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# 4.1.3 Buaidh air a’ choimhearsnachd

## Bogsa 3 Final report and recommendations of The Nuffield Languages Inquiry, 2000

#### From the foreword by Sir Trevor McDonald OBE and Sir John Boyd KCMG

Our mandate from the Nuffield Foundation, to look at the UK’s capability in languages and to report on what we need to do as a nation to improve it, was timely. Every day we are confronted by evidence that we live in a shrinking world. The breaking down of international barriers, a process which will move much further and faster in the course of this new century, has placed a premium on our ability to talk to our neighbours in the global village … The scale of what needs to be done has become ever more striking as our work has gone on. At the moment, by any reliable measure, we are doing badly. We talk about communication but don’t always communicate. There is enthusiasm for languages but it is patchy. Educational provision is fragmented, achievement poorly measured, continuity not very evident. In the language of our time, there is a lack of joined-up thinking.

## Bogsa 4 Foreign languages in the upper secondary school: the causes of decline

#### Joanna McPake, Lindsay Lyall (SCRE); Richard Johnstone, Lesley Low (University of Stirling)

##### Introduction

In November 1996, researchers at the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) and the Institute of Education at the University of Stirling began a study of the causes of decline in uptake of Higher courses in modern languages in Scottish secondary schools. The study was funded by The Scottish Office Education and Industry Department (SOEID) in response to evidence from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) that the numbers of students entered for Higher examinations in modern languages had fallen by approximately 50 per cent between 1976 and 1996, and consequent widespread concern about the effects of declining capability in modern languages on Scottish industry and trade and on Scotland’s role within Europe.

Tha a’ mhòr-chuid ann an Alba, agus ann am Breatainn san fharsaingeachd, ag aontachadh gu bheil.

- a) ionnsachadh chànanan eile ar leth feumail ann an saoghal an latha an-diugh
- b) nach eil sinne math air a seo.

Ged is ann air cànanan mar Gearmailtis no Sìonais mar as trice a tha daoine a’ smaoineachadh nuair a tha iad a’ ràdh rudan mar seo, tha buntannas aig seo ris a’ Ghàidhlig cuideachd oir.

- a) tha ionnsachadh aon chànan ga dhèanamh nas fhasa t’èile ionnsachadh, ge b’e dè na cànanan a tha ann, mar a chunnaic sinn gu h-àrd
- b) tha a’ Ghàidhlig air a teagasg is air a bruidhinn air feadh Alba agus mar sin ’s e cànan a tha innte leis a bheil e furasta tòiseachadh ag ionnsachadh chànanan
- c) tha ionnsachadh dara cànain mar a’ Ghàidhlig a’ toirt dhuinn ‘uinneag eile air an t-saoghal’, rud a tha feumail san linn ioma-chultarach sa bheil sinn beò
- d) bheireadh ionnsachadh na Gàidhlig fosgladh-sùla do shluagh a tha air fàs cleachdte ri bhith bruidhinn dìreach aon chànan agus aig nach eil am misneachd no am miann a dh’fheumar airson cànanan ùra ionnsachadh.

A bharrachd air sin, tha mòran a dh’fhaodas an fheadhainn a tha an urra ri teagasg chànanan eile ionnsachadh o na dòighean-teagaisg a tha air a bhith cho soirbheachail sa Ghàidhlig – gu h-àraidh foghlam bogaidh.

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