Why are less gcse and A level students doing exams in foreign languages??

The number of British teenagers learning European languages fell again in this year's A-levels, prompting examiners to speak of a crisis in the subjects. Entries in French declined to about 12,500 this year, and the number of candidates taking German dropped below 5,000. The number of entries for Spanish declined slightly, at 7,351 this year compared with 7,610 in 2011, although the trend over the past five years is up.

There was a modest increase in the take-up of other languages. Entries for A-level Polish rose from 844 last year to 923, and there were 3,425 entries for Mandarin, compared with 3,237 in 2011. Arabic, Japanese and Russian entries also climbed.

Andrew Hall, chief executive of the AQA exam board, said the drop in the number of people taking A-levels in traditional modern foreign languages was a real worry. "We have the euro economy in crisis – I think modern foreign languages are in the same place," he said.
There was no magic bullet to fix the problem, Hall said, but he welcomed the government's move this year to introduce modern languages in primary schools.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the OCR exam board, said universities had made it clear they wanted students with qualifications in science and maths. "I'm not sure the message has been as strong around languages, so they could assist in this approach," he said.

The government has expressed concern at the continuing decline in languages. A spokesman for the Department for Education said the English baccalaureate, which recognises achievement in core subjects at GCSE, was reversing the decline.
The spokesman said: "The EBacc is already reversing falling numbers studying languages at GCSE, which should have a positive knock-on effect on numbers continuing to study them at A-level. And from 2014 languages will be compulsory for all seven-year-olds until they leave primary school."

This obviously worrying...

Is there an explanation as to why this is happening??
Are people put off because learning a language is so difficult?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

User969610

I think it's fewer rather than less. Yes, this is language.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 2

Infinity_4652

Original post by sundaymouse

I think it's fewer rather than less. Yes, this is language.

Why??

Reply 3

Jkizer

Probably both students and teaching.

Though it doesn't surprise me that French was the most dropped subject at my school in terms of percentage of class XD they found it extremely tough whilst they found gcse fairly comfortable

But I personally think teaching is the main problem from personal experience. But I think the restriction of French at a young age is an issue. I would have loved to learn German or even Chinese/Spanish rather than French. I think choice should be an option personally but I understand I constraint of budget

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(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

User969610

"Students" can be counted, so it's better to use word "fewer" than "less". Yes I am not a native speaker of Eng, so forgive me if both are OK in British English.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 5

Infinity_4652

Original post by Jkizer

I have a feeling students are being put off because languages are boring.
I dont find languages boring though, i love them!

At my sixth form, only 3 people in my year chose to do french. That was the only language offered.

Personally, i think languages should be taught from the beginning of primary school. Do you agree??

Reply 6

peaaceandl0ve

I think it partially may be due to a lack of choice. At my school, only French and German are offered, but if they had a larger variety of languages available then more people would be interested in one of the languages and so would take it at A-level. A local private school offers French, German, Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian and Japanese. I can imagine they have a larger percentage of people taking languages then they do at schools only offering two.

Reply 7

overthelove

Languages aren't as appealing to students as they used to be. They should be taught from a younger age. In addition, many countries Brits visit (sorry for generalising) already speak English, or a large percentage of the country's inhabitants are proficient in English, which leads to the question, why should we need to learn it?

GCSE Modern Languages are despicable, as they are basically a regurgitation of resources teachers provide. I have chosen to take a language further than GCSE standard because I have a genuine interest in it, which is something that is lacking in today's society.

Reply 8

iwishiwasagenius

Maybe there's more of an emphasis on sciences? After all, most people have just 3 subjects to choose. And for medics, Biology/Chemistry/Maths/Physics take these up straight away. I do Biology, Chemistry, Psychology and Geography. I nearly chose Spanish but chose Psychology instead hoping it would be more useful for my future career in Biology.

In my year, roughly 90 were on each science course. We have lots of medics, as well as people pursuing engineering and maths. There's no room for languages.

Shame, I know. I agree it should be taken from primary school. Most European countries learn English in primary.

Reply 9

peaaceandl0ve

Original post by Infinity_4652

*Butting in* Yes, I think they should be taught from a young age. Why are we taught English, Maths and Science from a young age when languages are just as important as them, if not more so? The ability to communicate properly is essential to a harmonious world as it shows that we have enough respect for other countries to actually learn their languages. Learning languages from a young age helps ensure they are firmly rooted in our brains - and like the previous poster I believe that more than one language should be taught from a young age. Children need variety so that they can see what they enjoy and where their strengths are - not being good at French may put them off sampling other languages when they may actually have a hidden flair for German, or even Classics or non-European languages.

Reply 10

Jkizer

Original post by Infinity_4652

Young age and more choice. (I'm sure private schools have an idea on how to deal with blocking system).
Main problem I see with choice is the surplus of spare time the teacher may have so being forced to be part time .
At my school you had to do French AND German or Spanish in year 9. I hated French but enjoyed Spanish but we had a lot if Spanish to catch up on in comparison to French (yet we both complete the same gcse.... French is taught slower???

I would like to learn a language 2 years at least before doing a gcse personally, but I fear many funding issues stopping that

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Reply 11

Infinity_4652

Original post by peaaceandl0ve

In the national curriculum for KS1, 2 and 3 - the government only emphasises the importance of english, maths and science.
Some schools even make PE compulsory (which some of us really hate).

I understand that them subjects are essential in today's education, but why no languages??!!
Michael gove has done nothing about it - a complete retard! :unimpressed:

Original post by Jkizer

I agree with you on this, not everyone is happy when they start a language in gcse from scratch and its ridiculously hard.
Some of the people in my gcse class who knew no french at all were only aiming grade Cs, while the others weren't even bothered.
I speak broken french at home, so that really helped me a lot.

Reply 12

JD95

My school did German (or French, they alternated years) from year 7-9 then you took it on for GCSE if you were in the top four sets. The top set did French for two years (or German, see before) if in top set at the end of year 7 and you could do either or both for GCSE. I got an A at GCSE but it was still ridiculously hard I found at AS, going down to an E despite working hard.

The way it's taught needs to be looked at more than anything.

Reply 13

Infinity_4652

Original post by overthelove

GCSE Modern Languages are despicable, as they are basically a regurgitation of resources teachers provide. I have chosen to take a language further than GCSE standard because I have a genuine interest in it, which is something that is lacking in today's society.

I agree with this bit.
I have chosen AS level french for the same reason.
But also because it will benefit me a lot when i do my 3rd year of uni abroad in a french speaking country.

Reply 14

peaaceandl0ve

Original post by Infinity_4652

unimpressed.

Oh I know, he's approaching the curriculum in completely the wrong way. Languages are so important!! They get you to think in a different way, and I feel that an increased knowledge of foreign languages helps to expand your knowledge and understanding of your own language.

Reply 15

Infinity_4652

Original post by peaaceandl0ve

They're also important because they can come in useful when you travel/work abroad.
I look forward to speaking french when i do my uni year abroad in geneva! :tongue:

Reply 16

NikolaT

*is doing a classical European and a modern European language at AS, probably taking one if not both to A2* :biggrin:

I really, really don't understand why people think 'oh, everyone's learning English, why should we learn anything else?' is a good excuse. Learning languages is good for a lot of reasons. A simple google could show you why; I'm sure there are sufficient studies to show you this, if that's your thing.