Wendy Ayres-Bennett and Charles Forsdick | 26th November 2024 | Policy Collection
Introduction: statutory contexts across the UK
The substantial differences between England and the three devolved administrations of the UK in the statutory provision for languages education and its implementation provide a fertile testbed for evaluating current language policy and for making policy recommendations based on research-informed evidence and best practice. Broadly speaking, since 1998, education and training have been devolved to the four nations (for details, see Humphries and Ayres-Bennett 2022). Whilst language education policy developed differently in the jurisdictions before devolution, since then modern languages policy has increasingly diverged (Ayres-Bennett and Carruthers 2019). In England, languages are a statutory requirement of the National Curriculum at Key Stages (KS) 2 and 3 (roughly ages 7-14). It is now twenty years since the requirement to study a language at KS4 (ages 15-16) was removed in England, Northern Ireland (NI) and Wales, although there are some compensatory measures to encourage language learning. For instance, in England, the EBacc includes the requirement to take a modern foreign or classical language at GCSE (the examination taken by most students at the end of KS4) as one of a set of five subjects ‘that keeps young people’s options open for further study and future careers’ (Guidance English Baccalaureate), and languages are also included in Progress 8, one of the mechanisms contributing to the measurement of performance in exams at age 16 (Parrish 2024). In 2012 the Scottish government began a 10-year project to implement a 1 + 2 language policy (based on the 2004 recommendation of the European Commission): this gives every child the entitlement to learn in addition to their first language (L1) a second language (L2) from age 5 to 14 and a third language (L3) during the last three years of primary school and at least one year of senior school. In Wales, language policy has prioritized increasing the number of Welsh speakers to a million by 2050 (Welsh government 2017; Williams 2017): the aim is therefore for students to learn what they term an international language in addition to being bilingual in English and Welsh. A new curriculum introduced in 2022 has ‘Languages, literacy and communication’ as one of six key themes: this brings together the teaching of English and Welsh from age 3, with an ‘international language’ commenced in primary school. Northern Ireland differs from the rest of the UK in there being no statutory provision for language teaching at primary level. In secondary education language education is compulsory only at KS3 (ages 11-14), which Collen in Language Trends Northern Ireland 2021 (2021: 5) notes is the shortest in Europe. Language policy in Northern Ireland is politically sensitive because of the historic association of the Irish language with the Catholic, nationalist and republican community. Nevertheless, provision of Irish-medium education is growing (Carruthers and Ó Mainnín 2018).
Choosing languages to teach
Across the UK, language learning in schools has been dominated by ‘the big 3’, namely French, German and Spanish. At GCSE in 2024, the numbers taking French (129,026) and Spanish (127,832) were broadly comparable, whilst German numbers were much lower (34,708). At A level, the exam taken at the end of KS5, Spanish (8,238) has overtaken French (7,544), with German (2,431) well behind. Whilst there was a small increase this year in entries, overall numbers are concerning. As the Association for Language Learning pointed out, there has been a clear decline even since 2019. At A level this represents -9.7% for French, -19.8% for German and -4.5% for Spanish. For comparison, in the same period, Economics (40,451) rose by 31% and Psychology (78,556) by 22% in a context of overall number of entries having risen by 10.1% over the same period. This ‘crisis’ in uptake has led to a number of initiatives and changes in attitude. Language learning is increasingly being conceived as the acquisition of a multilingual repertoire, with traditional divisions between modern languages, language-based area studies and home, heritage and community languages (HHLCs) increasingly minimized; particularly in HE, the ‘foreign’ has been dropped from ‘modern foreign languages’, although the expression is still common in the school contexts; and policies have been put in place to support the teaching of other languages, notably the teaching of Mandarin (see Zhang and Hancock’s policy paper on Scotland), supported in England by the Mandarin Excellence Programme, but also Latin (Latin Excellence Programme) and HHCLs (including provision for Urdu and Cantonese as an L2 in Scotland). HHCLs have traditionally been taught outside the mainstream curriculum in a network of volunteer-run complementary or ‘Saturday’ schools (Hancock and Hancock 2019), offering the opportunity not just to learn the language, but also to participate in cultural activities.
The acknowledgement in policy that the UK is a multilingual country in its own right has multiple implications, not least regarding acquisition planning for the country’s minoritized Indigenous languages. As we have seen, the Welsh government is actively promoting learning Welsh in schools as part of its broader language policy, even if this policy may sometimes have unintended consequences (see Sayers’s policy paper). Gaelic is one of the languages available in Scottish schools as a 1st, 2nd or 3rd language and, as is the case for Welsh, Gaelic medium education is an option, in just under half of the Scottish local authorities. In the Scots language policy (2015), the Scottish Government similarly says it will endeavour to promote Scots within the Scottish 1 + 2 model. Under New Decade New Approach (2020), the NI Executive Committee is committed to adopting strategies to ‘enhance and protect the development of the Irish Language’ and to ‘enhance and develop the Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture’; the asymmetry of the wording is significant here. There are currently 30 Irish-medium schools in NI and a further 10 Irish-medium units attached to English-medium schools. The British Sign Language (BSL) Act 2022 gave BSL legal recognition as a language of England, Scotland and Wales and a GCSE in BSL will be available as an optional choice in the curriculum from September 2025.
Languages and opportunities for all
If the ‘crisis’ has generated discussion about which languages to teach, it has also led to efforts to broaden the student population in schools and universities and to offer languages to all. In the context of the Conservative government’s focus on ‘levelling-up’, articulated in the party's manifesto for the 2019 general election, and the new Labour administration’s commitment to a ‘mission-driven’ policy agenda, privileging the improvement of opportunity for all through developments in childcare, schools, further education and lifelong learning, it is inevitable that access to language learning has come under increasing scrutiny. In HE, the concentration of languages departments in research-intensive universities has led to an association of language degrees with students achieving higher tariffs at A-level or equivalent. In a situation compounded by the significant decrease in numbers of pupils studying languages at KS5, widening participation in the study of languages at university has become more and more challenging. Teaching-intensive HEIs, often with below average entry tariffs, are increasingly closing their provision of specialist languages degrees, especially as the subject area is disproportionately impacted by the financial precarity of the sector. The result is the emergence of ‘cold-spots’ in languages in this key part of the sector, notably in the South-West, East and North of England (Muradás-Taylor and Taylor 2024), with this situation having significant implications for social justice as students from less privileged backgrounds or minority ethnic groups are more likely to want to study at universities close to their family home (Donnelly and Gamsu 2018). At the same time, those seeking to study at lower tariff institutions – where language degree provision is becoming increasingly rare – are often from underrepresented demographics (including mature students, those with disabilities or first generation to enter HE).
The narrowing of participation in languages in Higher Education (HE) reflects similar trends in secondary schools, with the British Council annual Language Trends Survey Reports consistently demonstrating greater opportunities to study languages in independent schools than those in the state sector. By way of example, German continues to be much more widely taught in the independent sector, with 76% of independent schools regularly communicating with the Goethe-Institut (compared to 15% of state secondary schools who responded to the survey) (Collen and Duff 2024). A higher proportion of independent schools also employ language assistants, and while nearly half of the schools responding from the independent sector have one or more partner schools abroad, the equivalent figure for state schools is 27%. These tendencies are reflected in broader subject provision, with the majority (89%) of independent schools who responded to the most recent Language Trends Survey (Collen and Duff 2024) recording post-16 provision in languages (compared to 47% in the state sector). When scrutinized with a greater degree of granularity, the limitations on provision within state schools demonstrate, however, further inequalities: schools with the lowest uptake of a language at KS4 are more likely to have high levels of pupils entitled to Free School Meals or to Pupil Premium, or to record low Attainment 8 scores (Tinsley 2019; Collen 2020). Social inequalities are compounded by issues of subject choice, with the number of entries and performance of boys in GCSE languages consistently lower than that of girls (Boys studying modern foreign languages at GCSE in schools in England, 2020). Less evidence is available on issues of under-engagement and differential attainment in terms of ethnicity; it is therefore clear that ‘data analysis relating to race/ethnicity is needed to understand the nuances of the multiple layers of inequity underpinning the study of our subject and their impact on pupils with protected characteristics’ (Panford 2021, 4). At the same time, the integration of learners with special educational needs and disabilities in the languages classroom creates challenges that are as much related to policy as they are to pedagogy (Howard 2023).
Interventions to improve motivation
Reflections on the interrelationships of policy and pedagogy are evident in another response to the ‘crisis’, that of devising interventions to improve the motivation of young language learners (e.g. Lanvers 2020). This is particularly important given the perception that languages are difficult and the very real issue of harsh grading which impacts on student decision-making (Parrish and Lanvers 2018). Forbes et al. (2021) have developed an identity-based pedagogical intervention with accompanying materials (WAM), Sheehan et al. have argued for the role of linguistics in modern language education (see Havinga et al.’s policy paper), whilst WoLLoW offers resources and lesson content to encourage children to be curious about languages and understand the links and patterns between languages. Larger-scale research is still needed to determine the success of these programmes, whether at primary or at secondary level; in particular, more evidence is required as to whether this type of language awareness programme should be introduced at primary level before L2 learning or in parallel. Among other types of intervention are the various mentoring schemes that have been introduced across the UK, most notably in Wales where the scheme encourages young people to ‘explore their world by promoting better local, national and global understanding’ (see also Gorrara et al. 2019).
Primary languages
As has been noted above, in the context of the 2003 National Language Strategy for England, Languages for All, Languages for Life, the amendment of the statutory requirement that all schools should teach a modern language at KS4 was in part addressed by the introduction of an entitlement to language learning in primary schools. Two decades later, the challenge of implementing this change remains a key policy issue, and while a degree of flexibility may have some positive dimensions in terms of delivery, a lack of non-statutory guidance in the area means that there is significant variability in delivery. The KS2 National Curriculum requirement for ‘substantial progress in one language’ remains vague, and the varying time allocated to language learning as well as the different levels of subject expertise among generalist classroom teachers mean that outcomes are highly variable. Despite concrete interventions in policy, such as the constructive recommendation in the White Paper: Primary Languages Policy in England – The Way Forward (RiPL) that there should be a minimum of one hour per week allocated to the languages curriculum at KS2 (Holmes and Myles 2019), the lack of non-statutory guidance on minimum core content for languages continues to impede progress in the consistent delivery of language learning in primary schools. While experts continue to debate, as has been noted in the previous paragraph, the most effective balance between acquisition of a single language and the nurturing of multilingual outlook or Knowledge about Language (Hudson 2024), there is broader agreement about the need to raise the status and visibility of the subject among school leaders and to provide clarity as to how languages can be integrated with other aspects of the primary curriculum and support a broader range of outcomes (including literacy, but also the development of additional attributes such as oracy, creativity, cultural awareness and empathy).
Transitions
Debates about language provision at primary level do not take place in isolation, and are linked to considerations of the need for a coherent transition between KS2 and KS3. To take the example of the English system, there is a lack – with the notable exception of those situations (e.g. multi-academy trusts with feeder primary schools) where there is active co-ordination of transition – of consistency of approach. Each pupil follows one of two pathways, either beginning a different language at KS3 from the one they learned at KS2, or continuing with the KS2 language at KS3, but learning it more systematically. The transition is rendered more complicated by the fact that in the majority of cases secondary schools recruit from a number of primaries, meaning a diversity of pre-existing experiences of language study. In the absence of solutions to imposing continuity in the language taught across the transition, in exploring how learning about language at primary level will ensure that pupils identify and understand connections (e.g. grammatical, syntactical, lexical) between the languages within their repertoire (Swainston and Kasstan 2023). This has the added benefit of allowing educators to acknowledge and draw actively on the existing (but previously underutilized) linguistic resources in the multilingual or superdiverse classroom. There exists a significant body of research on how children learning EAL in a supportive environment can benefit from their existing multilingualism in acquiring what for them is a 3rd (or even 4th) language (see Gialdini and Pantic’s policy paper; see also Costley et al. 2018; Festman 2021; Kirsch 2018; and Robinson and Sorace 2019).
The problems of transition are not, of course, restricted to the transition between KS2 and KS3. At every transition point in the pipeline – KS3/KS4, KS4/KS5 and KS5/HE and HE/teacher training (PGCE) – students are being lost, creating a vicious circle leading to unfortunate consequences including the current lack of qualified specialist language teachers, as we discuss below.
Secondary level pedagogical practices
At secondary level, there has been a lively debate about pedagogical practices. Among the welcome government initiatives, between 2018 and 2023, the English Department for Education (DfE) funded the National Centre for Excellence for Language Policy (NCELP) and some of the learnings from this major project are reported in the policy paper by Marsden and Hawkes. NCELP provided ‘research-informed resources and professional development on curriculum design to teachers, teacher educators and policy-makers’. In 2023 the DfE awarded three years of funding to the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE), once again with the vision to ‘re-energise language learning’ in state primary and secondary schools. This provides language hubs, continuing professional development (CPD) for schools, and has a special project supported by the British Council and the Goethe Institute to promote the learning of German and to upskill German teachers in schools across England (GIMAGINE).
Qualifications and their diversification
Central to current policy debates is the suitability of current qualifications at KS4 and KS5, and the need for a more flexible pathway with alternative accreditations that, instead of implying a single pipeline (for a minority of learners) leading to HE, offers a pathway catering for a broader range of aspirations, abilities and outcomes, such as working in the tourism or hospitality sectors. This issue is separate from that of the narrowing of existing qualifications, notably the recent reduction of the range of GCSEs in HHCLs, although it is likely that the provision of opportunities for assessment in a variety of languages would also encourage speakers of HHCLs to gain formal accreditation of their existing skills (see Humphries’s et al. and Lightfoot et al.’s policy papers). Lord Dearing, in his 2007 Languages Review, recommended a broadening of qualifications beyond traditional GCSEs and A-levels, and the then Labour Government – as part of its National Languages Strategy – encouraged a variety of alternative qualifications in relation to its ‘languages ladder’ (Steer 2015). The sustainability of a wider range depends in large part on resourcing and appropriate positioning in relation to other qualifications. The recent consultation around an Advanced British Standard qualification at Level 3 reignited a debate about this diversification of provision post-16 as part of a broader curriculum, and it is likely that discussion about alternative qualifications will be invigorated by the 2024 Curriculum and Assessment Review in England.
Further Education (FE)
The emphasis on a broader approach to language skills has particular urgency in FE, where the curriculum is more closely aligned with employer needs. There has nevertheless often been a risk that focus on the languages pipeline leading to HE pays insufficient attention to provision at this level and the needs of small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), exporters, the tourism sector, etc., and despite clear evidence of the economic benefits of investment in languages in UK education (Ayres-Bennett et al. 2022), a lack of support for languages is part of a broader underfunding of FE across the past two decades. A recent British Academy-funded report on Languages Provision in UK Further Education (Collen et al. 2023) made a strong case for a radical rethinking of language provision in the sector, arguing for higher levels of investment complemented by qualifications review and reform (including in translating and interpreting). Its authors concluded: ‘Without this investment, it is difficult to see how the crisis point at which languages in FE is currently at will ever be reversed’ (Collen et al. 2023: 124). The report noted the lack of a unifying voice for languages in FE, and suggested that a new body might draw on the expertise of staff in organisations such as Association of Colleges (AoC), Colleges Scotland, Colegau Cymru, and NI Colleges. It concluded that a more strategic approach would allow greater coordination of languages teaching and resourcing across sectors, including secondary and higher education, and would allow for more coherent regional oversight (see Liu et al.’s policy paper), encouraging greater collaboration between FE and HE and providing enhanced support to complementary schools for the provision of assessment of HHCLs.
Higher Education (HE)
A number of developments have made languages more vulnerable in HE. Since the loss of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in 2018, there has a lack of a centralised body looking at strategy for languages and safeguarding the balance of provision, something anyway difficult to maintain given the institutional autonomy of universities. The reduction in numbers of pupils studying languages in secondary schools has led over the past twenty years to a contraction in provision, with language degrees increasingly concentrated in research-intensive universities (Muradás-Taylor 2023; Ayres-Bennett, 2024). At the same time, provision in lesser-taught languages has become increasingly threatened. The result has been the emergence of cold spots in language provision, especially in ‘lower tariff’ institutions, meaning that access to language degrees is – as is discussed above – increasingly limited. The sustainability of language departments across the sector has become a source of increasing concern, with calls for an HE regulator seen as a means of protecting the health and viability of subjects such as languages. Recent investment in the field (with major interventions such as the AHRC-funded Translating Cultures theme and Open World Research Initiative) have led to the consolidation of a world-leading research infrastructure in languages, a development confirmed by the outcomes of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, but this is increasingly threatened as departments struggle to maintain sustainability. Successful mentoring programmes and a renewed commitment to outreach are contributing to stabilisation of HE language provision, and departments are themselves revising the programmes they offer (in response, for instance, to the recommendation in the revised QAA benchmarking statement for Languages, Cultures and Societies that there should be greater engagement with issues of global sustainability and global perspectives). As Eppler et al. and Humphries et al. argue in their policy papers, there is also a case for rethinking policy regarding language qualifications in HHCLs in UK university admissions processes. Language provision – both in degrees offered but also the broader availability of Institution Wide Languages Programmes – has a key role to play in the education of adaptable and culturally agile graduates ready to face the global challenges of the twenty-first century. In a context of financial crisis for the sector, however, the subject area is seen as expensive to deliver, especially in the absence of differential banding that acknowledges the intensive nature of language learning. Other recent policy changes – such as the UK’s withdrawal post-Brexit from the Erasmus+ programme – have added to the challenges of delivering traditional languages degrees.
Teacher shortages and initial teacher education (ITE)
As we have noted, problems of leakage of students in all parts of the educational pipeline (exacerbated by a lack of opportunities for those who have exited to re-enter) means additionally that there is an acute teacher shortage in many parts of the UK. While there are initiatives to encourage students to train as teachers, including scholarships of £27,000 for those wanting to teach French, German and Spanish, and bursaries of £25,000 for all trainee language teachers including ancient languages, the 2024 Language Trends England survey reported that the recruitment of qualified language teachers is an issue for six out of ten responding secondary schools. The Research in Primary Languages White Paper (2015) reported that in ITE programmes provision of modern foreign languages pedagogy varied from two hours per week to just 1.5 hours in total, depending on the provider. Since the classroom teacher is often solely responsible for delivery of language teaching at primary level, this means they may well lack essential subject knowledge. This is why, for instance, projects like GIMAGINE offer teaching resources and ideas and professional development for teachers in primary and secondary education, but there is still much to be done to furnish teachers with the materials and training they need to excel. Another potential avenue to support language learning is AI, ranging from AI-tutors, through language apps and other technical solutions. Programmes such as ChatGPT offer online translation, although evidence suggests that human post-editing is still likely to be needed in professional and public service contexts (see the Chartered Institute of Linguists white paper). As the Department for Education outline in their 2023 paper on ‘Generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education’ this approach also has implications for delivery as AI equally offers possibilities for lesson planning and assessment, potentially freeing up teachers’ time so that they can devote themselves to their classroom practice.
Towards greater coordination and collaboration: sustaining diverse and inclusive provision
Languages in UK education have traditionally suffered from multiple fragmentations, notably between sectors and individual subject areas but also in terms of a lack of dialogue between policy and practice. Given the devolved nature of education, this lack of communication can extend across jurisdictions meaning that evidence about what works in language policy and related practice has not always been shared effectively. The challenging situation outlined above – and addressed in the contributions to this special collection of LSP – has provided an opportunity to ensure greater co-ordination and the identification of common goals. Initiatives such as Towards a National Languages Strategy have brought together multiple stakeholders and proposed solutions that highlight the interdependence of different parts of the education sector, ranging from primary to HE but also including the key contributions of FE and complementary schools. At the same time, partisan advocacy for individual languages has been replaced increasingly by a commitment to the benefits of languages more generally, encompassing traditional modern languages and those studied in the context of language-based area studies, extending to ancient languages (see Holmes-Henderson et al.’s policy paper) and the multiple languages of the UK, embracing HHCLs and the minoritized regional languages, including BSL and ISL (see Wilks and O’Neill’s policy paper). These developments are part of the emergence – in a UK context – of what Mary Louise Pratt called a ‘new public idea about language’, an essential underpinning of the reinvigoration of languages in UK education. The focus on languages as an element of everyday life has driven the need for more integrated policymaking, one implication of which – through the focus, for instance, on oracy education – is the need to reflect on the relationship of languages to other subject areas. At the same time, the growing attention to HHCLs in education policy creates opportunities to reflect on the links between the learning of languages other than English and EAL, a priority for groups such as the Coalition for Language Education, which seeks to develop ‘the communicative capacities of individuals, groups and institutions and the range of languages and linguistic styles – the “linguistic repertoires” – that they can draw on’. The papers in this special collection of Languages, Society and Policy respond to the many challenges identified above, providing an overview of the current position of languages in UK education, in particular of areas which are considered to be under strain or in need of revision, and identifying opportunities for innovations in policy that ensure that language education and skills are linked to a wider range of societal questions.
Policy Papers
By Emma Humphries, Janice Carruthers, and Leanne Henderson
by Maksi Kozińska, Kate Lightfoot, and Michelle Sheehan
by Eva Eppler, Zara Fahim and Yuni Kim
References
Carruthers, Janice and Ó Mainnín, Mícheál. 2018. ‘Languages in Northern Ireland: Policy and practice’, in Languages after Brexit: How the UK Speaks to the World, ed. by Michael Kelly (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 159–172.
Swainston, Jeanette and Kasstan, Jonathan R. 2023. ‘Linguistics in practice: Levelling-up the modern-languages curriculum through linguistics in the classroom’, in Theoretical Linguistics in the Pre-university Classroom, ed. by A. Corr & A. Pineda, Proceedings of the British Academy (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 140–149.
Cite this article
Ayres-Bennet, W and Forsdick, C . 2024. ‘Languages in UK Education’. Languages, Society and Policy.
About the Authors
Wendy Ayres-Bennett is Emerita Professor of French Philology and Linguistics, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on the history of French, sociohistorical linguistics, the history of linguistic thought and language standardization, with particular reference to seventeenth-century France. Her current work centres on language policy and planning, both theoretically and practically.
Charles Forsdick is Drapers Professor of French at the University of Cambridge. He is a specialist in the area of Francophone postcolonial studies, with particular interest in the French-speaking Caribbean. Charles was, from 2012-2020, AHRC Theme Leadership Fellow for Translating Cultures. He is currently British Academy Lead Fellow for Languages.
Comentários