Volume: 7  Number: 2&3  Page: 189–213  doi:10.2167/cilp094.0

Foreign Language Planning in England: The Pupil Perspective

Mark Payne School of Education, University of Sheffield, 388 Glossop Road, Sheffield S10 2JA, UK

This paper discusses pupil choice in relation to foreign language (FL) planning as an instance of micro-language planning. Borrowing from established language planning theory (Haugen, 1983; Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997), FL planning is conceptualised and defined here as the consideration of those aspects of language planning that reflect social, pedagogical and linguistic issues with a particular emphasis on foreign language choice in relation to FL learning. The prime focus is foreign language planning (FLP) in the context of secondary schools situated within multilingual communities in England. One impetus for this is the requirement of specialist language colleges (regular secondary schools with specialist language status) both to diversify FL provision and to meet the linguistic needs of their communities. This has foregrounded the importance of language planning for those schools and communities. Drawing on qualitative case-study project data from across multilingual schools in England, it is posited that older pupils could contribute in a meaningful way to foreign language and curriculum planning processes. Pupil data highlighted in this paper could be categorised as meaningful and steeped in immediate experiences, reinforcing the credibility of the pupils and the data in the research and LP processes.

Keywords: foreign language education, pupil voice, language planning, England, multilingual communities

© 2006 M. Payne

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