Volume: 1  Number: 1  Page: 111–128  doi:10.2167/illt046.0

Nationally-sponsored Innovations at School in Scotland: Issues of Evidence, Generalisability and Sustainability

Richard Johnstone University of Stirling, Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching & Research, Institute of Education, Stirling, UK

Scotland's tradition of strong national support for languages at school has led to a number of nationally-sponsored innovations, four of which have been particularly prominent in recent years: the introduction of modern languages at primary school, Gaelic-medium primary education, early partial immersion in a modern foreign language, and the creation of a real and virtual community of students in the upper secondary school. These four innovations are brought together by presenting the key features of each, considering research-based evaluation evidence of their impact on uptake, attainments, motivation and other aspects, and by further considering each in respect of its potential for generalisability and sustainability. Despite certain as yet unresolved issues of generalisability and sustainability, it is concluded that these national initiatives have served to generate a number of potential alternatives to mainstream provision which have been at least provisionally tried and tested on the ground and which schools increasingly might wish to consider in their attempts to make a success of modern languages at school in an environment dominated by English as international language.

Keywords: Gaelic, Scotland, modern languages, evidence, generalisability, sustainability

© 2007 R. Johnstone

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