Coventry is the 7^th most linguistically diverse county in England: at least 17.5% of Coventry’s residents use one of over 86 languages other than English (LOTEs) as their “main language” (Census 2021). Maintaining/reviving the use of a first/heritage language is important for cultural identity, child well-being, community cohesion, social inclusion and economic growth. Supplementary language schools play a critical role in ethnic minority communities successfully using their first/heritage language, but the schools face many challenges. The Coventry Language Schools Network aims to improve the visibility of, enrolment in, and support for community language education in Coventry so that supplementary language schools can better support language use in this diverse city.

Dr Ellen Smith-Dennis, Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick