Preliminary results of the languages questionnaire published 5 June 2013 – 1

August 2013

WESLINE conference2 September 2013

By Colin Homiski and Nick Hearn

What were the other HE Institutions?Bath 1Birmingham 1Brighton 2Bristol 1Cardiff 1Chester 1Coventry 1Essex 1Leeds 1London 5Manchester 2Nottingham 3Open 1Portsmouth 1Sheffield 1Swansea 2University of the Highlands and Islands 1Warwick 1Westminster 1

Language knowledge (Q.4)

• 14 people had some knowledge of all 5 languages ie French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese

• 19 people had some knowledge of 4 languages• 27 people had some knowledge of 3 languages• 32 people had some knowledge of 2 languages• 10 people had knowledge of only one language

What other languages do you know (Q5)?

• Russian 22• Latin 19• Greek 14 (Presumaby in most cases ‘ancient’ Greek)• Dutch/Afrikaans 7• Catalan 6• Welsh 6• Polish 3• Hungarian 2• Ukrainian 2• Arabic 2• Gaelic 1• Chinese 1• Basque 1• Hebrew 1• Urdu 1• Indonesian 1

Correlation between languages known and material acquired

Knows language and acquires Knows language and doesn’t acquire Doesn't know language and acquires

What subjects do you collect a) in the vernacular b)in English (Q13-25)

What other subject are you responsible for (Q28)

• Over half of respondents stated they were responsible for a number of other subjects

• ‘Everything’; ‘All subjects principally humanities up to 1900’, ‘All undergraduate subjects. ‘Most academic disciplines’

Future of WESLINE: Cline of integration Q34

a) Groups to remain as they are

LESS INTEGRATION

MORE INTEGRATION

b) Groups to remain as they are but cooperate more

c) Individual language groups to beReplaced with a group like WESLINE

d) More cooperationthrough umbrella group likeWESLINE with other umbrella Groups like COSEELIS etc

Doing a languages questionnaire of this type takes a long time

Difficult to ask the right questionsThere are technical difficulties with online formsHard to get a large number of respondentsSubject specialists cover a wide range of subjectsMost want greater cooperation between groups

but not great enthusiasm for full integration