Meaning in Language Learning

During 2013, the 'crisis' in language learning in the UK was much in the news, with reports of low numbers taking A-level languages, university language department closures, and poor foreign language skills among UK teenagers. Within today's global society, this language skills deficit means that the UK is losing out both economically and culturally. Against this backdrop, the aim of the Meaning in Language Learning Network is to create a new forum for dialogue among language learning experts and stakeholders from a range of perspectives, who would not typically come into contact with each other. The theme of the dialogue will be the most fundamental aspect of cross-cultural communication: transmission of meaning from one language to another.

The focus on meaning, or semantics, comes out of state-of-the-art theoretical linguistic research into the role that grammar plays in the multiple ways that different languages express meaning. Recent linguistic research has found that comparative linguistics can shed light on numerous 'bottlenecks' in the acquisition of meaning in a foreign language. For example, linguistic findings are informative about why it is difficult for English-speakers learning Spanish to master the two different Spanish past tense forms (preterite and imperfective), whose meanings overlap with meanings expressed by the single past tense in English. Such information is potentially useful to language teachers and learners, yet there is currently little interaction between theoretical linguistics and the broader language learning community. Nor are insights from the language classroom incorporated into linguistic research, even though the classroom is central in shaping language learners' knowledge. This network aims to fill this gap, by bringing together teachers of different languages, linguistic researchers, language education researchers, experts on languages curriculum development, and language education policymakers. The network will address questions of (1) how linguistic research into meaning in language learning can inform and be informed by perspectives on meaning in classroom practice; (2) how instruction on meaning affects the nature of language learners' semantic competence; (3) how effective communication can be maintained among the different stakeholder groups in the network in the long term. Two key goals are to develop collaborative research projects that differ from existing research by incorporating insights from both theoretical linguistics and classroom practice; and to communicate linguistic findings about language learning to a wider audience.

The network includes 7 core and 11 associate members in the UK, as well as 4 international members. Members' expertise ranges across theoretical linguistics, second language acquisition, language education research, language teaching, and UK language policy. The broad aim of reversing the current downward trend within languages in the UK will inform a programme of workshops, focus groups, a conference colloquium, and outreach activities. Three workshops, in York, Southampton and Reading, will be open to and accessible to local language teachers as well as network members, and will include talks by speakers from within the network, small group discussion, and plenary discussion, all designed to stimulate exchange of expertise and development of new research and outreach collaborations. Focus groups will be held with primary- to tertiary-level language teachers, with the aims of sharing research findings, exploring language teachers' perspectives on meaning, and building networks for new joint projects. An extensive academic audience will be reached through a colloquium at EuroSLA, a key language learning conference. Finally, a public event, "Hidden meanings in foreign language learning", will be held at the 2015 York Festival Ideas, to showcase research findings that impact on language learning through an interactive video and talk exhibit.

Impact activities are integral to the network's events, since the core aim of this network is to bridge the gap between theoretically-oriented linguistic second language acquisition research and the practice of language teaching, by focusing on the topic of how meaning is created in language learning. In order to bridge this gap, the network's events must be designed to bring value particularly to language teachers but also to the wider language learning community. There are three main target audiences for impact engagement: language teachers; the wider community including teachers, learners and members of the public with an interest in languages; and engagement with language education policymakers. Here, we briefly outline each strand, with further details in the Pathways to Impact document.

The activities that aim to bring impact to language teachers are the network's workshops, focus group meetings, language learning videos, and an article in the teachers' magazine, Languages Today. The aims of the workshops are to facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers, teachers, and policymakers, and - building on the knowledge exchange - to develop collaborative research and outreach projects that will bring benefit to teachers as well as to researchers. The focus group meetings with teachers will allow more in-depth exploration of some of the questions and ideas about meaning in language learning, arising from workshops. Constraints on teachers' time will be taken into account when planning the workshops and focus group meetings. The language learning videos, which will be created during the first half of the network, will comprise a series of short films that showcase semantic or pragmatic properties from different languages, which are not typically included in language teaching materials (e.g., specificity, which affects how different languages use articles; aspect, which affects how different languages use tense). These will be designed to be of interest to language teachers and language learners, and will be used in network-building activities with teachers (such as the focus group meetings or visits to schools), as well as being used as part of a network event at the York Festival of Ideas (see below). Finally, the Languages Today article will present a teacher-friendly summary of a network colloquium to be held at a key academic conference on second language learning, the European Second Language Association conference.

Impact activities intended to reach language learners and the wider public, in addition to language teachers, are the network's website and Twitter feed, and the York Festival of Ideas event. The website will publicise network events, host outputs, and feature a blog on meaning in language learning, where users can join the discussion by leaving comments. Blog posts will be written by network members for a general audience. The Twitter feed will be used to draw attention to all network activities and engage with the growing online community with an interest in language learning. The York Festival of Ideas event, entitled "Hidden Meanings in Language Learning" will include an exhibit of the short videos described above, a talk addressing the topic in the event title, and a graffiti wall, where visitors can post their own anecdotes about language learning (such as amusing misunderstandings or memorable breakthroughs).

Finally, impact engagement with language learning policymakers includes inviting speakers from language learning policy bodies to address the network workshops. Jocelyn Wyburd (Chair of the University Council of Modern Languages) and Marina Mozzon-McPherson (Regional director of Routes into Languages) have already pledged their commitment, and, in addition to giving talks, will advise on how to build impact activities relating to the UK language learning context into the research projects that the network will develop.