Evaluation of the Key Stage 2 Language Learning Pathfinders

In Questionnaire 2, findings were very similar to those from Questionnaire 1. In 85% ofclassrooms, French was being taught; in 68% of cases this was the only language taught. Inmost other cases French was taught in combination with Spanish (4.1%) or German (4.0%).In 4.1% of cases German was the language taught. 2.8% used a multilingual approach.Community languages were taught by just 1% of respondents.From all the data including case studies, most schools had chosen French: this is the‘default’ language. In one Pathfinder, the ratio was 10: 1 for schools teaching French asopposed to Spanish or German; in another, French was taught in 70% of the primaryschools involved. This was a common pattern, with French dominating in every Pathfinder;indeed in one Pathfinder the estimate was that French was the language in 95% of theschools. This Pathfinder had trialled on-line Spanish materials as an attempt atdiversification. In another Pathfinder, there was currently more French than had beenhoped, with some very strong Spanish, which was set to increase. Spanish did not reflectthe secondary scene, so this language choice was likely to have eventual consequences fortransition. Where it had been hoped by the Pathfinders that more diversified provision wouldbe created this had not occurred: the majority of schools opted for French. WherePathfinders planned to introduce lesser taught languages (e.g. Arabic), these plans hadfrequently not borne fruit, although there were a few instances in the case study schools ofsuccessful community languages.There were a few examples of schools offering Italian, and offering others a combination ofFrench and Italian. Some schools were doing a ten week pilot in Japanese, and in aminority of Pathfinders there were examples of Japanese and Mandarin Chinese beingoffered, usually in the form of tasters. In a few instances, ‘Family Learning’ classes werebeing held, typically after school; these included mainstream languages such as French andSpanish, as well as in one case Welsh. One Pathfinder had successfully drawn upon thestrengths of the community in the establishment of a Family Learning Centre at a primaryschool catering for Arabic.Occasionally, a school offered a particular language on an opportunity basis, i.e. when amember of staff happened to have some knowledge of e.g. Italian. This meant therefore thatthe chosen language was essentially arbitrary. Some schools alternated year on year whichlanguage was taught as part of primary languages provision, dependent on the language,which would be experienced by that cohort when they began secondary school. There were,25