Foreign Languages to be Compulsory From Age 7

There was quite a bit of trepidation amongst languages teachers this morning as both the BBC and The Telegraph websites announced that Foreign Languages were going to be made compulsory from age 7.

From 7 ? Does that mean up to the age of 16? Both article seemed to focus on Primary without much being mentioned about KS4 although I did welcome the idea of “a new focus on spelling and grammar”- But is this really a new focus? As always, KS4 was reduced to “GCSE”, which is definitely NOT the best way forward to ensure all students have a reliable practical knowledge of a foreign language.

The plans will be put out to public consultation later in the year-during the Summer holidays- ahead of a planned introduction in 2014. “Under Mr Gove's plans, primary schools could offer lessons in Mandarin, Latin and Greek, as well as French, German and Spanish from September 2014”. Well, there was nothing stopping primary schools from doing this before-apart from the available teaching expertise, so I guess again, there is really nothing new here.

I was alarmed at The Telegraph’s hint that “A system in which all primary children learn a foreign language from age seven will give pupils a much stronger foundation, which they can build on in secondary school to become fluent”. Fluent? With less than one hour a week at primary and one of the smallest time allocation of the EC at secondary? I could be also mistaken but even at GCSE, I did not think the aim was to be fluent but to show some ability to understand and produce some language independently-quite different…

The Telegraph goes on to state that “By the age of 11, pupils will be expected to speak the language in sentences with appropriate pronunciation, express simple ideas with clarity and write phrases and short sentences from memory” and that “They will also be expected to understand basic grammar and be acquainted with songs and poems in the language studied”.

This is a sensible target but very difficult to deliver for a non-specialist teacher without support. So, where is the support going to come from? I hope the answer is revealed very soon…

However, I was really pleased with the mention of the “Research [which] also suggests that being taught a foreign language can help to improve conversation skills and literacy in English, as well as benefit study in other subjects”.

After years of repeating that other languages do not confuse children but support the development of their literacy, it is nice to see the message is filtering through…

Let me guess… the next topic to be discussed will be transition and which language is really worth learning. And of course…the announcement this week, which will be consulted on over the summer, is not expected to include any additional funding to help schools provide language lessons.

Plus ça change …