AHRC: Call for bids for Language Skills Training
The AHRC has now issued its call for bids under the scheme proposed a few months ago.
Full details of the Funding Opportunity are now available on the AHRC website. The closing date is 09/07/2010.
When the scheme was originally proposed in January, the University Council of Modern Languages’ (UCML) responded as follows:
UCML very much welcomes the AHRC’s response to concerns raised in the Future Directions Consultation and in the British Academy Review ‘Language Matters’. We see the AHRC proposal for a targeted call for programmes in language training as addressing very directly the BA’s identification of a shortage of appropriate foreign language skills in the UK research community. This is a problem which extends across disciplines and which limits the scope and capacity of UK international research. Enhancing provision of language training at postgraduate level in support of future generations of UK researchers is a crucial part of building long-term research capacity. This needs to be well planned and embedded, well-informed and co-ordinated. There must also be recognition of the need not just for language skills, but for associated cultural knowledge and skills.
The draft proposal (previously circulated to UCML members) was discussed at the UCML plenary meeting today, 22 January 2010. While it was warmly welcomed and seen as a very good move in the right direction, members expressed a strong view that the level of funding envisaged could be considered only as seed-corn funding, an initial investment intended to support trialling and testing of particular approaches and programmes as a preliminary to building high-quality, sustainable provision. We noted that although successful language training can be provided intensively for short periods in a limited number of HEIs across the country, for the individual learners concerned, opportunities for and commitment to sustained, cumulative learning over an extended period of time are necessary in order to acquire and develop the skill levels required. Care must therefore be paid to the geographical location of funded provision, as also to use of new technologies, in order to permit the maximum numbers of students to gain access to the opportunities on offer while continuing their ongoing academic activity.
The view was also voiced that, to our knowledge, little research or needs analysis has taken place to date with a view to assessing the range, focus and extent of language and cultural education currently required for international research purposes, and also to ascertain where good practice may already exist. In the long-term, absence of such information would make it difficult to allocate to optimum effect the more substantial funds one would hope to see following initial funded pilots. This speaks for the need for research to be carried out, possibly in parallel to the proposed pilot-testing, in order to identify and satisfy current demand effectively, and also to anticipate future needs. The AHRC and ESRC are no doubt well placed to support such work given their role as influential funders of research and research training. UCML is aware of the detailed submission made to the AHRC by AUPHF, which clearly suggests just how varied the nature of needs and the approaches to provision might be. Provision might include not only the development of passive skills relevant to different disciplines, and facilitating access to archives and varied research materials. It might also address culturally-specific considerations related to academic production and output, as suggested in the reference to ‘workshops on aspects of the publication/dissemination process, such as writing abstracts in a foreign language, assimilating the characteristic rhetoric and expository strategies of different academic cultures’ etc.
We welcome the AHRC initiative and endorse the AUPHF plea for ‘reassurance that this initiative will complement the support the AHRC gives languages under other schemes, which are absolutely crucial to protecting UK research expertise in languages.’
UCML is keen to support current and future investment in language study, which is fundamental to the international quality of UK research. We appreciate being consulted on this matter and are keen to contribute to the success of the AHRC’s initiatives.
Professor Pam Moores, Chair of UCML. 22 Jan 2010
