An increase in secondary school pupils learning Arabic, Mandarin, French or Spanish could boost the UK economy by billions of pounds over 30 years, according to new research. The study warns that the ongoing decline in language learning in UK schools is undermining the country's ability to compete internationally.
A Cambridge-led team seeks to revitalise languages in the UK with a series of interactive pop-up exhibitions and an online game designed to set tongues wagging.
Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett will speak at the Hay Festival about her research into the health and social benefits of multilingualism.
In the fourth of a new series of comment pieces written by linguists at Cambridge, Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Professor of French Philology and Linguistics, argues that the UK Government needs a coherent policy on languages as the country prepares to leave the EU.
Wendy Ayres-Bennett (Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics) discusses the impact of the military's new language policy.
The UK Government needs to urgently adopt a new, comprehensive languages strategy if it is to keep pace with its international competitors and reduce a skills deficit that has wide-reaching economic, political, and military effects.
The University of Cambridge is to launch a major new research project to study the benefits of multilingualism to individuals and society, and transform attitudes to languages in the UK, as part of the AHRC’s Open World Research Initiative.
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