Language centre launches at Kellogg
07 May 09
The Kellogg College Centre for the Study of Lifelong Language Learning is officially launching this evening (Thursday 7 May) with an inaugural lecture by the eminent linguist Professor David Crystal.
Professor Crystal will be speaking at 5.30pm at the College on The Eight Ages of Language Learning. His talk discusses how Shakespeare's 'seven ages of man' adapts well to a language learning context. He says: 'The infant illustrates language acquisition; the schoolboy, language(s) in education; the lover, language in literature; the soldier, pragmatic skills; the justice, specialised varieties; the pantaloon, language disorders; oblivion, language death. But, thanks to the internet, there is an eighth age which Shakespeare could never have anticipated.'
The Centre was established in January 2007 as one of a number of academic centres at Kellogg College – which has a strong interest in mature learners. Kellogg also has a critical inter-disciplinary mass in applied linguistics and second language acquisition, with three Fellows as well as a large number of students taking courses or doing doctoral research in applied linguistics and related subjects.
Professor Robert VanderplankThe mission of the Kellogg College Centre is to increase our understanding of foreign language learning as a lifelong learning experience.
Dr Robert Vanderplank, Fellow of Kellogg College and Director of Oxford University Language Centre said: ‘We’re very fortunate to have David Crystal, a linguist of international standing, giving this inaugural lecture. Foreign language learning remains by far the most popular leisure or professional development activity worldwide, the UK being no exception. In research terms, however, it is very much the poor relation compared to research conducted among those at school or in higher education. The mission of the Kellogg College Centre is to increase our understanding of foreign language learning as a lifelong learning experience, focusing particularly on foreign language learning, maintenance and attrition among learners in post-formal education contexts.’
The aims of the Centre include fostering scholarship and research in an area of language learning and teaching which has been left largely to practitioners. It also aims to marry academic and research interests in mature language learners from a variety of perspectives; strengthen links between the college and university departments and indentify means of improving and supporting lifelong language learning.