Britain facing humiliating decline in foreign languages, says peer

[Francis Hult]

Times Online

 

Britain facing humiliating decline in foreign languages, says peer

 

Britain is sliding towards a "humiliating decline" in its contribution to world affairs because of dwindling foreign language teaching, an independent peer has told The Times. 

 

Baroness Coussins, a Cambridge modern languages graduate, criticised Britain's dismissive and short-sighted attitude to languages. 

 

Language lessons were to become mandatory in primary schools next year but this was quietly dropped before the election. The number of teenagers taking language GCSEs has fallen by a third since 2004, when they became optional. 

 

Full story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article7129116.ece

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