Is it bad to not have a language GCSE?

[Tacocatgoatcheesepizza]

DS(yr9) has been doing German (and Spanish) for the last year, and selected it for one of his options. Today he’s been told that less than 10 children in the year chose it so they will not be able to offer the course. He does not enjoy Spanish and is not interested in doing the GCSE. They don’t do any other languages.

His school do not require students to pick a language option! Is that normal now? When I was at school everyone had to do a language as one of their GCSEs!

Native English speakers struggle enormously with the cases, you can't deny that :) Many cannot grasp the concept at all and cannot remember declensions.

Duolingo is not the same as having classes with other people, and while the Goethe Institut is indeed brilliant, learning a language online takes a lot of dedication for a teen already learning other subjects. Much better to do it with other people IRL.

Also the GCSE curriculum is designed for real-world scenarios. I did Italian and Spanish for a year each. Italian is the one I can get by with on holiday (GCSE).

In Sweden the norm is to do 2 additional languages at GCSE - Swedish and English are compulsory then there is a choice to do one of French, German or Spanish. Kids with SEN or who don't speak Swedish as a mother tongue get the option to just do additional Swedish/English

DD also did an additional GCSE equivalent in Japanese in 6th form - despite focussing on science for A level

Can your son not do German GCSE outside of school? My daughter is doing Russian GCSE with a tutor. You just ask the school to enter her in the exam and you arrange for someone to come to the school to assess the speaking part (cost me £50).

At my kids' state school everyone has to do french and additional languages are available in the option blocks plus Latin as a twilight.

I know a teacher who has mentioned in conversation that languages are dropping in popularity; the contexts I still hear of them spoken of positively are 1) for general brain improvement and links to Latin for medicine 2) for an easier way in to very competitive Oxbridge courses.

It's also good for wannabe Race Across the World contestants.

Languages have been compulsory at my school up till now (due to Ebacc) but the requirement is being removed from this September. I’m surprised they kept it up for this long as the results are always horrific; I’ve known kids get all 8s and 9s except for a random 4 or 5 in a language. I think our language teachers are quite capable as well. My DC went to independent schools and one of the reasons was to get a better language experience. They have a 7 and an 8 in their relevant languages but can’t really speak a word of them. I struggle to understand as I could hold a quite decent conversation by the end of my language GCSE and I didn’t feel like I was a particularly good linguist. I do think that grammar needs to be taught more specifically. However, we would run the course I think as long as we had at least 6.

Often MFL does get a lower grade than others, but in my experience that reflects pupil and parent attitudes towards the subject rather than it being intrinsically harder. As others have said, the new spec is much more accessible but it’s sadly come at the same time as the EBacc being abolished.

It is a tough time for MFL and a great shame when keen linguists like your son choose it but the classes are too small. Unfortunately this has been the issue with A Level for a while but I’m glad he’s considering carrying on with Spanish.

The pervasive attitude towards MFL does make me sad - you don’t have to be a genius or native speaker, you just have to approach it positively and work hard. Learning various languages has enriched my life so much.

I did German and French for O level many moons ago. I got a B in German and wasn’t great at it (loved French, speak it fluently having done A level and a part language degree). However very recently I’ve had a change in career and had to spend a short period in Germany. I’m not brilliant, but the basics come back and it makes a difference if you can speak a language even at a basic level.

im a huge proponent of MFL and I’m really sad that numbers are plummeting. I’ve got 2 boys and both did 2 languages at GCSE, and one did French A level. OP is there any way your child could attend lessons at a different school? Even some kind of tie up with a private school?

My Dd unfortunately had to move school in the middle of secondary - she had been learning German and the new school didn’t offer it.

She picked up French and Spanish from beginner, by joining one beginners class and just joining in with her normal cohort in the other language.

But we paid for a tutor for German too, because German had been DD’s favourite subjects and she was really sad to give it up. It was a small online GCSE class, with three others, and we paid £20 a week.

Dd did German GCSE as a private candidate but sat it at school - fortunately one of the MFL teachers was able to do the speaking exam with her.

She also took both French and Spanish as GCSE options - neither of which was compulsory. About half of her friendship group took one MFL gcse option, and one other friend, like her, took both.

German is still her favourite, but she enjoys French and Spanish too.
Our school offers both a Spanish and French exchange, which is an amazing experience. You can get so much out of it if you push yourself a bit.

And yes, gcse is not high level. And yes, lots of people speak English.
But you can still open up new worlds for yourself by speaking another language - by reading books, going to the theatre, watching TV and films, listening to music, the radio, podcasts…

It’s not just about having a face to face conversation with one other person.

My foreign language skills have been extremely useful for my career (in Law) and I'm only sorry I wasn't serious about learning more languages when I had the chance at school. I absolutely cannot understand anyone saying languages are not useful. I'd say MFL is the most useful subject of all.

Yes I think it's normal to not do a language now

They stopped it being compulsory didn't they. So it's only if a particular school requires you to take one that you have to.

For what it's worth, I did languages at uni, so it is sad to me

Is it a small school? Out of interest?

Actually, as a German learner who did French and Spanish at school, ahm years ago, it really is easy. The German government funds a wide range of free resources that make learning alone very accessible. These are much better quality than duolingo and other well-known apps. Then one can take recognised exams here in the UK.

This is dreadful. Lots of people in my school did language A levels and went on to study them at university. The kids in this school are having that opportunity cut off for them and everyone is just supposed to go along with what the majority want to do. It's no wonder that language courses at universities are being shut down.

As for the Duolingo suggestion 🤐

And yes I also think it's really bad that they're not doing it for 10 students

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I think this is a big shame that the school can’t offer it, I would encourage the school to reconsider or for your son to take Spanish instead. I didn’t do German but I think it’s a very valuable language for business and wish I had.

Interestingly, my ex is more or less fluent in eight languages (no big deal for a Swiss person) and worked for a multinational corp dealing with corporate contracts. The only language he needed for business was English.

Languages are not just a tool for making money though. Access to literature for example is invaluable. It's very sad British schools are cutting languages provision.

Oh yes, absolutely to literature. Being able to read literally classics and poetry in the original opens up a whole new world.

You can also live and work in many different places (especially with an EU passport)

No! It’s a large high school with 1500 pupils and a 6th form! He has 350 children in his year.

I think That's really sad that they're saying this! And wrong! ☹️ 😠

I did gcses in 1990 and didn't do a language. I got reasonable grades, but there was a lot of guesswork. I felt to the extra work to get a good grade in French would have a negative impact on the other subjects.
It hasn't prevented me from anything I wanted to do education or job wise.
I know schools do things differently when it comes to options. Some group things and children need to pick from each group. Others just let them pick. Ours let them pick 3 options, plus a back up in case one couldn't be done.
We are in Wales so Welsh in compulsory anyway.