Languages Today is our member magazine, designed specifically for language teachers. It is free to members of the Association for Language Learning.

It contains news from the language teaching world; ideas to help with your teaching; reviews of teaching resources; and information about schemes and projects which may be of interest to you. We follow a day in the life of language teachers, trainers and people who use languages in their job, and we find out about how language skills are used in the workplace.

Welcome to Languages Today Issue 50, 'Being a language teacher'.

Being a teacher involves a wide range of activities, sensibilities and responsibilities, and being a Languages teacher has even more! Some of them are explored by our wonderful writers in this bumper edition to celebrate our 50th number! We thank them all, along with the team of proofreaders, some new this time. You will find in these pages articles from people working in different sectors and with different languages, and they all have something you will find refreshing, reassuring or maybe challenging.

To mark the occasion, we have also refreshed the look of your LT magazine, trying to take into account advice on readability. We welcome your views, as well as, of course, your suggestions for pieces for our next magazines: as a follow-up to this edition, LT51 will be titled ‘Being a Language learner’ and we hope for contributions on motivation, multilingualism, travel, careers, learner strategies and aspirations, and what sort of language resources learners seek out for themselves.

Welcome to Languages Today Issue 49, the first issue of Languages Today in 2025.

We are excited to share this issue with you with a special focus on Strands of Learning and how these can be woven together. We have some new voices and shine a spotlight on Linguistics with Rebecca Mitchell in World of Language and Focus on Transition with Witold Wozniak, Ruth Magee and Tracy Williams.

Along with our regular features:

• President Judith Rifeser reflecting on the importance of weaving, culture and Languages
• Clare Seccombe celebrating the work of primary learners
• NCLE update - an outline of the new Languages Learners Online CPD resources
• A Last Word calling for collaboration across the sector to keep it healthy

As ever we thank our contributors for their time and willingness to share with others. We are grateful too to proofreaders for their sensitive reading and attention to detail. (If you would like to join the proofreading team, please let us know at [email protected]).

Next Languages Today will be number 50! To mark this the theme is Being a Language teacher.

Welcome to Languages Today Issue 48. This latest issue attracted proposals from a wide range of writers, from all sorts of language and sectoral backgrounds. Well done to all! I hope you enjoy all of their stories and consider writing something yourself. We constantly welcome pieces for the ALL website Zones and are now inviting your ideas for the next magazine; Languages Today 49 will take as its theme: Strands of Learning. Articles might include: culture, communication, the language skills, the three pillars, learning strategies, projects that join up learning of different sorts, building linguistic connections…or other themes that spring to your own mind. Send us your thoughts to [email protected]

LT readers enjoy positive stories (about any Language) that inspire their thinking, and remind them of principles and successful practice. This time around you can read in this bumper edition what Language teachers and learners think about Project Based Learning, about their interest in Reading, about the impact of a Primary international visit, about motivational features of lessons, including drama strategies, about teachers meeting up with other teachers, about things ALL members really value, about Student Voice and classroom target language, about relevant research and voices from the past. What a read!

Welcome to Languages Today Issue 47. This latest edition of Languages Today celebrates the Unique Ingredients of our classrooms and of our subject which bridges international education, communication, culture and the skills of using other languages.

ALL President Liz Black looks back over her period in office and forward to the fruition of projects she has worked to set in place; these include important collaboration with partners, and between the Schools and Higher Education sectors – you can read about some of those in these pages too. She reminds us that, at Language World we renewed our thinking about our shared principles and objectives in opening up the hearts and minds of learners to the rest of the world through diverse routes.

Drop a line to [email protected] to share your ideas!

Welcome to Languages Today Issue 40, once again packed with content thanks to our members, friends and colleagues who have responded to the theme so constructively. This is again a rich edition covering a range of important areas in language learning: ALL President Elect Liz Black reflects on reading in Ten Best ; elsewhere we focus on students developing their listening, speaking and writing skills in secondary, or discovering the potential for creative translation, and teachers building up their own skills of profile-raising.

ALL Council member Silvia Bastow explores the practice, and associated research, of language retrieval, while two perspectives on transition, and a celebration of the skills of bilingual learners also make for great reading. Collaboration is something we all benefit and learn from and Judith Rifeser, an ALL volunteer and Corporate Member the Goethe-Institut London describe an online work experience project that develops languages skills and learner confidence through film and film-making.

To purchase the latest issue, please visit the shop.