<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="">More inspiring teachers' needed to tackle UK's language skills shortage</h1>
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<span class="">By <a class="" target="" href="http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/people/Cambridge%20News/profile.html">Cambridge News</a></span>
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<span class="">Posted: November 11, 2015</span>
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<p class="">By Adam Care</p>
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<p class="">Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett</p>
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<p> More inspiring teaching is needed to prevent Britain falling
further behind in foreign language skills, a Cambridge linguist has
claimed.</p><p> Last week Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett welcomed over
100 representatives from assorted Whitehall departments, including the
MOD and GCHQ, to Murray Edwards College, for a debate on the future of
the UK's language policy.</p><p> Speaking to the <em>News </em>after the conference she said improving language teaching in schools would have far-reaching benefits for the nation as a whole.</p><p> She said: "It was a very wide-ranging group of people, with a lot of civil servants coming together, which is very important.</p>
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<p> "Language policy is not just about education, but what we were
trying to shown is the lack of languages in the UK is such a problem for
cases like diplomacy, conflict resolution and business.</p><p> "Nationally Arabic speakers tend to be very useful, and that might be something that could be added into the curriculum."</p><p>
She added: "I think the government is trying very hard to save some of
the languages under threat, ones which have been highlighted by the MOD
as important to the country.</p><p> "When they were looking for a
speaker of Somali they could only find one, and when there is a need
nationally to respond to a particular crisis there is not necessarily
that talent available."</p><p> Nationally the numbers of students taking
a language at A-level are down 28 per cent since 1996, while over 40 UK
universities have closed their language departments since 2000.</p><p> A
French specialist, Prof Ayres-Bennett said the best teachers were often
focusing too much on latter school years at the expense of Key Stage 3,
leading younger pupils to become disillusioned with studying languages.</p><p> "One possibility is to ensure that there are high-quality teachers at this level", she said.</p><p> "All too often the best teachers are reserved for GCSE and A-level classes and pupils at Key Stage 3 describe lessons as dull.</p><p> "If teaching is more inspiring at KS3, this should encourage more pupils to carry on with languages at GCSE and beyond."</p><p>
The workshop was chaired by Baroness Coussins, co-chair of the
all-party parliamentary group on modern languages, who called for a
'National Languages Recovery Programme' to embed language skills in UK
education, and ensure Britain is able to compete on the global stage.</p><p>
Prof Ayres-Bennett added: "When we teach languages in an interesting
way pupils get very excited and motivated, so that's very important, and
I think we have to respond to what children want."</p><p> She also suggested a wider range of languages could be taught in schools.</p><p>
"One in five UK primary schools children has another tongue other than
English, and that's an important linguistic resource that needs to be
exploited", she said.</p></div></div><div style="overflow:hidden;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-align:left;text-decoration:none;border:medium none"><br>Read more: <a style="color:rgb(0,51,153)" href="http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/inspiring-teachers-needed-tackle-UK-s-language/story-28149744-detail/story.html#ixzz3rCas0W8i">http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/inspiring-teachers-needed-tackle-UK-s-language/story-28149744-detail/story.html#ixzz3rCas0W8i</a>
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