Hidden Meanings in Foreign Language Learning
Professor Ros Mitchell, Emeritus Professor of Language Education, University of Southampton

• Wednesday 10 June 2015, 6.30PM to 8.30pm
• Free admission
  Booking requiredPlease call 01904 322650 for additional details. Language taster sessions are now sold out.
  Book tickets
• Berrick Saul Building, University of York (map|getting to campus)

Wheelchair accessible.

Event details

While business and government thinktanks raise the alarm that Britain is suffering from a language skills deficit, there’s also a growing perception that ‘everyone speaks English anyway’ and the British don’t need to learn languages’. Where does foreign- language learning stand within this tension? Professor Ros Mitchell explores the question of what language learning means in today’s UK, bringing in perspectives from linguistics, education— including the GCSE and A-level curriculum—and the needs of a multicultural, global society.

This event will be of interest to anyone interested in language learning in the UK, whether you are a language teacher, a language learner, or an armchair languages enthusiast. The event also includes a video exhibit, showing some short videos that shed light on certain unexpected interactions of meaning and grammar in a variety of languages, including Spanish, Chinese and English. You can also sign up for a taster language lesson in Chinese or Italian. And you can record your own memorable language learning moments (an unexpected triumph, an epic fail, a poem or a joke you’ve made up…) on our language learning graffiti wall. Event includes refreshments.

About the speaker

Ros has worked extensively throughout her career on foreign language education policy and practice, and on second language acquisition.

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