Discord
I joined the Language Café Discord this past week, and it is INCREDIBLE. I barely even knew that Discord servers could have 11,000 members, but this one does.
Amongst the many things they have here, to help your language learning, are:
Regular announcements, events, and insights into the current affairs in language learning
Free language lessons at all levels from members of the Discord (most recently, they shared their free Beginner Polish Lessons)!
A channel in which you can find a language partner, and general ‘table’ channels for wider conversation.
Regular speaking practice events, and the popular ‘language jam’.
Channels dedicated to more languages and language families than you can shake a stick at.
An array of games and more ‘relaxed’ non-languagey channels to use to your perusal.
It’s a fantastic resource, and I knew the second I stepped foot that I wanted to spread the word about them. Please do take the time to check them out, and I look forward to hearing what you think of them!
And there we have it. The first newsletter… completed! Thank you for reading, and I look forward to seeing you next week!
I’m always open to thoughts, suggestions and reviews, so please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think: