THE Scottish Executive is not doing enough to promote the Scots language, a St Andrew’s Day teachers’ conference heard.
Richard Johnstone, director of the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research at Stirling University and convener of the Scots Language Resource Centre in Perth, said the Executive needed to say something about the importance of Scots in education.
“This is the European Year of Languages which aims to celebrate all of Europe’s languages including minority ones,” Professor Johnstone said.
But he drew comfort that “in spite of the Scottish education system’s attempts to obliterate it, Scots is still very vibrant”.
Professor Johnstone told the conference, on “Untying the Scots tongue in the classroom”, organised by the Scots Language Resource Centre under the auspices of the Holyrood Pairty Group for the Scots Leid, of the need to promote bilingualism or multilingualism as the norm.
He accepted the claim that Scots speaking children who also speak English are bilingual. “The majority of people across the world are bilingual. It is mainly English speakers who speak only one language. We need to promote biliterate bilingualism to get the real cognitive benefits of bilingualism.
“Bilingualism develops the underlying command system for language acquisition and development and makes it easier to learn other languages later in life.”
Irene McGugan, MSP and convener of the Scots language parliamentary group, suggested there was an appetite in schools from pupils, teachers and advisers.
The parliamentary group is currently reviewing the status of Scots within the context of the Barcelona Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights to draw up a statement of principles to have Scots “recognised and respected”.
Another significant parliamentary development, Ms McGugan said, is the report from the Education, Culture and Sport Committee into Scotland’s languages which is to be published in the new year.
“For the first time in centuries, possibly ever, the status, condition and future of the Scots language are being given serious consideration at parliamentary level” she said.
Delegates were not slow to pick up on the irony of a conference on Scots being held at Newbattle Abbey College where poet Edwin Muir served as warden. It was Muir who famously said Scottish people were condemned to “think in English” but “feel in Scots”.
