Yet another university pulling Modern Languages degrees

[tadjennyp]

Just seen on the news that Leicester is pulling its MFL degrees despite students having accepted offers. Are languages becoming the preserve of prestigious universities with very high tariffs? What hope do students in sixth forms in schools with low prior attainment have of going to university to study a language? I am feeling quite demoralised as an MFL teacher. What can we do to prevent the decline? And no, google translate does not do the same job as a person being able to converse with confidence.

Thanks 😀

My kids did exchanges about 10 years ago. Only trouble was, their exchange partners already spoke excellent English while my kids were still on the "Je m'appelle Daisy" stage. It was a great experience for all of them nonetheless, but I don't think my kids progressed their language skills much.

Every country with which UK schoolchildren might want to do a language exchange will have far higher standards for English as a foreign language for a given age group than England has for French/German/Spanish. And this is before taking account of contemporary standards of security guidance and the costs/resources involved in vetting families. The inexpensive exchange model of language learning of yesteryear is practically dead.

I went on exchange to Germany in 2001. Every member of the German family spoke near fluent English (including, particularly embarrassingly, my exchange partner's much younger sister) and very quickly decided it was much, much better to communicate with me in English than to endure my German.... As did every other person I encountered in that trip to Germany. I did try ordering in cafes etc., but they always replied in English. It was probably quite good for me as a general experience, being away from home, but I'm not sure it did much for my German.

My school still runs exchanges. I have been in charge of the German one and am now i/c the French one. It's a huge amount of work and yes, we have to get all the parents and also any resident siblings over 18 DBS checked, while also explaining to them that there is no equivalent check on our French, German or Spanish host families (which puts some of our parents off).

It's true that the foreign partners almost always speak far, far better English than our students speak their languages. Much more colloquial language too. It's a very valuable cultural (and personal development) experience, and it increases their awareness and appreciation of the language, even if it doesn't improve their standard to a noticeable degree.

The sad thing is that we would probably get much higher uptake of our trips if they were not exchanges. Some kids are too scared to do it, lots of parents hate the idea of hosting, and some are worried about safeguarding issues.

@1000StrawberryLollies "and some are worried about safeguarding issues."

Tbh I think that exchanges within families are fantastically risky and I say that as someone whose children did go on exchanges, to several countries and in several contexts. If I had my time again, I would be much more wary.

Not exchange but homestay - a friend hosts teachers accompanying school trips from France -she won’t host the kids as too much hassle.

I first leaned French at primary school and loved it - speaking and listening but not writing. Temporarily lost interested when I went to secondary school and the emphasis was on reading and writing. Would be great if we could just let children enjoy language learning and communication in the way they learned their first language, but the educational establishment has no flexibility and an obsession with measure and assessment.

Unfortunately second language learning doesn't work in the way first language learning does - even with full immersion (which obviously is rare in the UK context). While I agree that MFL teaching is often sub par, this is because you need both a highly competent teaching team, with a very strong degree of fluency, and a great curriculum. These are too expensive for most schools to contemplate. Children also need to practice the language they are learning outside school and not many parents have the skills or knowledge or resources to support that.