LINGUISTICS STRATEGY GROUP MEETING 
15 May 2006

1.	Present: Douglas Arnold (DA SAG), Patrica Ashby (PA), Kate Beeching (KB deputising for Florence Myles AFLS), Billy Clark (BC replacing Ad Neeleman LAGB), Alison Dickens (AD – Notes LLAS), Dick Hudson (DH SAG), Marjorie Lorch (ML replacing Andrew Linn Henry Sweet Society), Paul Rowlett (PR – Chair), Catherine Walter (CW for BAAL), David Willis (DW replacing David Adger for PhilSoc)
Apologies
	Sally Johnson (SJ for UCML)
PR welcomed David Willis who replaces David Adger for PhilSoc and Billy Clark who replaces Ad Neeleman for LAGB)	
2.	Minutes from last meeting 
	These were accepted as an accurate record of the meeting
3.	Matters arising
PA needs to confirm deputy Action: PA [done Michael Ashby will deputise for PA]
PR sent a letter to all Chairs of learned societies detailing the Group’s work to date and requesting confirmation that they are happy for the Group to continue to meet.
UCML – yes
Phil Soc - yes. 
BAAL - PA requested that PR resend the letter to Francis Nolan Chair of BAAP. Action: PR
	The Henry Sweet Society - yes
	BAAL – yes
	LAGB – yes
AFLS – KB reported that this was not raised at last meeting. She will check with Florence Myles and report back. Action: KB	
4.	HESA Statistics update
AD circulated a copy of the order for HESA data for Linguistics for 04/05 data. The Group raised the question of whether the SC has acquired  the 03/04 data? Action: AD to check
The Group also wanted to know when the data would be analysed. AD said that it would take several weeks to arrive but should be ready for the next meeting in the autumn. Action: AD
5.	Strategic initiatives to recruit more linguistics students 
•	Why study linguistics? BC wished it to be noted that the old presentation contains a spelling mistake ‘to’ instead of ‘do’.
AD reported that she has found some possible sources of help and the SC has agreed up to £5,000 to support this project.
The Group suggested including examples of what is interesting in the news/or in elsewhere in the public domain. Also regional accents are always interesting. KB reported on an exercise that she has used to explore stereotypes of accents and jobs.
PA presented a book edited by a colleague of hers by Battlebridge: Limits of language by  Mikael Parvell. The editor has told PA that he will be happy to distribute electronic copies of material from the book, for teaching. PA will ask if this might extend to the Linguistics presentation.
Action: PA to ask for details. AD to buy book.
ML wished it to be noted that not all students are 18 so not all student opinion should be from that age group.
One approach would be to have individual elements e.g. sexy facts about linguistics with different pathways through. AD suggested that this would fit in very well with the SC’s current work in developing learning objects. However it might be too ambitious for this project in the first instance.
The materials need to answer questions that 6th formers ask. It could include materials from  Sociolinguistics and language acquisition
A possible structure might be as a series of questions: 
Have you ever wondered…?
Have you ever noticed…?
Have you ever asked yourself why…?
Have you ever thought…?
It could aim at  different types of student - MFL, English Lang, Community langs (bilingual), Social science e.g. Psychology, Sociology etc. This could be included in a Routes into linguistics presentation. Action: AD to work on this with a research assistant. The Group will be asked to advise on draft at the next meeting.
ML suggested that another source of material might be Muse – Smithsonian institute publication aimed at KS3. Action: AD to investigate
•	Working with the National Association for the Gifted and Talented Youth and DFES (see Roger Woods email forwarded by PR to lingstratgp@philsoc.org.uk) 
Funding is available for projects. The Government has suggested a register of gifted and talented, there was some concern about this. 
The issue of Widening Participation was raised. The problem is how to give access to learning opportunities? It was suggested that a Community languages route could be explored as this is an obvious route into linguistics for multilingual children. Funds might be available from the community languages sector, Ethnic minority achievement grant, as well as from NAGTY. DH reported that he spoke at an event funded by NAGTY and the London centre for gifted and talented youth. 
As Linguistics is the one thing you can’t do at school this gives it a special edge and there are routes into it from different disciplines. If the Group could get funding a similar event that could be taken round the country. Examples of topics: DH – excitement of language talk. David Crystal – history of English.
The Linguistics Olympics idea could be brought into this especially as similar initiatives already exist in Science and Maths in the UK.
Summer schools are another option but they are usually run through an HE institution.
DFES is keen on promoting language awareness, however it is not easy to find routes for linguistics on the website. However DH reports that they are interested in linguistics esp. literacy and first language development. There does appear to be something of a split between QCA and Government Strategy – curriculum is run by QCA who define exam structure but teaching is driven by Strategy e.g. literacy and numeracy strategies. These have now been in 2 overarching strategies. Individuals running these strategies are very supportive e.g. Sue Hackman (Secondary strategy) gave an inspiring presentation on teaching grammar. Steve Anwell – ML teacher at Language Awareness (Primary Strategy). They may be able to offer help rather than support a campaign for a particular agenda.
Teacher training. CLIE discussed that there are new websites for teacher trainees in all subject areas. Neither ML or Eng lang sites have much on linguistics. CLIE is offering help to these through TDA.
Action: DH to give names of contacts in Dfes. PR to send message to outline our interest in other sectors and in transfer of expertise. 
Cross-sector initiatives – SC/DFES report  http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/publications.aspx
AD circulated an executive summary of the report. This should be circulated to association lists. 
The Ambassadors scheme raised a great deal of interest and could be extended with linguistics. Action: AD to investigate ambassador’s scheme and  Roger Woods who has set this up for German. AD to send an email to association lists to find out about outreach in linguistics.
6.	Making the case for Linguistics
PR – has drafted a press release for the media (see paper circulated at the meeting). A version of this will be circulated at the Westminster conference on 23rd June.
It was generally felt that the statement needs to be prefaced with something shorter and more punchy. It could sit behind a press release about the Westminster event organised by PA (url)
It was also suggested that the letter should mention that language is central to education, e.g. literacy strategy plus other initiatives. It should also mention community languages.
 	The inclusion of bullet points might make it easier to read.
Action: PA to issue press release for the Westminster event with Westminster press office. PR to redraft letter.
7.	Any other business  and date of the next meeting
DH – presented RAE figures from the British Academy. These indicate how many research active staff there are in each subject. Linguistics figures show that it is one of only 4 subjects that have shown a decline across the 3 RAE cycles. There is a drop of 6% from 92-96, of 13% from 96-01. Only Economics and French, German and Russian/ Slavonic studies have a similar decline. Members of the Group made the following comments:
Perhaps Linguistics researchers moved to other panels such as English, European Studies? Linguistics panels not very generous with scores so some researchers will have submitted to other panels e.g. European Studies, Education, English. 
This is seen as a problem as it will have an impact at senior management level who will see Linguistics as unimportant. Also Linguistics researchers will not show on the university ratings.
This issue has not been raised at LAGB. BAAL has raised it with the panel.
The Group felt it was very serious issue and should be followed up.
Action: ML to find RAE statistics. To be sent to RAE panel and learned societies.
Date for the next meeting - Friday October 27th 2006 Action: AD