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A Language for Life, better known as the Bullock Report, was a UK government report published in 1975 by an independent committee, chaired by Alan Bullock, set up by the government to consider the teaching of language.

Its primary recommendation was that "every secondary school should develop a policy for language across the curriculum".

The Bullock report also called for a re-examination of the debate into what English was, how it should be taught and what needs to be covered. This went on to produce the Cox Report 1989 and the National Curriculum for English followed.

The Bullock Report had a major influence on the thinking of English teachers in the second half of the 1970s and early 1980s; but it was moved to the background by less optimistic and humanistic influences, and the greater emphasis on employability of the Thatcher years. It still makes powerful reading.

Terms of Reference
The committee of inquiry was commissioned in 1972 by Margaret Thatcher, the then Secretary of State for Education & Science in Ted Heath's Conservative government. This followed the earlier publication of a report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) entitled 'The Trend of Reading Standards ', which reported of declining standards of reading achievement. The committee was given the following brief:-  'To consider in relation to schools:


 * 1) all aspects of teaching the use of English, including reading, writing, and speech;
 * 2) how present practice might be improved and the role that initial and in-service training might play;
 * 3) to what extent arrangements for monitoring the general level of attainment in these skills can be introduced or improved;

and to make recommendations.' 

The Committee
Sir Alan Bullock, who was vice-chancellor of Oxford University was appointed the chairman of the committee, and subsequently twenty two persons were assembled onto the committee consisting of academics specialising in education, head teachers, local education authority administrators, representatives from commerce and industry and the chair of the schools council, along with a two person secretariat. The most notable academics for their previous pedagogical work on teaching English were Professor James Britton and Vera Southgate. The full committee were: -

The Evidence
The committee collected evidence from following sources: -

Survey
The largest ever survey to-date, of the teaching of English was undertaken through a detailed questionnaire issued to over 2,000 schools of the 25,000 teaching schools in 1973. The survey sought a snapshot of teaching practices as at January 1973 for four age groups, those aged 6, 9, 12 & 14 in August 1972. For the teaching of English only, the survey sought information on the organisation of schooling, staffing and resources and both the extent and nature of the teaching itself. Acceptable responses were received from 87.5% of questionnaires.

Oral evidence
Witnesses submitted to oral questioning by the committee from: -


 * 14 organisations represented by 55 individuals
 * 49 individuals
 * 12 inspectors of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education

The majority of witnesses also submitted written evidence

Written evidence
Written evidence was submitted by: -


 * 64 organisations
 * 221 expert witnesses
 * 226 letters from interested parties such as teachers

Visits
Visits were made to samples of education establishments in England maintained by the local education authorities.: -


 * 104 schools which included a broad selection from both rural counties & urban boroughs, and all types of schools from primary to secondary
 * 21 colleges of education
 * 7 reading and language centres

Visits were also made to the United States of America: -


 * 14 schools in New York, Massachusetts & California
 * 3 universities & educational institutes
 * 17 representatives of organisations

The Report
The report took three years to produce and runs to 609 pages. It was completed in 1975 and presented to the then Secretary of State for Education & Science, Reg Prentice in Harold Wilson's Labour government. The report is organized in ten parts: -

Part I - Attitudes & Standards Part II - Language in the Early Years Part III - Reading Part IV - Language in the Middle and Secondary Years Part V - Organisation Part VI - Reading and Language Difficulties Part VII - Resources Part VIII - Teacher Education and Training Part IX - The Survey Part X - Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations
 * Chapter 1 - Attitudes to the teaching of English
 * Chapter 2 - Standards of reading
 * Chapter 3 - Monitoring
 * Chapter 4 - Language and learning
 * Chapter 5 - Language in the early years
 * Chapter 6 - The reading process
 * Chapter 7 - Reading in the early years
 * Chapter 8 - Reading: the later stages
 * Chapter 9 - Literature
 * Chapter 10 - Oral language
 * Chapter 11 - Written language
 * Chapter 12 - Language across the curriculum
 * Chapter 13 - The primary and middle years
 * Chapter 14 - Continuity between schools
 * Chapter 15 - The secondary school
 * Chapter 16 - LEA advisory services
 * Chapter 17 - Screening, diagnosis and recording
 * Chapter 18 - Children with reading difficulties
 * Chapter 19 - Adult literacy
 * Chapter 20 - Children from families of overseas origin
 * Chapter 21 - Books
 * Chapter 22 - Technological aids and broadcasting
 * Chapter 23 - Initial training
 * Chapter 24 - In-service education
 * Chapter 25 - The teaching of English
 * Chapter 26 - Conclusions and recommendations

Remedial Education
The committee rejected the perpetual pre-conceived notions

Screening; - Introduce early classroom screening to enable diagnosis & treatment so preventing cumulative reading failure

Special help; - Extra assistance to be given to children struggling to read, including temporarily withdrawing pupils from classes for specialist help.

Remedial centre; - Remedial centres in every LEA, giving expert diagnostic, medical, psychological & teaching advice to schools and educating those with severe reading difficulties.

National reference point; - Increase provision of tuition to adult illiterates and semi-literates, with a national reference point for co-ordination and support.

Attitudes & Standards
The committee rejected the perpetual pre-conceived notions that that standards in reading were declining and similarly argued that the calls for a back-to-the-basics teaching approach were unfounded. At the same time, the committee noted that the demands from modern society was for ever increasing improvements in literacy from the workforce and so the teaching of English needed to improve.

To this end the committee recommended that all schools have a policy for developing reading and the use of the English language encompassing all teachers but supported by at least one specially qualified expert teacher in English language.

Unanimity of counsel
The committee were unanimous in their findings on all points in the report except one which was the ever controversial initial teaching alphabet. The preeminent experts on the initial teaching alphabet who had studied the scheme in-depth and were on record as being favourable to the scheme had all given in-person witness testimony to the committee or in Southgate's case, actually  sat on the committee, these being: -


 * Sir James Pitman KBE
 * Dr Douglas Pidgeon
 * Professor John Downing


 * Vera Southgate
 * William Latham
 * Joyce Morris

After discussing the merits of the initial teaching alphabet, the final diplomatic conclusion was to defer to teachers: - "'82 We are not unanimous on the value of i.t.a., but believe that schools which choose to adopt it should be given support. Teachers should examine i.t.a. on its merits and not be influenced by the more extreme arguments of its advocates and its opponents.'"The survey evidenced that 11.9% of infant and first schools were using the initial teaching alphabet in 1973 and it was still being used in 5.4% of junior and middle schools.

[page vii]

Mr R Arnold, HMI, Secretary.

Mrs GW Dishart, Assistant Secretary.