Many people will have read the recent reports that fewer young people in this country are learning foreign languages. The numbers continue to fall at GCSE and A-level, and many schools are phasing out unpopular languages or ones that teaching staff have less expertise in.
This has affected university language departments, many of which have had to economise by merging or closing faculties. As a knock-on effect, it’s become increasingly difficult to appoint new language teachers because good linguists are in such short supply. This will, no doubt, provide state schools with a major challenge as English Baccalaureates (Ebaccs) – where the study of a language is required – are introduced. It’s a matter that the Department for Education (DfE) is looking into.
It has also been reported that languages are becoming elitist and are now mainly studied in independent schools. Wisely, most independent schools decided to keep a modern language as one of the core subjects for GCSE back in 2004 when they were made non-compulsory, and this is what has saved many departments in our schools.
We have been fortunate at Oundle school because the senior management team supports courses in seven languages at GCSE, IGCSE, A-level and Pre-U.We were even able to open a state-of-the-art language centre two years ago. But even we have seen the number of students choosing a language in the lower sixth go from 84 to 61 this year, so none of us are “safe”.
Recognition of the importance of languages – from senior management teams, parents and teachers in other departments – is crucial. Not all independent schools are lucky in this respect.
So what have we done wrong in the UK? When I was at school, and when I first started teaching more than 20 years ago, languages were booming. But the decision to make them non-compulsory sent out a negative message about the value of learning a language.
A few years later, controlled assessments were introduced at GCSE and A-levels began to focus less on culture and became more topic-based. Controlled assessments began to dominate our teaching – students quickly realised that learning chunks of text by heart could get you a good mark. The challenge and joy that came with manipulating and playing with language disappeared and the quality of linguists moving into sixth form diminished.
Then came the unpredictable marking from the exam boards (at both GCSE and A-level), which has caused problems year after year. It has also been continually harder to get A*s in languages compared with other subjects. On top of all this, the message that only science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects can lead to a good career has been drilled into young people via the media and even the government. I urge all students to consider this: wouldn’t Stem plus a language make you a real coup for an employer?
I wonder if our whole approach to language learning in this country is wrong. Should we be using more immersion techniques? Are we too focused on topics (and often on fairly dull ones)? At GCSE, students learn how to talk mainly about themselves – family, hobbies, holidays, school and so on. At A-level, they learn a lot about social problems instead of vocabulary that may be more relevant or interesting to them.
Is the way we are taught English part of the problem too? What can we glean from those who learn languages as a hobby and are successful at doing so? What are they doing right? These are all things I will be exploring this month with our polyglot-in-residence, Richard Simcott, who is joining us for the European Day of Languages. What can we learn from our European counterparts? Are we too exam-focused? And could we be exploiting technology more? At Oundle we are trying to incorporate film and Skype into our lessons – time will tell if this is successful, but it is already proving to be a lure for students interested in the cultural aspects of languages.
In the UK, we simply do not feel the need to learn a language as strongly as top language-learning countries like Sweden, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands do. We are also at a disadvantage to other European countries, where they are surrounded by English in their daily lives through music, film, media, and even advertising.
We speak the global language here, but that should not make us complacent and lazy. From an economic standpoint, we are leaving ourselves in a vulnerable position if we rely on the language skills of other countries. Meanwhile, our young people will be pipped to the top jobs in international companies by their European peers. Learning a language gives you access to other cultures that you simply cannot claim if you are monolingual. Insight into other worlds can have life-changing effects, and the benefits of bilingualism on the brain are numerous.
Language learning is a problem that needs to be addressed in independent schools and managers, parents, teachers and students must act now. Departments need to reflect constantly on their practice, but promoting the benefits of languages is a team effort and cannot be achieved by individual language teachers or departments. We need a national change of mindset.
This piece originally ran on the Independent Schools Council website. You can find the original here.