Language teaching in the UK
06.13.10
I feel the need to comment on this piece for various reasons.
This all sounds great:
We may be at the bottom of the EU list when it comes to numbers of pupils learning a foreign language, but we are top of the EU list when it comes to the range of languages on offer in our schools. Nineteen European Union languages in total are taught somewhere in England and Wales, and that doesn’t include Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, Russian or Urdu, which are not EU languages but which are taught in many British schools.
But it absolutely has to be seen in the context of
The figures are even more dire at A-level; fewer than 5% of all A-level entrants sat a language exam last year. This explains why there is such a small pool of graduates able to speak a foreign language, and why foreign companies moving to Britain get frustrated.
From the same article.
Disclaimer: I speak fluent French and German and have pretty fluent Irish and some smatterings of Italian and Spanish and can read some Dutch. I am biased. I would take the view that it doesn’t matter if you’re offering 19 languages in British schools if 5% of your school leavers are taking a language exam at school leaving stage. The countries that do well in foreign languages do well because they specialise in a handful. Eight or nine in the case of German.
Language teaching is politically fraught and the UK and Ireland, by merit of being native English speakers which is the number 1 second language taught in the world, have gotten away without putting the effort in.
Nothing to do with less talent and most people with an interest in languages would agree. The issue relates to motivation.