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Learning Languages through Sport (Language Rich Europe)

Posted on by Eilidh MacDonald

Football, some believe, has become a ‘global language’. In a BBC blog post from 2009, Tim Vickery writes

I have often put forward the view that part of the explanation for the extraordinary global success of football is that the gameis a universal language which we speak with different accents.

Other sports popular in the UK do not always have the global reach of football. Snooker, rugby and cricket can all struggle to gain audiences in many countries. Could one reason for this be that these sports have not turned into ‘global languages’ but have remained predominately English-speaking? If this is the case, could language education potentially open doors to audiences in countries where these sports are less popular and in turn make pupils more enthusiastic language learners? Read more...