LINGUISTICS STRATEGY GROUP MEETING 
13 February 2006
Minutes
1.	Apologies:
Sally Johnson (replacing Adam Ledgeway for UCML), Ad Neeleman, David Adger
Present: Paul Rowlett (Chair), Alison Dickens (Subject Centre), Florence Myles (AFLS), Patricia Ashby (BAAP), Catherine Walter (BAAL), Marjorie Lorch (deputising for Andrew Linn for Henry Sweet Society), Kate Beeching (Specialist Group), Dick Hudson (Specialist Group), Jean Peccei (Specialist Group), David Hornsby (Specialist Group)
2.	Minutes from last meeting and matters arising
	Nomination of deputies:
	BAAP – Michael Ashby (to be confirmed)
	AFLS – Kate Beeching
	Henry Sweet Society – Marjorie Lorch
There is no one who can deputise for Sally Johnson and no named deputies for David Adger, Ad Neeleman or Catherine Walter
Action: AD
3.	Letters to Association Chairs (HESA stats)
Letters were sent out to all the Chairs of associations who contributed to the purchase of the HESA statistics. These explained the issues encountered with the data and detailed the research carried out by the group to check them with a sample group or universities. As yet no feedback has been obtained but some associations had not yet had their meetings at the time of this meeting.
Catherine and Marjorie requested copies of the statistics. Action: AD
Dick Hudson reported on recent statistics for A level English 1997 – 2003.
Numbers for English Lit were down by 10 000 (70 000 – 60 000)
Numbers for English Language have held steady although they are much lower (c. 15 000).
The group were interested to know what the response to this has been from the English Subject Centre. Action: AD to contact English SC.
For teacher training there is now no prescription for type of degree needed for teaching English i.e. English Language or Linguistics are OK. There is some evidence, reported at this meeting that some students with Linguistics degrees are still being turned away. Dick Hudson reported that CLIE (Committee for Linguistics in Education) are looking into this. It was also noted that  the TDA (Teacher Development Agency) have websites for MFL and English and neither includes reference to Knowledge about Language.
4. 	Why study linguistics? (CD update and reasons for studying linguistics from the group)
	The group were invited to comment on the old version of the Why Study Linguistics? and the new version of the Why Study Languages? presentation. It was generally agreed that the old version for Linguistics needed updating and the new version for Languages could draw on this e.g. the statistics about numbers of speakers of certain languages. Action: AD to discuss this with the SC (this has now been agreed)
	It was also agreed that the materials need to have a ‘wow’ factor to create interest in what Linguistics can tell us. This might include language awareness activities, information on the diversity of languages (comparison of the grammar of different languages), child language acquisition, bilingualism, etymology. It could also mirror the areas being developed by the A level Linguistics SIG for the proposed A level - investigation of language structure, acquisition and change. 
	The group suggested that permission could be sought from CUP to use material from David Crystal’s Encyclopaedia of Language.
	It was agreed that reasons for studying Linguistics would be collected from the group in the first instance and that, if possible, comments could be collected from students.
	Action: AD (with input/help from the rest of the group).
5.	LLAS Conference
Paul reported that a paper relating to the work of this group will be presented at the LLAS conference in Cardiff in July
6.        Strategic initiatives to recruit more linguistics students
Ambassadors’ programmes are being developed in a number of disciplines/institutions and would be a good way of helping to introduce aspects of Linguistics in schools and to promote teaching as a career for students. Roger Woods from UCML is currently involved in promoting this for languages students. Other initiatives that could be tapped into are the National Academy for the Gifted and Talented http://www.nagty.ac.uk/ , Aim Higher http://www.aimhigher.ac.uk/home/index.cfm , the Linguistics Olympics http://www.creativepuzzels.nl/spel/speel1/olmpic-2.htm . 

The Subject Centre has just completed a study of cross-sector initiatives to promote languages (with funding from the Dfes) and the results may contain useful ideas for initiatives for Linguistics. AD will circulate the report to the Group when it is published. Action: AD
7.	Future directions for the group
A key problem for Linguistics that was noted is that the name of the discipline is often confusing or meaningless for young people/the general public. It is easily confused with its use to describe the ability to speak another language (linguist) and seems to be an off-putting term to the extent that it is often not used in the media. The Group felt that some action is needed to explain the discipline and its benefits to society at large. This can most usefully be done through the media so Paul has agreed to write a letter that can be circulated to various outlets, e.g. the BBC, newspapers etc.
8.	Any other business  and date of the next meeting
	The date of the next meeting is 15th May 2006 (venue to be confirmed)