The English way hurts our chances of success
Amid the usual hubbub that accompanies A Level results day – the pictures of jumping young women, the advice for those who didn’t get the grades, the celebrities reliably informing us how unimportant they are anyway – came some sobering news.
Modern languages are extremely unpopular as an area of study.
Just 2,864 students in England took German A Level this year. In Wales, it was only 77 – little more than two classrooms’ worth. French was barely better, with 7,607. To put those figures into context, 16,214 took A Level religious studies.
Is the future of Global Britain, a country in which more of us learn about the 10 plagues of Egypt than how to speak the region’s modern day language (number of Arabic A Level students: 835)?
Le shrug? After all, Brits have always been laggards when it comes to second languages, relying on the lingua franca to see us through, and when in doubt, saying things a little bit more slowly and loudly.
And yet recent studies suggest that employees with second languages are in more demand and command higher salaries.
A British Chambers of Commerce survey, meanwhile, found that a lack of language skills is hampering our ability to export. On a national level, our inward-looking attitude towards linguistics is estimated to cost the UK 3.5 per cent of GDP.
Once we leave the European Union, we are likely to need foreign languages more, not less – not just so we can keep up with our closest neighbours, but those much-touted markets in Asia (Mandarin A Level students: 2,272) and Latin America.
If Global Britain is to become more than a catchphrase, we need to start acting the part. As the CBI said yesterday, uptake of modern foreign languages must increase or the UK will be left behind.
Practical problems, starting with the lack of teachers and the decline in significance of second languages in schools, must be addressed. The options must be updated to reflect the growing need for Mandarin and Arabic alongside French and German.
Languages are an asset, with a price tag worth paying. Students, the employees and entrepreneurs of tomorrow, should be reminded of that.
Main image credit: Getty