[lg policy] blog: Counteracting government language policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Counteracting government language policy


Inexplicable and ill-advised changes in the English education system
and National Curriculum as a result of the Education Act (2002) have
meant that fewer and fewer school students are learning languages at
GSCE level and beyond. Where once languages were a compulsory part of
the curriculum at second level, they are now an optional subject.
Given that learning languages isn’t always the easiest thing in the
world and given the pressure on students to achieve top grades, it’s
not really surprising that there has been a fall-off in the numbers of
students picking up a “hard” subject like a language. This situation
hasn’t been helped by bleating from British industry who decry the
lack of literacy and numeracy skills among school leavers while
forgetting to recognise the importance of language. Now if you compare
this to Ireland where a recent article said that one third of Irish
employers wanted Chinese taught in schools, you can see the different
attitudes to core skills. The fact is that speaking a foreign language
is vital in this day and age and literacy shouldn’t simply be
restricted to our own mother tongue.

This, of course, has had a knock-on effect on university admissions.
With fewer people leaving school with languages and possibly being
conditioned into thinking that they are too hard to learn, university
courses are seeing fewer applications, particularly in certain
languages. In the case of translation, I’ve heard people talk about a
shortage of qualified translators, particularly with “difficult”
languages like German or Dutch.  There seems to be a strange mindset
which sees some people think that speaking English is enough to get
you by, but the thought that languages could be an optional part of
the curriculum is both blinkered and worrying. Britain, which has been
known to assert that it’s rightful place is at the heart of Europe and
the wider international community really should know better.

Thankfully, various organisations are doing their bit to try and
counteract the worrying decline in students studying languages.
Channel 4 recently relaunched their “Try Life in Another Language” ad
campaign on television. Featuring a series of slick music videos with
catchy foreign language songs, the campaign aims to relate languages
to various areas of life that actually matter to people: music,
fashion, careers, sport, travel, celebrity. None of your woolly
intercultural awareness, world peace and language for language’s sake
here. Okay so it might be a little patronising but it’s certainly
something that catches the attention and paints languages in a useful
and positive light. They even mention some of the festivals in France,
Germany and Spain that you can go to. I’d like to think that they got
the idea for this from me but they probably didn’t. Still, it’s good
to see languages being promoted, nonetheless.

http://www.jodybyrne.com/2281
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