BBC on language education in Britain

I found this interesting collection of articles on language education in Britain. In one article they pointed out that one teacher was successful in Spanish class because she brought three Spanish players from the local soccer team into class. No kidding! Motivation over methodology.

In another article it was reported that the foreign language requirement was removed in order to cut down the number of kids not showing up for school. Yeah, don't try to make it interesting to learn languages, just remove it from the curriculum. What else are they going to remove?

Comments

[Igor]

No wonder that they employ nonnative foreign to English translators from other European countries in the European Parliament. A deficit of translators in a developed country with 65 million people?!

[Si]

@igor

Absolutely. We Brits are a tediously myopic bunch and prefer to wander the globe shouting in English at Johnny Foreigner rather than make any attempt to learn the language.

@steve

Yeah, don't try to make it interesting to learn languages, just remove it from the curriculum. What else are they going to remove?

What they don't remove they will dumb down. All must win prizes. We don't need engineers and scientists - we are all media studies graduates in our post-industrial wonderland. UK education is going to hell in a handbasket and will not be world class within a generation (unless we can employ enough foreigners to keep standards up).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/oct/23/dumbing-down

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/15/dumbing-down-exams-school

[skyblueteapot]

Don't get me started on language learning in the UK! My son's new school only teaches French, and that only from 11 to 16. I've told him I think he would do better at LingQ, and have opened him a free account. Since them I have caught him several times on LingQ learning German on the quiet :-)

[Laurie]

Having experienced this language education first hand I can offer a few comments. Bear in mind that after 5 years of studying German I know basically nothing.

There was a lot of grammar and wordlists. This didn't get me very far: learn a wordlist one week, forget it the next.

The other part of the lessons was much worse. Force you to talk in a language you don't know. Constantly being forced to try to communicate when you don't know how, it made me nervous and actively dislike the subject of languages.

After this 'education' I just thought I wasn't the sort of person who could learn languages. Now I've started learning Japanese alongside a university degree. I find it genuinely exciting! I love learning a new writing system and I start noticing little connections between listening and reading. There's no pressure to speak, so I don't worry about the bits I don't yet know.

Honestly, sack the teachers and hire professional motivators.

[Edward]

Hi Steve,
I found a site is having a vote about language related blog. Your blog, of course were nominated. However, I don't know what dose that exactly mean by saying "The Linguist on Language - Language blog for people who love languages or would, but were discouraged."

Discouraged? By what criteria?