UK schools are to be given official guidance (a 60 page booklet called Introducing the Grammar of Talk) on how to teach pupils standard spoken English. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority says teaching about speaking is more difficult for many teachers than teaching writing skills, for which there is a well-developed system of grammar. It hopes the initiative will improve their social skills and career prospects.

Meanwhile in Poland, there is outrage about how Wojciech Pormorski has been told by the Hamburg (Germany) city authorities that regular dialogue in Polish with his daughters, aged seven and four, would hinder their integration into German society. He is separated from his wife and has been denied access to their daughters after refusing to guarantee that he would speak to them only in German.