Linguistics could make language learning more relevant – and attractive – for school pupils

By Jonathan Kasstan, Senior Lecturer in French and Linguistics, University of Westminster
Anna D. Havinga, Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics, University of Bristol
Michelle Sheehan, Professor of Linguistics in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University

A 2023 YouGov poll found that only 21% of UK adults can hold a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue. About half of the other 79% regretted not engaging more with languages at school, and more than half of all those polled were interested in learning a new language.

By comparison, some 60% of EU citizens surveyed in 2022 reported good…

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