The current state of languages in English secondary education
In her final message as President of the Association for Language Learning, Bernardette Holmes warns that while languages results at GCSE show some healthy signs of improvement, we must beware of complacency and encourage the languages community and policy makers to strengthen their efforts in supporting languages within the new curriculum.
Despite a 10% increase in the number of candidates taking GCSE Spanish, entries for French have fallen by 0.5 percent and of more concern; entries for German have dropped by 5.5 percent.
This follows the dramatic dip of 13.2 percent last year in both French and German.
"Congratulations to all of the students and teachers on these very promising individual results. Success in languages is not easily achieved and the Association applauds the hard work and commitment that these results show. There are some promising signs of recovery for languages and the impact of the E Bacc may be contributing to reversing the decline in take up. However we must not be lulled into a false dawn. The profile of the A level results tells a very different story, which is much more problematic for language capability in the long-term.
A level results for 2012 in French and German show significant decline in 
numbers and even Spanish figures are falling, while take up for physics and maths have reached an all time high. The number of students taking physics has risen by 5% and now numbers 34,509 entries. The total number of students taking maths and further maths show even greater increases, with figures rising to 85,714 and 13,223 respectively: the best figure for 20 years. If we compare these escalating numbers to the 8 percent decline in German from 5,166 in 2011 to 4,773 in 2012 and the fall 5.19 percent in French from 13,196 to 12,511, there is an urgent need to redouble our efforts in promoting the value of languages. Whether it is the discovery of the Higgs boson or the impact of the science community in promoting STEM subjects, it is very clear that young people are switched onto science. We have to make languages equally stimulating and relevant. The future of economic and social recovery is not about rivalling STEM subjects; this is not an either/or situation. It is about providing access to STEM plus language capability for all our learners. Languages must become strategically important subjects in their own right."
Notes:
The Association for Language Learning supports Speak to the Future, the campaign promoting languages capability in the UK. Bernardette Holmes is current Leader of Working Group 3, focusing on languages in secondary education.
For more information about the campaign’s activities, visit: http://www.speaktothefuture.org/.
Bernardette’s tenure as President of the Association ends on 31 August 2012. From 1 September she will take on the role of Past President during which time she will continue to perform many duties on behalf of ALL. Our incoming President is Ann Swarbrick and new President Elect is Rachel Hawkes.
For more information about the ALL Team, visit: https://www.all-languages.org.uk/about/the_all_team.