You’ll have read the recent reports on the decline in take-up of languages and humanities, with more and more students opting for STEM and technology-centric courses, and modern foreign languages uptake in UK schools at its lowest level in decades.
During his time as Chief Master of King Edward’s School, Birmingham, John Claughton introduced the IB for all boys in the sixth form – one of the many advantages being that everyone studies a language. A lifetime advocate of widening access to independent schools, John gives us his thoughts – and suggests how to revolutionise the teaching of languages in schools.
The way we live now
‘Publishing Language Trends 2020 in the middle of a worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, there has never been a more crucial time for politicians, policy makers and school leaders to understand the role of languages in diplomacy, security, international relations and societal cohesion.’
Thus spake the final paragraph of the British Council’s annual review of language provision in UK schools. This report has been in existence forseveral years and each report has been gloomier than the last. Indeed, it might be argued that the situation isn’t just crucial (from crux – crucis, a crossroads), but critical (from κρ委σις - κρ委σεως, a moment of decision).
The conclusions about every step of the language journey are simple and stark. Primary provision is said to have ‘policy, but no practice’: there is ‘a lack of strategy for implementation’; teachers need better guidance, more professional development and better resources and, in conclusion it says: ‘the international dimension is void from too many primary schools and underdeveloped in others.
After such cheerless beginnings, things don’t improve. The next stage is transition from primary to secondary. It goes like this: ‘There is no organised transition….. Contact between primary and secondary schools in relation to languages is declining year on year. Many children begin a new language at secondary and do not build on the language learned at primary. The survey highlights the complete lack of cross-phase planning between Year 6 and Year 7 and the fact that secondary teachers often do not even have information relating to what was covered at KS2.’
So, when it comes to the provision of a 7-14 language curriculum, the British Council comes to the stark conclusion: ‘There is no 7-14 language curriculum.’ And then, not surprisingly, all this leads into some deeply dispiriting figures for GCSE and A level numbers: whereas 252,000 students took GCSE French in 2005, that number is now 123,000: in 2005 there were nearly 13,000 candidates for A level French, by 2019 that number was just over 7,500. Only 6.3% of GCSE language candidates go on to do A level. And, of course, the troubles don’t stop there but stumble on into the university sector. In a paper written for the Higher 看片狂人 Policy Institute by Megan Bowler in January 2020 addresses similar concerns at the tertiary level:
‘Between 2010/11 and 2016/17, student numbers for French declined 45 per cent. German declined by 43 per cent and Italian by 63 per cent. Languages provision, particularly for heritage languages, is vulnerable to departmental closures and downsizing.
Why should this be so?
The British Council calls other mighty institutions to arms to adopt a National Strategy for Languages, stating that the decision to leave the EU ‘makes it even more important for the UK to have the languages needed to forge wider commercial and other links’.
However, not even these mighty institutions can easily dismantle the many and deeply-embedded reasons for decline, viz.
- In junior schools there is a shortage of time, of expertise and confidence in teachers and of respect for the subject. After all, Ofsted, the Lord of All, pays little attention to it and numeracy and literacy are really the only games in town.
- Sensible, coherent transition cannot happen when, by necessity, lots of different junior schools, doing lots of different things, send their children to lots of different secondary schools, doing lots of different things.
- In secondary schools, languages are variously perceived as less important, less valuable for the future, especially compared with STEM subjects, hard in content and hard in marking.
A number of factors have conspired to make bad times worse:
- KS3, which is meant to go from Year 7 to Year 9, is being increasingly limited to Year 8 so that three years are spent on the all-important GCSE curriculum.
- the end of AS-levels, bringing a return to three A-levels, has reduced the uptake of languages.
- alternative sixth-form curricula which encourage/demand language study, like the IB Diploma, have declined.
- the pressure of financial cuts have made small class sizes unviable and languages are the biggest casualty.
- the constant emphasis on the value of STEM subjects and the increase in economics/business studies courses have had a damaging impact on non-scientific subjects, and especially languages.
- schools and school teachers are less able and less willing to run overseas trips or exchanges.
- Brexit has reduced – and will reduce – the number of native-speaking teachers from the EU and has already had some impact on attitudes to language-learning.
- Brexit, and the end of the Erasmus programme, will, almost certainly, have a negative impact on the university experience of linguists
So, here’s a modest proposal
Let’s assume as truth three things. The first is that not even the great brains of the great institutions can help junior school teachers be better at teaching French or make junior school schemes of work match those in secondary schools. The second assumption is that learning languages is a Good Thing, for a variety of reasons, not all of which have to do with Gross Domestic Product. Let’s also assume, or at least imagine, that languages can be interesting and fun, especially when our schools – and our homes – are full of boys and girls with family histories rich in different languages and different cultures.
So, on these assumptions, the modest proposal is to create a primary school curriculum which teaches an interest in and understanding of, not one language, but of languages and how they work. And this could be done through word games, code-breaking, made-up languages and, above all, the different languages which pupils themselves will bring to school. It’s even got a name, ‘
The World of Languages and the Languages of the World’. And that’s what’s known as a chiasmus – from the Greek letter.
Just think what questions we could ask –and perhaps answer. What languages are spoken by pupils in this classroom and how did they get here? Why has English got so many different words and where did they all come from? Where do the words of science and technology come from? Why are French, Italian and Spanish so similar and why do they differ from German – and English? Perhaps more interestingly, why is the word for mother similar in Urdu and Farsi and Greek and German and Welsh? And, en passant, did you know that Punjab means ‘The land of the Five Waters’: panj is the same word as the Greek word for five – pente – and the ‘ab’ is the same stem as the Latin word ‘aqua’. And, why does Chinese differ from all these? How does grammar work? How do languages create meaning with subjects and objects and verbs and tenses? How are languages written down and why don’t we spell philosophy with an ‘f’?
And it might actually work because there are plenty of good reasons why it should work. After all, it plays to children’s lives and their family histories, their interests and talents – and it can be a great game. And it enables languages to be linked in with so many other subjects to positive effect: reading and writing in English, the history of empire and migration, the study and progress of science, maths and computing. And, if it did work, pupils would arrive at secondary school with an enthusiasm for and understanding of languages so that they will be ready to learn whatever language(s) their secondary school offers. And, finally, I would add something else that matters. Britain today is not simply an English-speaking country: walk along the streets of any city and consider how many languages you hear. Since this is so, the study of languages and the valuing of those who are multi-lingual must be a key factor in the future integration and prosperity of this country and its role in the world.
Quod erat demonstrandum, as we say.
If you would like to read the British Council report in full, click .