UK: Dramatic decline in foreign languages studied at university

[Harold Schiffman]

 Forwarded From: edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


The Independent



Dramatic decline in foreign languages studied at university



Evidence of the alarming fall in the take-up of languages by students at
universities has emerged in research. igures show that German, especially,
has plummeted, with only 610 students accepted on degree courses last year,
compared with 2,288 a decade ago. French is the second biggest casualty,
with numbers dropping by a third from 5,655 to 3,700 in 10 years. Overall,
the figures show the number of students accepted on to language courses has
slumped by almost a quarter during the past decade.



The researchers, from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at
the University of London and the University of Stirling, say there was a
"steep decline" in the first half of this decade - with overall numbers
tumbling by 20 per cent. Since then, French and German have continued to
fall - although the decline has been partially offset by a rise in those
studying newly-available languages such as Mandarin and Arabic.



Full story:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/dramatic-decline-in-foreign-languages-studied-at-university-901855.html





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Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone: (215) 898-7475
Fax: (215) 573-2138

Email: haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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