ABSTRACT
A comprehensive account of current issues and practices in language education in the United Kingdom would easily fill one volume if not several. The number of languages taught is extensive, particularly in tertiary, adult and community education contexts. At primary and secondary school levels, educational policy is devolved to the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom (Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales), which traditionally have significantly different approaches to the teaching of languages. An overview of the field is complicated by fragmentation within languages education, leading to very different educational philosophies and forms of provision for ‘modern foreign languages’, ‘classical languages’, ‘heritage and community languages’, English as a ‘mother tongue’ and English as an ‘additional language’. Provision for children with hearing or speech impairments is often omitted from this list, and yet some of the issues surrounding the teaching of sign languages and of augmentative and alternative communication are similar to those affecting other forms of language education.
