Mapping school-level language policies across multilingual secondary schools in England: An ecology of English, modern languages and community languages policies

Abstract

Language plays a crucial role in education; yet, while issues of language are undoubtedly relevant to all teachers, school-level language policies, which aim to provide explicit guidance underpinned by a clear set of principles, are too often conspicuous by their absence. In a range of educational contexts around the world it has been found that where such policies do exist, they are frequently fragmented and underpinned by monolingual ideologies that do not reflect the linguistic diversity of schools today. The aim of this study, therefore, is to map the provision of school-level policies from a representative sample of secondary schools in England (n = 998) and explore the extent to which they address (either implicitly or explicitly) the following dimensions of language: (a) English, both as the language of instruction and in relation to support for English as an additional language (EAL) learners; (b) modern languages in the curriculum; and (c) other home or community languages. Drawing on an ecologically informed approach, where these three dimensions of language are conceptualised as systems, analysis was conducted to identify areas of divergence and (potential for) intersection. Findings suggest that policies relating to languages, where they exist, are largely compartmentalised and tensions emerged between the various systems. However, we also note several promising points of intersection which indicate that there is scope for developing cohesive and holistic languages policies at a whole-school level.