UK: Government to drop oral language exams

[Damien Hall]

Here are some more details on the UK's policy change whereby single-test oral
exams in foreign languages at GCSE level are to be ended.*  This story comes
from the _Daily Telegraph_ (26 Feb 08) and is signed by the Schools Minister,
so of course it presents the changes in the most favourable way possible, but I
must say that it did make me (slightly) moderate my view of the changes.

FWIW, my view (as a student of modern foreign languages and linguistics and the
proud holder of GCSEs and subsequent exams in French and Spanish) is still that
the changes that have been made to foreign language teaching in the UK recently
are pretty tragic.  MFLs are no longer compulsory at GCSE (it used to be
compulsory to take at least one), though it will soon be compulsory to learn
one from age 7 to age 14 (so being able to drop them two years before GCSE if
you choose).  Apparently, the Government is scrambling to make languages
palatable to schoolchildren in the face of exam enrolments in freefall.

It remains to be seen whether the latest initiative will be a remedy to that,
though, as I say, the details given in the article posted below make me see it
in a slightly more favourable light than the article posted yesterday did.  For
a point of view contrary to the Schools Minister's, Reuters quotes Chris
Woodhead, who was the first Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools (1994-2000), and
is currently a very media-friendly and controversial critic of education policy
who savages Government initiatives on a regular basis:  '"It's another example
of the tendency these days to remove everything from an examination that
students find difficult or demanding or stressful," he told Sky News.  "If you
are being judged in your competence in a foreign language, you've got to speak
that language, and that means having a test against the clock."'  I have to say
that I agree with him about what could be rephrased 'dumbing-down':  it seems
that a lot of things that pupils find difficult or stressful are just removed,
which is a bad thing.  But I also see that the Government is in a bind, since
it's their duty to try to solve the problem of falling enrolments, which they
are trying to do in a way that some will undoubtedly find controversial.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania

*  More details on UK public examinations, if you need them:  General
Certificates of Secondary Education are multiple exams taken in individual
subjects at the end of the school year in which the pupil turns 16;  most
subjects are chosen by the pupil, within limits set by the school on the basis
of their timetabling and other constraints, though some - Mathematics, English,
some science, other 'core subjects' according to the school - are compulsory. 
Most people will end up with at least seven GCSEs;  it is not uncommon for
high-achieving pupils to have eleven or twelve, some of which will have been
taken a year or more early.

It is usually the case that if you have not taken a GCSE in a given subject you
cannot take the 'A'-Level (Advanced Level) in it, and that, if you do not have
an 'A'-Level in a subject, you cannot do a degree in it.  (This, in a country
where students apply at age 17-18 for places on degrees in single or dual
subjects:  the Liberal Arts degree where you spend the first two years doing a
wide variety of courses and don't declare your interest until at least that
time doesn't really exist in Britain.  So my undergraduate degree is in French
and Latin and included no courses in anything else.)  Therefore, the upshot of
plummeting GCSE modern foreign language enrolment rates is sharply reduced
numbers of people taking modern language degrees in the end.

====== The article on GCSEs =======

The end to oral GCSE language exams

By Jim Knight, Schools Minister
Last Updated: 3:24am GMT 26/02/2008

The Government has announced an end to traditional stand-alone 'oral' exams for
modern foreign language GCSEs. Schools Minister Jim Knight explains the
thinking behind the move to multiple assessments.

Thousands of school children currently face the same scenario every year: after
two years of steady preparation through Key Stage 4 they sit a 10 minute, make
or break, foreign language GCSE oral exam.

We have decided to move away from what is an unrepresentative, one-off way of
testing a student's ability, to a more engaging and relevant method of term
time assessment that will better prepare young people for life after school and
make sure that they can do justice to their talents.
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The new assessment model will broaden both the speaking and listening skills of
GCSE students.

They won't simply be expected to engage in a one-to-one conversation with their
teacher, learning chunks of text by rote - they will take part in classroom
debates, make presentations to their peers, explain, describe and explore
issues that interest them.

Students might get involved in business-style negotiations or product pitches.

Formal and informal will mingle with prepared and spontaneous, offering students
the chance to display various modes of communication and develop an independent
and imaginative use of language.

This is all about making languages relevant and useful as well as ensuring
pupils do themselves justice - facing all of the demands of speaking a foreign
language without a linguistic sword of Damocles hanging over their heads in the
form of a short, high-stakes exam.

Increasingly we are citizens of a global community, and compete in a world
economy.

Employers now look to take on people with practical language skills, those who
can collaborate and problem-solve in a second language.

Look at the challenges faced by new England football manager, Fabio Capello.

He has acknowledged the need to get to grips with the nuance and terminology of
English football, and he will also need the skills to communicate to different
audiences – be it on the training ground, or in front of a hostile press
conference.

Good speaking abilities also enrich the experience of travel overseas and help
us to make connections with people from all over the world.

This will come to be seen as a key skill around the time of the Olympics in
2012.

In his review, Lord Dearing, recommended ways to make languages a more popular
choice for young people.

We are therefore making languages compulsory for seven to 14 year olds.

This means that every child will learn languages for at least seven years and
many will go on to study languages for longer.

He also suggested that the speaking assessment should be over a sustained
period, rather than a one-off exam, as this is a fairer way to measure a
pupil's skill.

Teachers will also receive additional support, to make sure that assessment is
consistent, fair and matches the national criteria.

I'm confident that this new way of assessing students' abilities will be
welcomed by parents, teachers and pupils. It will provide a fairer, more
realistic and more enjoyable system.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/19/nlanguage219.xml