UK: new students should speak a foreign language

[Harold F. Schiffman]

New students 'should speak second language'

Alexandra Smith

Wednesday February 7, 2007 EducationGuardian.co.uk


Students should be able to speak a foreign language as a requirement for
university entry, the British Academy has said in a submission on the
decline of modern languages. The British Academy, the national voice of
the humanities and social sciences, warns in its response to Lord
Dearing's interim report on language policy that the decline in language
study at secondary school was harming the UK. The submission says that a
decline in the number of GCSE language pupils reduces the number of
A-level and degree students, which in turn depletes the supply of language
teachers for primary and secondary schools, and also of linguistically
competent researchers in all subject areas.

Onora O'Neill, president of the British Academy, said: "We are deeply
concerned about the effect that a decline in language learning is having
upon UK scholarship - and not just in language-based subjects. It is
already possible to see the negative consequences of this trend at
doctoral level, and above. "Increasingly research projects undertaken by
UK PhD students in the humanities and social sciences do not have an
international dimension, because students do not have the language skills,
or the time to acquire them, with the risk that UK research will be
increasingly insular in outlook."

Languages should become compulsory in primary schools but pupils will
still be able to drop them at the age of 14, Lord Dearing's interim review
of language teaching said. The review was commissioned in response to
concerns over a drastic fall in the number of young people taking a modern
language at GCSE after the government dropped the requirement for all
pupils to take a language to the age of 16. Lord Dearing has backed that
decision, recommending that children should start learning a foreign
language at a young age. Lord Dearing also recommends that GCSE language
courses need to be made "more relevant and engaging" and there should be
more teacher assessment of speaking and listening.

Ms O'Neill said: "A language qualification should be a requirement for
university entry, as is the case in many European countries. "Universities
should integrate language study into all degrees - a recommendation from
the Nuffield Languages Inquiry in 2003 - so that language learning becomes
a key skill for all students." Lord Dearing's final review is due by the
end of this month.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityaccess/story/0,,2007729,00.html

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