Multilingual perspectives: preparing for language learning in the new curriculum for Wales

Abstract

This article will investigate the place of language learning in the new Curriculum for Wales and the value of a multilingual approach and ethos. The article will begin by setting out the historical context for modern foreign language teaching in the United Kingdom. It will then discuss the context for language learning in Wales, focusing on the Welsh Government's Global Futures five‐year strategy for modern foreign languages (2015–2020). It will evaluate the success of this languages' strategy in addressing the attrition rates for modern foreign languages in Welsh schools. The article will then proceed to analyse the assumptions underpinning language learning in the Draft Curriculum for Wales 2022, as demonstrated in the Languages, Literacy and Communication Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) which brings together Welsh, English and international languages. This article will argue that this reconfiguration offers a unique position from which to create a sustained partnership, working between historically separate language teaching and learning communities. Finally, this article will focus on a modern foreign language mentoring project as an example of a multilingual approach to language learning. Ultimately, this article will advocate for an ambitious rethinking of how we conceive, teach and value language learning for twenty‐first century Wales.