With the referendum already having had a number of impacts on the value of the pound and the political stability of the UK, what impact will it have on the education of future generations and, more specifically, regarding language education?
It seems that people forget what a huge influence the European Union has had on our workers’ rights and the contribution towards farmers, the NHS, Cornwall… this list could go on forever, but has anyone really thought about the ability for our children to learn languages? Language education is already at risk due to Nicky Morgan and the rest of the department for education, with the majority of language teachers having to teach at least two languages, with French being the main language and a number of schools not offering German or Spanish, despite Spanish growing in popularity.
According to the European Commission, the Barcelona European Council called for action “to improve the mastery of basic skills, in particular by teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age”, yet 14% of young people still lack basic knowledge of even one language and, with A Levels of languages rapidly decreasing, it wouldn’t be a surprise if a large portion of the 14% was from the UK. Every year the news reports that the number of modern foreign languages is falling and does leaving the EU mean that this shall continue? Although the English Baccalaureate is going to be made compulsory as of September, what will leaving the EU mean for A Level or University uptake?
It seems as though the country is making it less of an incentive to learn a language. If we decide to fully leave the EU, meaning that we trade less with the EU and are unable to move abroad freely, then it’s likely that fewer companies will have a demand for German or French speakers, nor will young adults have such an easy opportunity to experience another culture. And that’s not including all the lost jobs at the EU. Not only that, but it’s also important to question whether the quality of language teaching may decline, due to the lack of ease for native speaking modern foreign language teachers moving to the United Kingdom.
As a lover of languages, it disappoints me that other students may no longer get the opportunities that I have had so far, may not be able to study my favourite languages and feel the pure thrill when you understand the most complicated German grammar rule, but what upsets me the most is that this is a backwards step in globalisation and acceptance. Languages open more doors, allow us to meet new people, learn of other cultures, travel, fall in love and see the world with other eyes.
Maybe businesses may not be demanding languages in the future, but is it really worth us giving them up just because the British population made a misinformed decision?
* Anna Pitcher has recently finished her studies in German and Economics at the University of Sheffield. She is a member of the Liberal Democrats.
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3 Comments
It’s good to see an article on languages. My main concern about brexit and languages was that if we left the EU the inexorable rise of the English language would slow down, stop or even reverse.
However, I’m not just someone whose interest in languages starts and stops with English. I’ve taught myself French to an intermediate standard over the past two years and I work on it every day.
We should prioritise language education as being in our national interest. As the former German Chancellor Willy Brandt said: “If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. But if I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen (then you have to speak German).”.
There’s also many international jobs where your CV basically gets thrown into the bin if you can only speak one language. Some of these won’t be available to Brits after brexit, but there’s still plenty more.
Funny but the most vociferous Brexit supporter I know speaks 3 post-brexit EU languages fluently knows some Danish and has lived in Italy, China, Saudi, Oman and Kuwait – teaching English!
The LIb Dems have got to re-orientate themselves from this extreme europhilia – embrace the fact that English is the only international language and from there persuade people to learn other languages.
This will be more fruitful for new trade agreements.
Chinese is now on the list of languages to be learned.