Prof Fiona Barclay

Pause your doomscrolling and listen to this story.

We had such a great response to our History teachers webinar on teaching 'Migration and Empire' that we're offering another one! Come and find out about brand new resources co-created by teachers and academics: 4pm, Monday 29 Sept. Register here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/decolonisi...

Cold spots: Mapping inequality in SHAPE provision in UK higher education This British Academy report reveals that many parts of the UK are becoming subject cold spots – areas with no provision in a subject within a commutable distance. These are often in rural, coastal or ...

BA report shows that worst cold spots in SHAPE are in Modern Foreign Languages: French & German single honours degrees are declining sharply, with cold spots in all 4 UK nations. Progress in expanding provision of non-European languages is being reversed.
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...

UK advertises contract to run Erasmus scheme Tender indicates ministers are preparing ground to rejoin European student swap programme

This is a positive sign that we may be moving back into Erasmus. The replacement Turing scheme has not been great (see posts above)
on.ft.com/45RFfyV

Learning languages helps us to unlock cultures Brits cannot always rely on English and not everything can be mediated through translation

Love this attempt to articulate the magic created by language in the intercultural encounter
www.thetimes.com/article/ecfe...

One to share with my students on how to study!

History teachers in Scotland: teaching 'Migration and Empire' this year? Want to know how to teach about 'the impact of Scots'? Come and find out about brand new resources created by academics and teachers at this online session: 4pm, 10 Sept. Register here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/decolonisi...

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When I lived in Russia, many years ago, the only being to whom I regularly spoke in English was the cat in the lobby. I discovered (by hearing myself imitated) that my professor's two very young kids thought I spoke Cat and so tried to communicate with her the same way ("kom hiyah, ki ti!").

I agree with every word. H/T to @gsoh31.bsky.social
👇👇👇

The Death of the Student Essay—and the Future of Cognition One professor's reflections on the end of an era, as AI tools such as ChatGPT have murdered the student essay (RIP). Here's why that threatens the future of human cognition—and how to save ourselves.

"It would be a catastrophically unwise decision for humanity to abandon a key step in training young brains simply because they can now clack a few keys and produce something that sounds intelligent even as they never become intelligent" - @brianklaas.bsky.social

www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-death-...

'... AI tools like LLMs will [likely] create some unequal stratification in which those people who already have advanced critical thinking skills can unleash even greater potential in collaboration with AI tools, while others will simply never develop those skills because they use AI as a crutch.'

Delighted to be part of the deep (yet concise!) thinking on languages taking place in this @lspjournal.bsky.social Opinion series.

Love working on our campus! @litandlangstirling.bsky.social

Thanks to @sahavoice.bsky.social for organising this much-needed event! Great to see the importance of Languages being highlighted.

‼️Issue 38 of the Scottish Languages Review, our online journal for language practitioners, is now LIVE ‼️
A central theme of this issue is #IDL, with articles also on #Latin as L3 and strategies for #CommunityLanguages.
Free to download ➡️ loom.ly/dO81dzk

How Russia is using Gaelic and AI to peddle disinformation in Scotland The website Pravda Alba is spreading fake news about Anas Sarwar in an apparent attempt to push President Putin’s agenda. But why in such a little-spoken language?

www.thetimes.com/article/ccb4...

📣Primary teachers & primary student teachers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
👋Join @karen-scilt.bsky.social @suzannescilt.bsky.social & me in person & outdoors 🌻💨🍃🌤️at all 3️⃣ in person, interactive workshops
🎯Developing outdoor IDL contexts for targeted, incidental & practising language use outdoors from & with each other

"We have to help students see that experiences matter and that to make their way through life as active agents, rather than passive doers of school assignments"

A great read to learn more about Wendy and Charles' fantastic work on language, policy, and education at Murray Edwards College 💬 @wendya-b.bsky.social @cforsdick.bsky.social @mmll-cambridge.bsky.social

The importance of educational cultural awareness in the multicultural classroom What happens when you mix contrasting worldviews and pedagogies in one university classroom? Find out how to balance students’ biases – and your own – to prepare them for a globalised world

What happens when you mix contrasting worldviews and pedagogies in one university classroom? Marie N Bernal explains how to balance students’ differing expectations – and your own – to prepare them for a globalised world: www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/impor... #highered #edusky

This right here.

Teachers have to know what the work is.

Students have to know what the work is and right now, far too many of them think it's jumping through a hoop to get a grade.

Learning should change you.

#langchat

This is high art

#DoTheWriteThing

#langsky

'Value linguistic diversity and forget “one nation, one language”' 👇

The MHRA has transitioned from Twitter/X and will now use Bluesky to communicate our work. We are excited to contribute to establishing Bluesky as a dynamic, inclusive, and engaging platform for academic exchange and collaboration.

To celebrate this new chapter, we are hosting a book giveaway! 👇

It's our final Language Ambassador session of 2024-25! Sign up your class and join us online on 25 March to hear from our student Language Ambassadors about their experiences of learning languages and discovering new cultures: loom.ly/UgZjA0k

I hope the information about the ongoing US case is correct. In the meantime, the Authors' Guild has put together a letter template for informing Meta that we have not given permission for our work to be used in this way:
actionnetwork.org/letters/auth...