Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages ― A History of Language Education, Assessment and Policy in Britain

Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in Britain provides a comprehensive history, in English, of language teaching and learning in the UK from the year 1600 to the year 2000. In this book McLelland offers an overview of changing approaches, methods and techniques in language teaching and learning, as well as the first history of the social context of foreign language education in Britain. The importance of the impact of classroom-external factors on developments in language teaching and learning are also taken into account, particularly policies and public examination requirements in the 20^th century.

Chapters include reflections on which languages are learnt and why; the sociocultural history of language learning; and the history of developments in methods for teaching key skills. Two further chapters provide the first history of modern languages assessment, and of languages policymaking in Britain. The book thus aims to give a complete history, not just of what teachers do in the classroom, but of other factors that have played equally important roles in shaping language learning experiences. While some chapters deal with the British context specifically, they all tackle issues that will be of interest to those engaged in language teaching and learning around the world.

Providing an accessible and authoritative history of modern languages education, the book will be essential reading for academics engaged in the study of language education and teaching, the history of education and education in general. It should also be of great interest to teacher-trainers, trainee and practising teachers, policymakers and curriculum developers facing changes to modern languages education.

Nicola McLelland is currently Professor of German and History of Linguistics at the University of Nottingham.?Professor McLelland is a Germanist by training, specializing in the history of linguistic thought, including grammar-writing, and, more recently, the history of modern languages education in schools (policy, curricula, practice) (3 projects funded by the AHRC and British Academy since 2011). Besides near-native expertise in German, she has degree-level French, has fluent reading knowledge of Dutch and Swedish, and can read Spanish and Italian. She has approx. A-level knowledge of Russian, and of Mandarin Chinese, which she continues to learn.