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Informing and influencing the creation of language policies and strategies at local and national government levels to promote the use of Welsh amongst young people

Summary of the impact

The research has informed and influenced the creation of language policies and educational strategies at local and Welsh government levels which have had a direct impact on:

1) expanding the domains where Welsh is used by young people;

2) embedding the tracking of linguistic progression between key stages;

3) expanding Welsh medium school education in the context of language policy for the normalisation of a minority language.

The research also informed the work of the campaign and pressure groups RHAG [Rhieni dros Addysg Gymraeg, trans. Parents for Welsh Medium Education], and Dyfodol i'r Gymraeg [A future for Welsh], which have elected the lead researcher, Gruffudd, as Chair within the REF census period.

Submitting Institution

Swansea University

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Sociology
Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

1) SRDG Gaelic Language Network

Summary of the impact

There are three stages to the impact. First, key advice was provided to the Scottish Government on its 2005 Gaelic Language Act by Dr Rob Dunbar, then reader at the University of Aberdeen, and a world expert on language legislation. This helped shape both the nature of the legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament and the plan for its implementation.

Second, a bid was made, in which Aberdeen was again a lead organisation, for funding to strengthen the infrastructure for Gaelic-language research, so making it possible for the Scottish Government's policy to be properly informed by a sufficient body of Gaelic-language researchers. This resulted in the SOILLSE project (`A Research Strategy for the Maintenance and Revitalisation of Gaelic Language and Culture'), which secured £5.28m in funding from the Scottish Funding Council's `Societal and Public Priority' scheme, Bòrd na Gàidhlig (the agency charged with carrying through the Government's policy), Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and the four universities involved — Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), whose establishment as a research institution was one of the outcomes of the funding.

Third, specific research contracts were undertaken by Macleod and MacLeod to provide non-governmental agencies with information about the effectiveness of their implementation of government policy. SOILLSE is now at the half-way point in its overall trajectory, but the research being produced is already influencing the government and community agencies (Bòrd na Gàidhlig and Comunn na Gàidhlig) involved in delivering Gaelic language policy, while the fees paid for commissioned research have been used to fund additional PhDs in Gaelic.

Submitting Institution

University of Aberdeen

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

Informing Approaches to Endangered Language Protection and Revitalisation in the Channel Islands (Julia Sallabank)

Summary of the impact

Dr Julia Sallabank's research into Guernsey's little-studied indigenous language, Guernesiais, has greatly informed language planning and policy on the island, particularly with regard to teaching methods and raising awareness of the language among the population. Moreover, her documentation of Guernesiais, specifically the recording of audio samples, constitutes a significant contribution to the preservation of Guernsey's identity and cultural heritage. Sallabank's broader expertise on the revitalisation of endangered languages has also been solicited by language officials elsewhere, notably Jersey, the Isle of Man and New Caledonia, and resulted in her participation in UNESCO's Panel of Experts on language diversity.

Submitting Institution

School of Oriental & African Studies

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

Language policy: informing policy debate, public understanding, and education

Summary of the impact

Working in complementary areas of language policy and planning, the research of Oakes (French) and Pfalzgraf (German) has had three main non-academic beneficiaries. It has been of use to a wide range of policy makers in Canada and Germany, by informing debates on language policy at the official level. It has enhanced understanding of language-policy issues amongst the general public, through media interventions and works aimed at lay audiences. It has also benefited teachers and students in higher education in a range of disciplines and countries, by shaping their grasp of language-policy issues in Canada, Germany and more generally.

Submitting Institution

Queen Mary, University of London

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Linguistics
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Language policy, diversity and usage

Summary of the impact

Professor David Crystal's world-leading research on language policy, diversity and usage, conducted at Bangor since 2000, has led to a transformation in terms of public and political attitudes, both nationally and internationally, towards the nature and use of language in public and private discourse. In particular, the research has led, since 2008, to an increased awareness of linguistic diversity, changes to governmental policies on language, and the development of the world's first targeted online advertising technology, which today indexes billions of impressions across 11 languages to provide real-time data services in the emerging online advertising world.

Submitting Institution

Bangor University

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

Gaelic Language Policy in Scotland: Revitalising and Sustaining the Gaelic Language

Summary of the impact

Successive governments have emphasised the importance of Gaelic as a key element in Scottish culture, even though it is spoken by a small minority. Since 2001 the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies (C&SS) at the University of Edinburgh has played a leading role in research concerning policies to revitalise and sustain Gaelic in Scotland. These policies have fundamentally altered the role of Gaelic in Scottish public life. Our research has made vital contributions to the work of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the government body charged with promotion of the language, and other public bodies, especially in relation to education, from pre-school to adult learner provision, e.g. to date 1,500 pre-school pupils have benefitted from the recommendations in the early years report we produced in collaboration with the University of Stirling.

Submitting Institution

University of Edinburgh

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Language, Communication and Culture: Linguistics

Promoting Language Awareness

Summary of the impact

The research of Professor Paul Simpson and Dr Joan Rahilly has informed and enhanced the broader awareness and understanding of English language in the context of secondary level education in Northern Ireland, and has had particular influence on both clinical and developmental assessment of language use. The end users who have benefited from this research include (i) schools, colleges and lifelong learning, (ii) health and well-being agencies, and (iii) voluntary organisations and charities. The main achievements can be summarised as:

  • an increased awareness among teachers of the principles of variation in language
  • an increased receptiveness among communities of interest to Northern Ireland's numerous accent and dialect differences
  • the development of pedagogical tools for understanding patterns in both spoken and written language
  • a set of formal links between QUB, the Council for the Curriculum, the Education Boards and individual schools and teachers
  • an established forum for the provision of training in response to changes in the English language curriculum
  • an established relationship between QUB and professional speech therapists, with demonstrable impact on clinical protocols in Northern Ireland
  • a developing set of formal links with clinicians and parents involved in, or connected to, Belfast's autism community

Submitting Institution

Queen's University Belfast

Unit of Assessment

English Language and Literature

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Cognitive Sciences
Language, Communication and Culture: Language Studies, Linguistics

Improving Foreign Language Teaching in England

Summary of the impact

Research by Macaro and collaborators since 1999 led to the distillation of eight principles regarding foreign language pedagogy, and to the development of video- and paper-based materials to support the application of these principles in teacher pedagogy and in teacher education programmes in England. The application in Schools and Higher Education Institutions was facilitated through an ESRC-funded impact project involving language teachers and teacher educators, and it was extended and sustained through the creation of practitioner clusters based on the research. Teachers report that changes have taken place in their modern languages departments following engagement with the research, with benefit to student learning; these changes have included much greater, and better quality, interaction in the foreign language, and a greater focus on processes and strategies in skills development. Teacher education programme providers have incorporated the research-based principles into their programmes, with impact on their student-teachers' practice.

Submitting Institution

University of Oxford

Unit of Assessment

Education

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy, Specialist Studies In Education
Language, Communication and Culture: Linguistics

Language gains for children with persisting developmental language disorders through use of an intervention programme and support model for teachers.

Summary of the impact

Strathclyde researchers developed, via a randomised controlled trial, a replicable effective language intervention programme (SLIP) for primary-school children with persisting developmental language disorders. This was followed by a cohort study investigating SLIP's implementation in schools, and an evaluation study providing information for speech and language therapists and teachers on implementing SLIP in the classroom: the Language Support Model (LSM). The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists included the research outcomes in commissioned economic evaluations and in their Resource Manual for commissioning and planning Speech and Language Therapy Services. Also, many speech and language therapy and education groups have requested presentations and training on SLIP and LSM. The impact of the research has been upon speech and language therapy education internationally; on therapists and teachers using SLIP and the LSM; on service commissioners; and on improved language intervention for children.

Submitting Institution

University of Strathclyde

Unit of Assessment

Education

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy, Specialist Studies In Education

Number and recursion: the popular understanding of language

Summary of the impact

As a writer of popular (linguistic) science, and as the subject of a documentary film on his life and work, Professor Dan Everett's research on Amazonian languages like Pirahã has widely influenced popular understanding and debate about the relations between language, mind and culture. The spectacular, and sometimes controversial, conclusions of his fieldwork, theoretical and popular writings challenge the claim that all human beings are endowed with an innate language faculty and challenge the ways in which cultural values are constructed.

Submitting Institution

University of Manchester

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Cognitive Sciences
Language, Communication and Culture: Linguistics

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