UK: Mon dieu - A-levels axe foreign literary greats

[Francis Hult]

Times Online

 

Mon dieu - A-levels axe foreign literary greats

 

BRECHT and Molière may have taken their last bow for A-level students. Set texts by classic European authors are to be axed from modern language A-levels offered by English exam boards. 

 

Voltaire, Pushkin and Mann are among dozens of established authors who have fallen victim to a shift towards studying the contemporary culture of countries. 

>>From September pupils will no longer have the option to study set texts; instead, they will write a short essay on a literary subject of their choosing. 

 

The dumping of the pantheon of foreign literary greats - together with a wider down-grading of literature - has driven some of Britain's leading academic schools, including Eton and Winchester, to abandon foreign language A-levels. It has also sparked accusations that the education authorities are "amputating" Britain from its European cultural heritage. 

 

"Where literature is remotely present [in the new A-levels], there are no prescribed texts and its position is optional and marginal," said Josep-Lluis Gonzalez, head of modern languages at Eton, in Berkshire. Eton is one of 16 schools that have dropped modern languages A-levels in favour of a new, more traditional exam, the PreU. 

"Language teaching has a double nature - oral fluency and sophistication. The sophistication is now being dumbed down," said Gonzalez. 

 

Full story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3466757.ece

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