Dear All,

You may be interested in a discussion that started in the event (in March) to launch LASER (Language Analysis in Schools: Education and Research). The speakers presented a number of perspectives on language analysis: not only from the obvious places in English and MFL, but also from Maths and Statistics. Graeme Trousdale and I were invited to co-edit a special issue of the open-access online journal Languages, Society and Policy containing short summaries of these papers; this issue in turn was co-published with the journal Impact. You can find the LSP issue via http://clie.org.uk/laser-launch2/.

We're particularly pleased with the papers about Maths and Statistics, and we're hoping to add others about science subjects; the point being that analysing the language of the subject is an essential foundation for understanding the subject. And "language analysis" is, of course, another name for linguistics. If any of you feels inspired to write a piece about a science subject, or knows anyone else who might be, please contact us!!

With best wishes, Dick