Language teaching is in crisis. Only 7,000 pupils took A-level French this year, a tenth of the number that took psychology. At GCSE too numbers have been falling since the scrapping in 2004 of the requirement to take a foreign language; and 14 university languages departments have closed in the past decade. As we report, teachers are desperately hoping for an inspirational figure who can replicate the “Beard effect” — the boom in Latin attributed to the charisma of Professor Mary Beard — in French and German.
Some people argue that in a world dominated by technology and services, children should focus on subjects that will prepare them for an increasingly competitive workplace, such as computing and maths. When Google Translate and similar software can interpret in real time, what is the need for humans to understand? Others point out that learning foreign languages leads children to think in new ways and can make them more open to other cultures and people in a world riven by inward-looking nationalism.
What’s your view?
See the results of last week’s poll, “Are we moving too fast towards net zero?”, here.