Commenting on the British Council Language Trends Survey 2019,
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“We are in danger of becoming a monolinguistic country unless we
do something to rejuvenate the love and learning of languages. As
the British Council survey shows, the government has not helped
by introducing tougher GCSEs and A-levels which are discouraging
pupils from taking up subjects which were already perceived as
difficult. Schools are also struggling with a severe shortage of
language teachers and Brexit could worsen this situation because
many of our language teachers come from EU countries.
“The government insists that the inclusion of languages in the
English Baccalaureate is having a positive impact, but the
reality is that EBacc take-up has stalled because it is difficult
to deliver the language element.
“It is clear that we need a new approach which is founded not on
school performance tables and the perceived benefits of more
rigorous exams but on encouraging a love of languages, and which
is backed up by sufficient funding and teachers. We need a
national strategy to ensure not only that we have the linguists
we will need for trade and international relations, but that we
are an outward-looking global country.”
