Liaison Magazine - LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and ...

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the private sector holding up.This fall
was all the more shocking since the
National Curriculum had made an
MFL compulsory.The number of
successful GCSE entries rose to over
500,000 in 1994, where it stayed until
2004, and MFL grades compared well
with those in other GCSEs.
Single market con
In the 1980s the UK joined in the
evolving single market of the EU.The
government and a number of
businesses accepted the argument that,
for us as a nation and as individuals,
language skills were a necessity and
should be taught at school. In practice,
in the early 1990s, most businesses and
employees found they could get by,
calling on and reinforcing the myth that
abroad,“they all speak English”.The fear
that many businesses would go under
and people would be unemployed
turned out to be exaggerated. I think
the public felt that the case for
languages had been oversold, and that
they had been conned.
Communicative teaching
These changes were compounded by
the drastic revision of MFL teaching to
make it “more communicative” and to
get away from teaching grammar,
which was considered to be too elitist
and abstract for a compulsory subject
designed for pupils of all levels of
ability. In practice, courses were usually
based on social contexts, and exams
on learned responses to set questions.
Too often, language structures were
obscured. A few bright pupils would
see patterns in the sequences of
words, but most would not. At the
same time, especially in primary and
secondary school, the process of
learning by heart was played down
across the curriculum, and
spontaneous creativity played up. Both
are essential, but this has led to a
reduction in learning poetry,
mathematical tables, vocabulary lists
and verb structures.
Languages perceived to be difficult
In stark contrast to the UK, nearly all
other European countries have
compulsory MFL through primary and
secondary, with more hours teaching
per week. As a result of these and
other factors, UK 16-year-olds’
language ability, even as a
communicative tool, is below that of
their European contemporaries.This, in
turn, discourages these young Brits
from using their normally limited
language ability and encourages them
and the public generally to perceive
language learning as difficult.
MFL optional at Key Stage 4
The government decision, in the light
of this public perception and the
demands of a minority of schools on
behalf of a minority of pupils, to make
languages optional at Key Stage 4 from
2004 was disastrously destructive.We
warned them that GCSE numbers
would fall and they ignored us.They
have fallen sharply, panicking the
government into calling in Lord
Dearing. Instead of destroying GCSE
they should have reformed it. Making
MFL optional at Key Stage 4 from
2004, and all primary pupils starting an
Liaison magazine • llas.ac.uk •13