The Brits and their fear of the foreign language.
In an increasingly globalised world, the importance of being multilingual cannot be understated, but unfortunately for Britain, language learning in the UK has been steadily on the decline. Nationwide, less than 25% of secondary schools include modern foreign languages in their compulsory GCSE choices, fewer students year-by-year take a second language to A-Level, and as of 2013, the number of universities offering specialist language degrees has dropped dramatically.
The problem of low interest in languages is not just a British problem, but our large Anglophone cousin across the pond (that’s the USA if you missed that one) also has an issue of language learning. Most likely this can be attributed to the fact that although Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, English is the official language of the largest number of countries. Thus we have what I like to call “the English problem” – an assumption that no matter where in the world you go someone will speak English, so learning the language is a waste of time, or an unnecessary pursuit at best.
Coupled with a general disinterest in learning languages is lack of encouragement in schools. Although figures show that there is an increase in students taking modern foreign languages to GCSE has increased, the number of students achieving high grades has plummeted – so what is going wrong?
The most worrying indicator is the slash in available university-level degrees and departmental closures. Since 2007, eleven universities have closed their language departments completely, whilst Russell Group universities remain leading language teaching institutions. It follows then, that language learning in the UK is becoming an increasingly elitist privilege, rather than an option for all.
“Number of Universities offering courses in French, German, Spanish and Italian”
24