Latest News
All the latest news from the world of languages and language teaching.The Guardian – François Truffaut’s 20 best films – ranked
As Jules et Jim gets a re-release in time for the 90th anniversary on Sunday of the French director’s birth, we pan across his greatest works. Collated and ranked by The Guardian's Peter Bradbury, you can read François Truffaut's 20 best films ranked in the article...
Council of Europe’s online workshop series 2022
Council of Europe’s Language Policy News provides information about recent developments and upcoming events, including the relevant registration links. 2022 events include a second series of monthly Online Workshops and an international conference on 24-25 May. The...
10 must-read Scandinavian novels
Whether you’re a literary fiction aficionado or a crime and thriller fanatic, here are 10 novels by Scandinavian authors that deserve to be on your bookshelf. Scandinavian fiction covers a huge range. If you want to get your adrenaline pumping, you can’t do better...
New on the ALL website: January 2022
In this occasional News feature we point you at some of the highlight contributions you might otherwise have missed! Locate the content by navigating across the content headings of the website : https://www.all-languages.org.uk/ About News Trainee teacher Primary...
Alan Moys Tribute from Lid King
Alan Moys, 1935 - 2022 ALL Fellow, Lid King, reflects on the passing of a great friend to language teachers - Alan Moys. It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Alan Moys on January 4. Sadness for a good friend and mentor, but also for...
Alan Moys Tribute from Harmer Parr
Alan Moys and Nala Harmer Parr adds his tribute to one of NALA’s founder members Alan is best known for his role as Director of CILT, but it would be wrong not to consider his considerable contribution to Nala, the National Association of Language Advisers. I...
The Independent: GCSE languages overhauled to drill common words – but heads say it could make subjects narrow and ‘grinding’
The Government believes that focusing on key ‘building blocks’ will build students’ confidence and motivation, but some teachers fear that cultural topics and themes could be squeezed from the curriculum. The school curriculum for French, German and Spanish is to be...
The Guardian: Plan for pupils to learn 1,700 words for language GCSEs gets go-ahead
Teachers criticise DfE decision, saying narrow focus on grammar and vocabulary will put students off. The government is to push ahead with controversial changes to languages teaching in schools, which would see pupils in England memorising lists of 1,700 words...
Press Release: Association for Language Learning – Response to DfE MFL Subject Content Review announcement on 14th January 2022
The Association for Language Learning released a statement in response to the DfE GCSE MFL Subject Content Review. You can read the full statement here: Response to DfE GCSE MFL Subject Content Review announcement.
The Guardian: People flocked to language apps during the pandemic – but how much can they actually teach you?
In March 2020, as the Covid pandemic took hold, the language learning app Duolingo reported double its usual number of sign-ups. Stuck inside under lockdown orders, people had time on their hands and were looking for ways to occupy it. It wasn’t long before I joined...
The relationship between music processing and language skills in the brain
Researchers in Japan used magnetic resonance imaging to study the brains of secondary school students during a task focused on musical observation. They found that students trained to play music from a young age exhibited certain kinds of brain activity more strongly...
The Guardian: Interest in anime and K-pop drive boom in Korean and Japanese degrees
Interest in anime, gaming and K-pop is fuelling a boom in Korean and Japanese university degrees that is helping to revive modern languages departments struggling with falling enrolments. Acceptances to study Korean more than trebled from 50 to 175 between 2012 and...
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