S2: E4: Reviving language learning in the UK

In this episode, Dr Kaitlyn Zavaleta interviews Professor Neil Kenny, Professor of French at University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow in All Souls College, and Lead Fellow for Languages for the British Academy. This episode addresses one of the central motivations for the podcast: how to increase the number of language learners in the UK. In his role as Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy, Professor Kenny has developed initiatives to encourage language learning and he describes a few of these initiatives, as well as why it is so important to learn a language.

To find out more behind-the-scenes information about this topic or about our podcast, please visit our webpage, languagescientists.dmu.ac.uk. This is where you can go to ask questions, leave comments, or even participate in our current research! We'd love to hear from YOU. 

Follow Dr Zavaleta and Dr Bisson on twitter: @dr_klzavaleta and @mjbisson

 Or get in touch via email: [email protected] and [email protected]

 To follow the British Academy and hear more about their work, they are on Twitter: @BritishAcademy_

 To read more about Professor Kenny's work at the British Academy: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/towards-national-languages-strategy-education-and-skills/

Links to some of the resources in the podcast

The Languages Gateway: the UK's portal for languages

Association for Language Learning: organisation for school resources

University Council of Modern Languages: organisation for higher education language learning

World of Languages and Languages of the World (WOLLOW): resources for encouraging children to learn languages