Language as head-ache: the Linguistics Olympiad grows

Richard Hudson

ISMLA, Feb 2014

The UK Linguistics Olympiad

• An academic ‘olympiad’ for school children– Cf. the Maths Challenge/Olympiad

• But problems all involve language data– Challenge: to work out the underlying system

• Three levels of difficulty:– Foundation (KS3)– Intermediate (KS4)– Advanced (KS5)

A Foundation problemuklo.org

Where is Cleopatra?uklo.org

Cleopatra

t

rp a a

p

tcl

e o

o l

e

Ptolemy

• Spot the pattern!

An Intermediate problem

The questions

The solutions (marked locally)

An Advanced problem

How is UKLO doing?

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

2010 2011 2012 2013

Foundation

Intermediate

Advanced

all pupils

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

2011 2012 2013

Foundation ind

Intermediate ind

Advanced ind

All ind

Foundation state

Intermediate state

Advanced state

All state

Independent vs stateIndependent

And the winners …

• Round 2, 2013 (typical):– Independent: 15– State: 1

• UK IOL teams, 2013 (typical):– Independent: 7– State: 1

Some other facts

• Age– 48 at Y5/6

• Entries per school– Record = 350

• We hosted the International Linguistics Olympiad in 2013– Generous support from Leverhulme

Foundation

• ISMLA is a generous financial supporter!

Where next?

• ‘We’ = the UKLO committee plus other HE enthusiasts for linguistics in schools.

• We plan:– 1. To produce support material for schools

• A. Linguistics for the Olympiad • B. General support material for the Olympiad• C. Extending linguistics beyond the Olympiad

– 2. To campaign for more linguistics• A. integrated into other subjects• B. as separate qualification

1A. Linguistics for the Olympiad

• frameworks for formal language analysis– phonology, morphology,syntax– meaning– writing systems

• illustrated from • standard and non-standard English• foreign languages examined at A-level• unfamiliar languages

• materials on how languages vary at all levels

1B. General support material for the Olympiad

• worked UKLO style problems – from foundation up to IOL

• general advice on how to tackle such questions.

1C. Linguistics beyond the Olympiad

• Brief descriptions of languages – FL and classics– compared with English

• Facts about UK community languages– structural features– demographics

• ‘Five-minute starters' – for introducing topics in FL lessons – using UKLO-style problems – e.g. ….

Peculiar pronouns

• Aim: to prepare for Romance pronouns– E.g. Jean aime Marie, ‘John loves Mary’

• But: Jean l’aime. ‘John loves her’

• Quick data:– They gave the girl a present.– They gave a present the girl.– They gave her it.– They gave it her.

• What’s going on in English?

Voici/voilà in English.

• Quick data– Here’s our bus.– There are your parents.– Here comes our bus.– There goes our bus.– Nearby is our bus.– This way appears our bus.– Here’s it.– Here it is.

2a. Campaigning: Linguistics in school subjects

• Foreign languages– More analysis, fact and understanding– Historical as well as synchronic

• English language– Same– More links between English and FL

• Maths, History, Psychology, …

2b. Campaigning:Linguistics as a formal qualification• UKLO is the only national olympiad in a

subject which is not taught at school!!!

• How about A-level in linguistics?– Language structure– Language change and variation– Typology (differences between languages)– Quantitative studies– Second-language learning

And you?

• What do you think?