Depressed about MFL in education

[MFLresearch]

I last year alerted my 6th formers about Sheffield University who have, regrettably, scaled down their MFL offering. A great shame but part of a pattern sector wide.

It is spectacularly depressing, as a MFL teacher in a state 6th from college, to track the decline of MFL over my teaching career. University MFL applications are at rock bottom in our college this year because of uncertainty about year abroad funding - Turing scheme is a lesser offering than Erasmus and our families cannot afford to make up the difference and fund the year abroad. Consequently, of my talented MFL students, fewer than ever will be pursuing MFL study at university. A-level uptake and degree applications are the lowest ever at my college - and projected to get even worse in 2023-4.

I heard on the grapevine that further MFL courses are under threat at universities currently offering them. A number of post 1992 unis apparently considering withdrawing them. Has anyone else heard similarly?

Posting really because it’s late, I can’t sleep and the whole MFL/teaching situation depressing AF (plus the government still not offering decent pay so my colleagues and I will be striking again).

2210 entries for German A level last year. That’s really low. It’s difficult to see how it can survive at many unis, other than for business conversation.

Take out the native and bilingual German speakers and it's even lower!

Oxbridge offer German ab initio when joint with another language studied at A level, so that'll keep their departments going. Not sure how sustainable that is at other unis though.

Lots offer ab initio now. They didn’t with the major languages years ago. I agree that quite a few will be native speakers doing the A level.

We were like that, too...until a change of head.

The problem is that language learning takes so long at school, the progress is glacial, and people come out still being able to barely order a drink in a cafe. Even with a French degree I wasn't as fluent as I thought I might have been by the end. Kids in other countries always had much better English than us in their language at any stage.

As an adult learning Spanish in a couple of terms of evening classes we did probably what I'd covered in the first two years at school in French.

I definitely agree with people learning languages, being able to go there on school trips and spend longer studying there, but can also understand why people think takimg a language for a GCSE or beyond is a waste of time or that languages can be learned in other ways. The teaching of languages from primary school up needs a total rethink.

User73
BBut the reality is that they're pretty pointless in today's world where our native language is English and it is widely spoken across the world plus there are so many communication tools available. It's the harsh reality I'm afraid and it isn't going to change now.ut the reality is that they're pretty pointless in today's world where our native language is English and it is widely spoken across the world plus there are so many communication tools available. It's the harsh reality I'm afraid and it isn't going to change now
completely agree
I am as n MFL teacher in a indie. Love my subject but am under no illusion that teaching in schools is the best way to learn a language -far better option now than an outdated Victorian /sitting in classrooms arrangement -even with the endless games that we play to entertain the pupils.
Erasmus/Brexit is a tired old trope rolled out by those who just want to keep their jobs, rather than adapting to the real world.

I was fairly shocked to discover that schools can get an outstanding grade from Ofsted whilst offering only a limited curriculum. Michaela, for instance, notoriously doesn't offer triple sciences, things like IT, music and DT for GCSEs, and only one language (French). I don't see how any school can claim to be outstanding when it limits pupils' options so drastically.

I tend to agree with that but budgets have really really squeezed state schools and I really don't think MN gets that (still!)

My school had the breadth of its sixth form offer praised but really this was a tiny sentence in Ofsted's feedback compared with issues such as SEN, attendance, FSM .

Michaela's curriculum is really really narrow.

It’s really sad. My child’s year weren’t offered a MFL GCSE. At all. The course was cancelled due to low numbers.

Even when I was at school the sciences were pushed and MFL disregarded.

ML teaching has been fighting a losing battle for decades. I spent 14 years teaching MFL in 4 schools. I was the last of my Dip Ed cohort of 34 to leave teaching.

Increasingly since comprehensive schools came in, MFL have been forced into the block timetabling system. So, maybe 3, probably only 2 double lessons a week, taught by people who have never spent more than 2 weeks holiday abroad, got E at A level decades ago, are not fluent themselves so can't do oral work at any level, fill up the lesson time with worksheets ( with basic mistakes) etc etc. Random Primary French,( not coordinated with Secondary ) taught by people who did a 1 week ( if you're lucky) course after GCSE 10 or 20 years ago, is farcical. Oh, and 30+ in a class. As a visiting foreign ML teacher years ago said, 'how can you teach a language in such big classes? We only have a maximum of 10-12.' Exactly. (Incidentally, I know of no schools which are prepared to publish a list of their teachers with their qualifications. Parents would be horrified if they only knew.)

I was the only ML 'good honours graduate' in the 4 schools. As a newcomer I often got the lower sets while the Hod ( no degree) got the 'easier' top sets / 6th form etc. I left school 1 after being timetabled for the stairs for my sixth form starter Spanish class. I'd already taught variously in the Biology Lab, the entrance hall, on the stage of the theatre etc, with myriad visitors to the school walking through my classes.

My children's school ( rated outstanding!) in perhaps the poshest part of Sheffield regularly sent home work sheets with basic mistakes on them. My children got As at GCSE. I flatter them when I say that they knew maybe a 10th of what I did at their age. No MLs at A level. The excuse being that you could go to a neighbouring school - with no transport provision and no true coordination of timetables so without me providing lifts it would have been impossible.

Fortunately my son did a voluntary option in French at Uni and 'learnt more in 1 term than I did in 5 years at school' and my daughter similarly has taken up language learning as an adult. We are speaking French to her daughter and she is at a bilingual ( Spanish) nursery.

We can't compete with countries who have MLs as a compulsory subject to 18. I remember taking my son to a Dr in France. The said Dr chatted happily to my son in English. I don't think many UK doctors could do the same with a French child.

It's not just that we see no value in MFLs because 'everyone speaks English' it's a reflection of the general isolationism and disparaging attitude towards foreigners and their cultures. It's a very risky attitude in commerce, politics etc.

As an MFL grad, from a very long time ago I hasten to add, that figure certainly didn’t brighten up my Monday morning.

I had a very quick, failed, look for MFL A level entry numbers from the early 80s. But did come across a paper for numbers in 1994, 2004 and 2014.

German

• 10858 in 1994
• dropped to 6390 in 2004, and
• to 4187 in 2014

from fizz’s figs it’s near halved again by 2023

French

• 29,101 in 1994
• 15149 in 2004, so halved over the course of a decade
• 10433 in 2014

6510 entrants in 2023.

Spanish

• 4755 in 1994
• 5966 in 2004
• 7601 in 2014

2023 looks to be 7545, not that different to 2014 in absolute terms, but 1100 less than the 2022 figure.

Having just checked on the JCQ site I’ve quoted provisional 2023 figs in the earlier post.

slight increases in the later JCQ figures, but does not change the grim picture

French 7063
German 2358
Spanish 8110

@boys3 It’s very depressing though. French is awful too. Why are we so dim at MFLs? I know we are unsure which ones are “most useful” whereas everyone else thinks it’s English, but our attitude to MFLs are simply out of kilter with other countries.

Those are sobering figures. Particularly interesting to me as I would have been in the 1994 cohort, alongside tens of thousands of others.

My dd is doing MFL A levels, class size of about a quarter of what mine was but in an overall cohort of students about 15 times bigger as she is in a large 6th form college and I was in a small grammar school.

So I can see the difference with my own eyes, but somehow the stats are still a shock.

Well for a start it's very hard to get proper practice when you go abroad. Nearly everyone will speak better English than you do their language, so even going into a shop with your prepared phrases you may well get answers back in English - which of course doesn't do much for motivation either.

Not to mention popular culture - films, songs, etc. Though on the subject of films, at least it's very easy now to watch films or TV programs in languages other than English. When I was growing up you'd have to find an arty cinema to do that.

Also, I've been to international conferences too where the official language is English - I've never been to one where it was anything else (though there was one in English + French + German). If you need to speak/read/write English to get on professionally, that's a massive motivation.

Well for a start it's very hard to get proper practice when you go abroad. Nearly everyone will speak better English than you do their language, so even going into a shop with your prepared phrases you may well get answers back in English

Yes, everyone wants to practice their English on native speakers! However, you need to persevere with the local language because YOU want to practice your French/German!

To be fair, my German class in the early 90s was a class of 3 so about the same as it would be now.

The difference being, back then, nobody quibbled over its existence ,or funding. We had lovely lessons with the head in his office and he made us tea.

I wonder if so few senior leaders being languages teachers makes a difference to its presence in the school.

That sounds cosy, Piggy!

I think often options subjects are seen as more, well, optional.
Nearly everyone in my school in the early 90s did two compulsory MFL for GCSE. They were a completely standard part of the curriculum all the way through school, like science or English.

At my DC’s school now you can choose to drop languages entirely after year 9. I’m sure that adds to the feeling of them being a bit niche and disposable and not as important as the core subjects.
I expect music, drama, RE etc teachers feel similarly about how their subjects are viewed.

DD was in a class on 2 last year for A level German (started with 5 I think so she was very lucky that they ran it - state 6th form). Her friend only stayed on it to keep her company!

She desperately wanted an A star but just missed out. The boundary mark was rediculous (I think her lowest paper was 83%). I'm guessing there must have been a few fluent candidates who took the top marks?

On a positive note she had no problem getting a good uni place! Although she doesn't think there's anyone fluent in German on her course.

On finding out DD is doing an MFL degree, many other students have asked her why/what on earth will she do with it/suggest it's pointless. Says it all really! It's rather depressing.

To further add to the gloom. ☹️Recent (Jan 2024) HoCL research briefing “Language Teaching in Schools (England).

Opens with the depressing statement of the obvious “Language learning in England is consistently poor when compared with foreign language learning in other countries.”

Quotes an even more depressing EU research stat from 2018. 32% of UK 15-30 year olds felt confident reading and writing in two or more languages, compared to 79% in France, 91% in Germany, and an EU average of 80%. The report does not show the graph however a 2020 HEPI report “A Languages Crisis” does (p13) for anyone who wants to be really shocked.

Interestingly Ireland has the 3rd worst figure. Worst only in a placement sense, Ireland’s figure was 75%, well past double that of the UK.

In terms of simple Economic impacts the HoCL report references a CBI survey from 2019 that highlighted foreign languages and cultural understanding “will be vital for Global Britain”.

The survey highlighted German as the key European language slightly ahead of Spanish and then French.

The HEPI report also highlighted previous work at Cardiff Business School (2014) highlighting a trade cost of language ignorance of £48 billion

HoCL report cites a Cambridge University report from 2016 “The value of languages” which again flagged negative economic impacts.

it may come as a surprise that there is also an All Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages which back in 2014 produced a “manifesto for languages”. Presumably largely ignored.

More surprisingly the “National Recovery Programme for Languages” dating from 2019. The subsequent data might suggest the programme is not yet on track.

Finally two British Council “Languages for the future” reports. These highlighted Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic and German as the most important languages to learn, followed by a second tier of Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese and Russian.

and to end on a really low note, a challenge some might think given much of the above, the report references the 2023/24 Initial Teacher Training. 974 new postgrad entrants for Modern Languages. This was 1,986 (or 67%) teachers below the target.

@boys3 As a MFL grad, DD would have needed Spanish to be a teacher. French box ticked, but not Spanish. Her uni friend who did teaching had to learn it. He really wanted to teach but obviously others don’t which makes the pool very small. It’s not seen as an attractive job and who else has to learn yet more after 4 years of study in order to teach?

Teaching was probably bottom of my DDs list although she might have considered a private school if all else failed. A girl she was at primary school with is a MFL teacher but mum teaches MFL and is German and dad is a head but taught MFL. The DD spoke German at home from birth plus tutored in other languages. So when the grade boundaries are high, this is what dc are up against.

It’s a shame we can never get past the “what do you do with languages?” narrative. Almost anything - just not stem! We seem to see them as a training with narrow outcomes for work. It’s obviously ludicrous but DC see MFL teachers and cannot get past teaching as a follow on from MFL or being a holiday rep! The fact you can do anything is lost on many. Including my local Sri Lankan garage owner who despaired when I said dd was doing MFL. Why can she not do law he wanted to know. Something useful. I said she can. MFLs first though.

It’s a shame we can never get past the “what do you do with languages?” narrative.

True - languages are very important and highly valued by employers.

However, a lot of applicants speak several languages AND have a degree in say economics, maths or engineering.

Unfortunately there are not many from the UK, but a lot of large companies are recruiting from a global workforce.

Should have posted the report links

House of Commons Library https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7388/