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Modern languages:mind the gap

1 April 2006

The gap between policy rhetoric and reality on the ground has always fascinated me. Each year produces a new crop to marvel at and the academic year just ended was no exception. The prize for 2004/2005, however, must surely go to the Teacher Training Agency for its press release of 21 June on modern languages.

Under the headline "Diverse Range of Languages on offer for Country's Pupils", we are invited to celebrate the shedding of this country's image as lingua-phobes as the current generation of schoolchildren study a greater variety of modern languages than any previous generation. Moreover, the number of entries for language GCSEs has gone up eight percent in the last ten years. French and German are still the most popular languages with 320,000 students sitting French and 122,000 sitting German GCSEs exams in 2004. Other European languages have also increased in popularity (Portuguese up by 139 per cent, Turkish by 129 per cent and Spanish by 80 percent).

I am not deriding any of this and, of course, the TTA has a difficult and important job to do in trying to attract future teachers of languages. But it knows, as does any objective observer of developments over the last few years, that modern language teachers are destined to become an endangered species if current government policy on languages continues.

Tucked away in the TTA press release is the telling statement from Isabella Moore, Director of the National Centre for Languages, that: "These figures (quoted above) show the success of the ‘languages for all' policy during the period of the National Curriculum". A decade of blood, sweat and tears by modern languages teachers was just beginning to turn the comprehensive rhetoric of ‘a language for all' into reality when the government gave up on languages by making them optional from age 14. A refreshingly honest report from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), as part of the ironically-named "QCA Futures" programme, warned that French and German lessons were in "chronic decline". The same term is used to describe the number of entries for A level and "it is feared that post-16 MFL has reverted to being a subject for high ability students from middle-class backgrounds, mainly in independent schools".

Data from the Independent Schools Council (ISC) bear this out. Since 1999, overall GCSE entries in MFL have fallen by 3.6%. At independent schools MFL entries at GCSE have risen by 4.4%. At A level, MFL entries nationally have fallen by 12.1%. In the independent sector A level entries have increased by 6.4%. Both these trends are impacting on higher education. Thirty per cent of all new young MFL undergraduates come from the independent sector.

In fairness to the government, the beginning of the decline in take-up of MFL nationally pre-dates the change in status of MFL at Key Stage 4 from compulsory to optional, yet this policy about-turn can only make things worse and accentuate the gap between the maintained and independent sectors. While study of a modern language from 14-16 is compulsory in almost 100 per cent of independent schools, astonishingly it is now compulsory in only 30 per cent of maintained schools. Yet an OFSTED report on implementing MFL at Key Stage 4 (published earlier this year,) reveals how secondary schools serving disadvantaged areas can successfully teach languages. One of its key findings is that successful teaching depends on a commitment to preventing MFL from becoming an elitist subject and to making it a successful experience for pupils of all abilities and backgrounds.

While the government is unlikely to reverse its policy on MFL at Key Stage 4, there are things that could be done to encourage greater take-up of the subject in all schools, not just specialist language colleges and independent schools. The 14-19 White Paper proposal to report the achievement of five GCSEs (A*-C), including English and maths, could be extended to incorporate a modern language and a science. Whether this is called a "General Diploma" or not is of secondary importance. But a simple measure of this sort would be a first step in trying to turn the policy rhetoric surrounding MFL into reality.