51¸£ÀûÉç

Here at 51¸£ÀûÉç, Professor Charles Forsdick and Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett, are both deeply invested in language education and research as well as actively shaping national policy and advocating for systemic change. 

In the interview that follows, Charles and Wendy reflect on their roles within the College, the importance and purpose of languages in education and society, and the powerful ways in which 51¸£ÀûÉç fosters learning and research in languages and linguistics. From shaping national policy to mentoring future linguists, they discuss how the College supports their work and how, in turn, their work contributes to broader societal change. This is a compelling glimpse at the passion, expertise, and vision that make 51¸£ÀûÉç a hub for language excellence in Cambridge and beyond. 

What are your roles here at 51¸£ÀûÉç?

Charles: I joined 51¸£ÀûÉç as a professorial fellow in French in September 2023. This is when I was appointed to the university as the new Drapers Professor of French. In College, I chair the Audit Committee and am a Member of the Education Committee. I am also a tutor for postgraduate students. Professor Charles Forsdick – view his full profile  

Wendy: I joined 51¸£ÀûÉç in 2001 when I became Head of the Department of French and am now an Emerita Fellow.

 Over the years I served on all the main committees, directed studies in Modern Languages and Linguistics and chaired the Art Committee. Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett – view her full profile 

How has the College and its community helped in your work and how does it benefit in return? 

Charles: 51¸£ÀûÉç provides an environment that is collegial, convivial – and always intellectually stimulating. As the hugely successful celebration of 70 years of MML at New Hall and more recently 51¸£ÀûÉç back in March, languages are supported actively in College, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss the ways in which our interests intersect productively with those of fellows and students in other disciplinary fields. As is the case with all Cambridge Colleges, we are a wonderfully multilingual community – and in addition to celebrating this as positive in itself, it is important to reflect on how this linguistic diversity enriches our day-to-day interactions and reminds us that the UK more broadly is far from being the monolingual country it is often unhelpfully characterised as being. This reminder that languages are an important part of our daily lives in so many different ways is a key element of my work as Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy, a role that I took on at the same time as I joined 51¸£ÀûÉç.

Wendy: When I joined 51¸£ÀûÉç from another College I had quite a lot of responsibilities in the Faculty and two children still at school. The College was extremely supportive during the early years of my Fellowship, allowing me some flexibility in my teaching load, and that enabled me to keep my research career going whilst juggling administrative roles and family life. This flexibility encouraged me to want to serve the College more once I had a bit more time. As well as a strong team of linguists, I am delighted that we also have an outstanding Fellow in Linguistics, so that both language in general and languages in particular feature strongly in the College’s teaching and research.

And how does society benefit more broadly?

Charles: As the British Academy’s Lead Fellow for Languages, my current priority is working to implement a number of recommendations that emerged from a 2020 report entitled Towards a National Languages Strategy. Together with our co-signatories, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Association of School and College Leaders, the British Council, and Universities UK, the Academy is committed to ensuring that a broad range of opportunities in languages are available across the educational pipeline, from primary to Higher Education and beyond. Provision at present is inconsistent and there are not sufficient incentives to encourage the sustained engagement that acquiring a language requires. The social benefits of effective language learning – and of ensuring that existing linguistic skills are also fully appreciated – are many, and range from better community integration to a clear contribution to health and well-being. Successful language learning should also be great fun. It caters to our curiosity about other cultures and helps us better understand our own.

Wendy: From 2016-2021 I led a major interdisciplinary research programme to promote languages and language learning in the UK. This included not just the languages taught in our schools and universities, but also the indigenous languages of the UK such as Welsh and Gaelic and the very many home, heritage and community languages that are spoken here. We often forget how multilingual the UK actually is: around 1 in 5 children starting school has a home language other than English. As part of that project, I started working with government to try and bring languages higher up the political agenda, and I am now writing a book on language policy in the UK, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

How would you describe the language fellowship here at 51¸£ÀûÉç?

Charles: One of the attractions of 51¸£ÀûÉç is its vibrant community of Fellows at various career stages in Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics. I think this fellowship is one of the strongest and most extensive of all the Cambridge colleges in languages and linguistics. This includes our active and engaged colleagues with emeritus status who have done so much to build these disciplinary strengths and continue to support our ongoing work. Together, we have expertise across a range of languages, topics and chronological periods. It is always refreshing and enlightening to be able to have discussions in college on topics ranging from translation to languages and the environmental humanities. 

Wendy: I am delighted that we not only have Fellows in French, German and Spanish, but also in Russian and Italian. These languages have almost entirely disappeared from the state school system so it is vital to provide opportunities for students to start them at University. 

How do students benefit from this?

Charles: In addition to learning much from the experience and expertise of the fellowship, students also benefit from unique opportunities such as involvement in the Gabe Society – named after former fellow Dorothy Gabe Coleman, a distinguished scholar of the French Renaissance – which holds regular meetings for MML undergraduates, graduates and Fellows. Fourth-year undergraduates give a 20-minute paper on a subject of academic interest to them (often drawing on work conducted during their Year Abroad), followed by questions. Talks are followed by drinks and dinner, providing an excellent opportunity for our students to meet and chat informally and to get to know students in other years.

Wendy: The Fellows in modern languages and linguistics are all dedicated to providing the very best learning experience for our students. This starts at admissions when tremendous care is taken to identify students with promise, particularly if they come from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

What would be your advice to students who are considering study or a career in this field? 

Charles: A degree in this field is exceptional in the Arts and Humanities in that it offers the intrinsic benefits of studying an established academic discipline with the opportunity to acquire a set of practical skills associated with enhancing your existing knowledge of a language or of learning a new one. The compulsory Year Abroad also means that language graduates have a unique set of skills acquired as a result of living and working in a different culture and navigating the unpredictability that this implies.

Wendy: People often think that you can only become a teacher, translator or interpreter if you study languages, but languages open so many doors! Employers tell us that they appreciate the range of transferrable skills students acquire during their degrees, including being excellent communicators, good at analysing material and intellectually agile. They also gain in maturity and confidence from the Year Abroad. But perhaps above all I would say that learning languages is fun!

How did you become interested in language policy work, and what has driven your passion for this field?

Charles: I have had a number of external roles – Arts and Humanities Research Council Theme Leadership Fellow for the Translating Cultures portfolio; chair of the Modern Languages and Linguistics subpanel for REF2021 – that have allowed us to collaborate with various stakeholders and explore the broader impact of research into languages. This work led to a number of policy papers, written in partnership with organisations such as the Institute for Government and the Runnymede Trust, that have underlined the importance of languages and intercultural knowledge in policymaking. As Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy, I am now involved in developing new understandings of language policy work, seeking not least to move away from a traditional emphasis on education and skills to underline the key role of languages across a broader range of policy areas.

Wendy: My interest really started 10 years ago when I hosted in College the first national languages policy workshop. We had a range of speakers from different government departments in the morning and then a closed session in the afternoon when we set down some foundations for future work. I am now policy advisor for the University Council For Languages (UCFL), the national body representing languages in Higher Education, as well as an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Languages, Cultures and Societies, which is part of the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. I am driven by a desire to promote language learning at all ages and stages. Emerging research suggests there are benefits of learning a language in later life to keep the brain active and offer some protection against dementia.

Can you give some examples of language policies that have been effective in their aims?

Charles: Many believe that the policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic was exclusively biomedical, drawing on research in epidemiology. If you explore wider policy implications, however, not least in the area of public health, it’s clear that languages played a fundamental role in policies to combat the virus, ensuring that messages about vaccination and prevention reached as many audiences as possible in culturally sensitive ways that used languages they would understand. 

Wendy: I think a good example is the Mandarin Excellence Programme, a government initiative introduced in 2016, which aims to provide the UK with the speakers it needs for our dealings with China. The students have four hours of classroom teaching and are expected to devote the same amount of time out of school to the language. Lessons are intended to combat the perception that ‘languages are hard’ and to be fun, fast-paced and engaging.

Evaluations show that the students on the programme have not only made excellent progress linguistically, but that they are really enjoying learning Mandarin. 

What role does language policy play in educational systems, and how can they affect student academic outcomes?

Charles: Although languages are relevant across a broad range of policy areas, addressing their place in educational systems is essential. An effective policy approach covers the pipeline from primary to Higher Education. It entitles learners to study languages at every stage, and offers a range of qualifications post-14 and post-16 so that language learning can form part of a broad curriculum. A holistic policy also encompasses all educational sectors, including FE (where languages are currently not well represented) and the remarkable network of supplementary schools that give pupils an opportunity to learn their home, heritage and community languages. Learning languages not only gives students essential skills and cultural knowledge but also is proven to enhance outcomes in other subjects including English and Maths.

Wendy: We have a number of examples, both good and bad, as to how policy affects practice. Most strikingly in 2004, the requirement to study a language up to the age of 16 was removed, so that students could stop learning a language after the age of 14. We can see a strong correlation between this policy and a decline in uptake at GCSE over the past 20 years, although recently there have been some positive signs. These have been the result of recent government policies, including the creation of the National Consortium for Languages Education which, among other things, provides materials and training for language teachers in secondary schools. Charles and I have recently co-edited a special issue of the online journal , which is edited by Dora Alexopoulou, our Linguistics Fellow. In this we explore a whole range of policy areas, including the promotion of Welsh, British Sign Language, and ancient languages.

How should language policies in educational settings be adapted to meet the needs of diverse student populations?

Charles: It is essential that language education policies meet students where they are in their linguistic abilities. Many primary classrooms are diverse and multilingual, with in some cases pupils speaking thirty different home languages. If these existing skills are seen as an asset and not an impediment, then we will see the removal of barriers to opportunity. 

Wendy: Whilst the introduction of language learning at Key Stage 2 was a positive step, many classroom teachers have struggled to teach primary languages because they lack the necessary linguistic skills themselves. We are now beginning to consider whether it might be better to start in primary school not with the teaching of a particular language, but with knowledge about how language and languages work. This would allow all pupils to bring in knowledge of their home languages and to celebrate it. I first got interested in other languages at primary school when we learnt about hieroglyphics as part of our study of the Ancient Egyptians!

How do you think language policy will evolve in the next decade? Emerging trends? How would you personally like to see policy develop?

Charles: With the recent change of government, we are at a crucial stage in development of a language policy fit to address the challenges of the twenty-first century. Emerging priorities include addressing currently inadequate approaches to language education at KS2, ensuring effective transition in language learning between primary and secondary sectors, finding ways of incentivizing languages at GCSE or equivalent, and adopting alternative qualifications so that languages can be retained in a broader curriculum post-16. If we create a pipeline of committed language learners, this will have a positive impact on recruitment to universities, although adoption of a national languages policy would allow us to take a much more strategic approach to languages in Higher Education, removing the unpredictably of individual institutional decisions in an uncertain financial context.

Wendy: I would like to see more recognition of the value of languages to society beyond education. I have recently been working with the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care. I have curated a number of workshops to showcase how research in modern languages speaks to key issues of our time, including migration and social cohesion, defence and security, soft power and diplomacy, health and wellbeing. My ultimate goal is for all policymakers to consider whether there is a language dimension to a policy they are formulating, just as they now take into account questions of gender or ethnicity.

What advice would you give to institutions or governments looking to develop more inclusive and effective language policies?

Charles: I have three key pieces of advice. The first is that institutions or governments should acknowledge that the UK is a multilingual country, and that language policies should build on this fundamental recognition. Secondly, while addressing languages in education policy is essential, there is a need for linguistic sensitivity – and the identification of the opportunity cost of not factoring in languages – across a much broader range of policy areas. And thirdly, as the publication in 2020 of The Importance of Languages in Global Context makes clear, in a context of the decline of expertise in languages other than English, there is an urgent need for a sharing of information about language policy across the English-speaking world.

Wendy: At the moment, languages are ‘everywhere and nowhere’ in government. We don’t have a Chief Government Linguist or the equivalent of Chief Scientific Advisors to promote languages in government or to act as a conduit for research-informed evidence about languages. Languages are also rarely mentioned in the government’s published Areas of Research Interest. I would like to see languages given greater institutional support across government and more explicit recognition of their value. We are slowly making progress and, as my colleagues in government often remind me, this is a marathon and not a sprint!

DOME Languages Summer School – find out more 

A 2-day summer residential for 16-year-old women and non-binary students who are interested in learning more about Cambridge University degrees that have a language component.