Outputs

Response to the 2025 UK Government White Paper on Immigration 

The UK Government has published a White Paper entitled Restoring Control of the Immigration System (CP1329), and here is the Coalition’s response to it, concentrating on the White Paper’s account of ESOL teaching provision (English for speakers of other languages). 

DfE curriculum review – Response to Interim Report

The Coalition has a number of comments to make on the implications for language education of the positions being taken in the CAR Interim Report, and suggestions for next steps.

DfE curriculum review – Digest of responses

Here is a cross-sectoral digest of the submissions to the DfE Curriculum & Assessment Review from 19 leading organisations involved with language education.  It shows rather a high-level of cross-sectoral consensus about what needs to be done.  A lot of it is consistent with the Coalition’s Founding Statement, but it has the added weight of reporting on the formal submissions of the language associations/organisations themselves.  The hope is that this can add cross-sectoral force and direction to the ongoing CAR discussions. Please do feel free to draw on it in any developments that you’re pursuing.

Some glimpses of creative diversity in language education

We asked participants at our event in March 2025 if they would like to send us a slide illustrating an aspect of their practice that went ‘beyond the current norms and limitations of language education’, and here is what they provided.

DfE curriculum review – Submission

The Department for Education is conducting a comprehensive Curriculum and Assessment Review.  Its first call for views and evidence closed in November 2024, and it expects to produce interim findings and identify key areas for further work in early 2025, publishing a final report in autumn 2025.  The Coalition produced its own submission, drafted by Professor Ros Mitchell (convenor), Dr Simon Coffey, Dr Ian Cushing and Professor Zhu Hua, with additional input from Verna Brandford, Dr Jelena Ćalić, Dr Ramona Gonczol, Dr Sophie Liggins, Dr Vally Lytra, Dr Viktoria Magne, Prof Ben Rampton, Dr Eszter Tarsoly, Prof Lynda Taylor and Prof Anthony Tomei. You can also find the submissions of a range of other associations and organisations on the CLiE website.

Report on initial consultation

This document reports on an informal consultation with 50+ people involved with different subfields of language education in the UK (EAL, ESOL, EAP, EFL, CLs, MFL, Early Years, mainstream English). They were asked what they thought the main problems were, whether there could be a case for a new cross-sectoral coalition, and what its unifying principles might be. A number of areas of concern emerged, together with potential actions. These centred on approaches to linguistic diversity, models of language, teacher education, assessment, and policy making.

After elaborating on each of these areas, the document tries to synthesise it all in seven tasks for a new coalition: Identifying collective problems; reinvigorating models of language for education; engaging with linguistic stratification & diversity; probing traditional boundaries; energising language classrooms; taking action on policy; reviving language teachers and enriching teacher education. The text was produced as the prelude to a seminar on 18 November 2023.