Rationale
Our aims in seeking to guide and support the development of Scotland's languages include celebrating cultural diversity, promoting respect and confidence, encouraging mobility and communication, facilitating access and inclusion, increasing economic opportunity and enriching education. These are qualities that should characterise Scotland in the 21 st century and languages - both Scotland's and those of other countries - have a key part to play in achieving these aims.
Celebrating cultural diversity
The Scottish Executive welcomes the diversity of cultures and languages in Scotland and is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all who live, work or study in Scotland. To thrive in the modern world it is important that we recognise and celebrate the valuable contributions that other cultures have made to our society over the centuries and respect and value the richness and diversity of culture and language in Scotland.
Scotland has a distinctive culture and identity which has long had a positive influence on the world. But we also have a long tradition of welcoming new migrants and refugees from around the world with their own cultures and this diversity has ensured the vibrancy of Scottish life today.
Promoting respect and confidence
The languages that are used in Scotland should be valued and respected. This is a measure of the respect that should be given to all residents in Scotland and to the languages which they use. This respect should result in increasing opportunities for people to use their languages and be confident in using them.
Encouraging mobility and communication
People travel for reasons of employment, education, culture and tourism. Mobility within Europe and beyond is an obvious aspect of modern life. Scotland is increasingly becoming connected with all parts of the world, through the economy, through education, through aid and through travel. In Scotland we want to benefit from the opportunities which this brings, whether economic opportunities overseas, enhanced enjoyment of travel or welcoming and supporting speakers of other languages to Scotland as tourists or immigrants. The acquisition of additional languages clearly has an important part to play in our success at communicating internationally and our success in attracting tourism and other forms of inward investment to Scotland.
Facilitating access and inclusion
The Scottish Executive is committed to promoting equality of opportunity and social justice for all those who live in Scotland. This means tackling discrimination and prejudice and challenging the behaviour and attitudes that cause or sustain them, even where it is unwitting or unintentional. In order for all people living in or visiting Scotland to be treated equally, ensuring fair and equal access to employment, services and information is vital. Language provision has a key part to play in this and we must ensure that language does not become a barrier and thus contribute to inequality. Public bodies have statutory duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote race equality and disability equality, and by ensuring access to information and services they provide a key part of compliance with these duties.
Increasing economic opportunity
New and settled minority ethnic communities make an important and valuable contribution to our economy, society and culture. Among other things, a wide language base is a valuable resource for the Scottish economy. In the ever changing global economy we need people in Scotland that can not only communicate with people in countries where we do business, but who understand their cultures as well. We must therefore recognise our bilingual and multilingual speakers, who may have language, family and/or cultural links to other countries, as a valuable resource that can help us to open new markets for our exports and can help attract investment to Scotland. We must also encourage people living in Scotland to learn languages other than their own for the long-term benefit of the Scottish economy and society.
With our Fresh Talent initiative we are working hard to attract bright, talented and hard-working people to come to live, learn and work in Scotland. In order that speakers of other languages may contribute to the best of their potential, it is important to enable their acquisition or improvement of English language as required. Programmes have been established and there is funding in place to assist with this. In some cases this will include specialist language provision for those requiring a certain level of professional and technical English within particular professions. It is essential that a lack of English does not act as a barrier to employment. The private sector has a role to play in tackling this and to ensure that language does not limit employment opportunities and contribute to inequality.
Enriching education
Language education carries the potential to enrich education at all levels, whether in school or in the work place. Traditionally, language learning offered the ability to communicate in another language and have access to other cultures. These reasons can be supplemented by other benefits that offer personal and wider social advantages such as cultural diversity and economic opportunity. As this document will demonstrate there are a range of contexts in which language acquisition is promoted in Scotland. This includes schools, further and higher education institutions, community education classes and in the workplace. Also, in the various language initiatives promoted in Scotland there is encouragement to learn European languages, other major world languages and Scotland's indigenous languages.