On Monday 12 October, Coventry Cathedral served as the stunning backdrop to celebrate multilingualism with the launch of one of the first ever Language Policy Frameworks for schools by a local authority in England.
Over 150 local school children attended the event to mark the launch. Many gave presentations about their own languages and took part in a range of activities that highlighted the benefits of being multilingual, something that Coventry knows about well, with over 180 languages being spoken in the city and over a third of pupils speaking English as an Additional Language (EAL) in its schools.
We spoke with Amanda Millican, Coventry Ethnic Minority Achievement Service (EMAS) and Dr Eowyn Crisfield at Oxford Collaborative for Multilingualism in Education (OCME) to find out more about the framework.
“Recognising the languages we speak are an important way to express ourselves and to accept who we are.”Pupil at Coventry launch event
A language tree showcasing pupils’ languages, created by a local Ukrainian artist
What is Coventry’s new language policy framework for schools?
Amanda: The framework acknowledges Coventry’s rich linguistic diversity and provides a shared framework for schools to strengthen language provision, celebrate home languages and cultures, and foster a strong sense of belonging for every learner. We were fortunate to develop the framework in partnership with Eowyn and her team at OCME to ensure it was informed by current research and best practice.
Why have you developed a language policy framework in Coventry?
Amanda: Increasingly schools told us that they wanted to develop language policies that not only supported newly arrived English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners but actively celebrated the multilingualism of their whole school communities. Schools wanted a framework that would make all languages visible and valued. We have also been collaborating with schools working towards becoming Schools of Sanctuary; one of the programme's recommendations is that schools have a clear language or EAL policy that reflects a welcoming and inclusive ethos for all learners.
The schools in Coventry are very diverse, so multilingualism can look very different from school to school. We wanted to enable schools to create their own bespoke policies, but within a framework. Ours is designed to be used and adapted by schools to create a policy that works for them.
Eowyn: It’s quite brave to do something that promotes multilingualism as an asset at a time when it can be a fraught topic and it's not being done with top-down support. This framework is not just a policy for EAL learners. It's about every child's
right to learn languages and to learn languages in ways that support them in becoming interested and curious and have all the benefits of having languages. This is our commitment to ensuring that schools make all children's languages part of who they are and how they learn.
For example, if you're a child sitting in a school in Coventry who's never been to France and can't find it on a map, why would you be motivated to learn French? But if you have three mates that you love to play football with and they're Polish speakers, why wouldn't you want to learn some Polish?
How did you develop the framework?
Eowyn: We (OCME and EMAS) created a working group with representatives from across Coventry, who participated in two working days learning about multilingualism, language learning and teaching, and the research and principles behind school language policies. This core group then contributed to the first draft of the new Language Policy Framework.
Amanda: Once the consultation framework had been designed, EMAS coordinated consultations in 19 schools, which were carried out by volunteers, including students from the University of Warwick. We spoke with over 300 local teachers, EAL coordinators, school leaders, governors, parents, and pupils about the framework, including what they liked about it and what they were worried about.
The feedback highlighted areas we already knew needed attention: some schoolchildren told us that they would love to be able to study their home language for GCSEs, rather than only having the choice of Spanish, German, or French. We were pleased that so many schools wanted to take part in the first consultation phase, and some were invited to provide feedback on the early drafts of the framework.
“I liked the sign language activity because it means I can communicate easily and don’t come across as rude to others who don’t speak English.”Pupil at Coventry launch event
What is your hope for the language policy framework?
Amanda: The launch of the framework is just the beginning of our journey and now we are in the all-important implementation phase. We are hoping to have the same positive buy-in from schools that we did during the consultation stage.
Eowyn: We created a school self-evaluation toolkit and action plan, along with implementation documents, which we hope will help schools to understand what the policy could look like in their own setting, whether they're early years, primary, or secondary. The principles are the same no matter how old the students are. It's the practise that's different – a lot of school language policies confuse the two.
Amanda: We're looking forward to seeing how schools use the framework. This project plays an important role in strengthening Coventry's position as a city where linguistic diversity is not only acknowledged, but celebrated as one of our greatest strengths.
