[lg policy] UK: When will we get some fluent policy on modern languages?

Wed Oct 5 15:03:32 UTC 2011

When will we get some fluent policy on modern languages?

Michael Gove's call for children to learn more languages is part of a
confused narrative that dates back to Labour

    Robert Williams

        guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 October 2011 11.37 EDT

There are a whole host of reasons why it's important to learn a
foreign language, as Michael Gove, the education secretary, explained
in an interview at the weekend when he called for children to start
learning additional languages from the age of five. Gove said:
"Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is
one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and
imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children." He added: "It
is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The
neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language
learning."

So does Gove deserve three cheers, or at least un bon point, for this
attempt to halt the calamitous fall in the number of pupils sitting a
language GCSE from 444,700 in the summer of 1998 to 273,000 in 2010?
Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow education secretary, seems not to be
entirely convinced. He said: "I welcome his belated endorsement of
Labour party policy. Languages would already be taught in our primary
schools, had Michael Gove not scrapped Labour's curriculum plans last
year. This is yet more of the duplicity we have come to expect from
the secretary of state."

Gove seems to have forgotten the policy that all primary school
children in England should start learning a modern foreign language
from the age of seven was announced back in 2007, when the then
education secretary, Alan Johnson, said he wanted "to put languages at
the heart of learning". But Gove's announcement is certainly a lot
more positive about the benefits of fluency in another language than
former Labour education secretary Estelle Morris ever was. It was
Morris who decided in 2002 that we should stop forcing all our 14- to
16-year-olds to study a modern foreign language. Incredibly, she
admitted that this decision to scrap compulsory modern languages in
England's secondary schools was a consequence of truancy crackdowns.
Morrris's policy of dropping compulsory foreign language learning
beyond the age of 14 was implemented in 2004.

As a result of these changes, language departments in many secondary
schools began to shrink as take-up declined and fewer teachers were
needed. Since 2004, the number of candidates for GCSE French has
fallen by about 30%. And Gove has continued with contradictory
thinking about language learning. In hindsight, he may well be
thankful for the student protests that swept the country a year ago:
they drowned out a Department for Education decision to suspend the
British Council's foreign language assistant scheme for English and
Welsh students. More than 2,500 students were faced with the prospect
of having their year abroad cancelled.

The suspension was greeted with fury and despair by academics involved
in language teaching. The year abroad is a compulsory element of the
vast majority of language degrees, and more than 2,500 British
students worked as language assistants in Europe, Latin America and
China last year. France, with 1,130 assistants, and Spain with 638,
are the most popular destinations for language assistants.

The language assistants programme was started in 1905 to enable
participants to widen their teaching experience and develop linguistic
fluency and confidence while assisting with the teaching of their own
language abroad. When the programme started, education was seen to be
the key to improving the economic prosperity of the country and, in
particular, there was dissatisfaction with modern language teaching in
both countries. Plus ça change.

Former language assistants who were furious about the suspension of
the language assistant scheme included author JK Rowling and
impressionist Rory Bremner, who said: "How can you fully understand
and appreciate another language and culture without spending proper
time there, living and working?"

Fortunately, Gove eventually saw sense and the language assistant
programme, which cost just £750,000 in 2010, was finally reinstated,
but with a £50,000 cut in its budget. This meant that there has been
no marketing of this year's scheme.

Do foreign languages matter any more? Surely everyone speaks English
these days? Well, yes they do matter, and here's a practical reason
why. Only 6% of the world's population speak English as a first
language, and 75% of the world's population don't speak any English at
all. British influence at the heart of the European Union's
decision-making process is almost certainly affected by the fact that
British officials are not well represented in EU institutions. Of the
32,140 staff at the European commission, just 1,463 (4.6%) are
British. Britain represents 12% of the EU population but British
applicants made up just 1.44% of the applicant pool for the 2010
recruitment cycle.

Gove says: "If we pull all the levers, change teacher training, help
training schools to support others to go down this path, get schools
that have language potential to take over under-performing schools,
and we move the curriculum review in the right direction, then we can
move towards the goal."

Attaining the goal will also require money, and a commitment to
support language learning at secondary and tertiary level. Bonne
chance, Monsieur Gove, you're going to need it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/04/modern-languages-michael-gove

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list