Depressed about MFL

[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).

Really shocking - Britain will find itself even more isolated and kids will miss out on great opportunities.

Am also a MFL teacher in a sixth form college and totally and completely share your concerns.

We have to push Gatsby info about degrees, careers etc and in light of the funding changes for years abroad I feel like such a fraud that these wonderful kids who've chosen to study languages will find themselves unsupported and with minimal choices at Uni.

It's all very well the govt refunding the national centres of learning etc (I forget the current acronym) and in particular making a push for learning German, which is my specialist subject, but until this enthusiasm is met at HE level then these A-Level students will feel cheated once they get to Uni.

Are you in SecMFL on FB? There maybe some mileage in raising the HE Turing funding issues there as there may be more knowledgeable members who could give some insight.

I vaguely recall the UCML publishing recently a paper about the Turing funding issues for MFL...I'll see if I can find it.

Here it is in all its depressing glory:

thepienews.com/news/turing-timeline-deeply-problematic/

@RSintes @MFLresearch
I think MFL teaching at university is still great but dependents on the university. Contextual offers can be BBC at very desirable universities. Students should not be put off applying for these.

It was never the remit of former polytechnics to teach MFLs. They were always taught at the new 1960s universities and the older ones. Therefore there needs to be better advice on what universities have a broad offer of options. Plenty still do snd are not just bolting MFL onto business courses .

MFL uptake has always been better in independent schools and their pupils are not well represented at Sheffield. Where they are well represented, you would expect a better MFL offering. So it’s a case of doing research.

Turing is a nightmare for average families. It’s only for contextual students who already get full loans and bursaries. Others who are struggling are excluded. No doubt this will mean even fewer doing MFLs. So many stupid people voted for Brexit in less well off areas and they simply didn’t/don’t care about MFLs.

It’s depressing, OP and very worrying for the future of this country as a whole. I teach in an independent and it’s really not any better. We have a handful in 6th form doing French, German or Spanish and struggle to get past the desire to study STEM. By far the majority of our kids want to be doctors or dentists so just don’t see need. I don’t know the answer but the knock on effect when it comes to having teachers there in the first place is massive as well.

There are several former polys who offer MFL, and have a good reputation - UCLan would be one. But this isn't massively helpful to the school picture as I think the growing trend - and demand- is for grads who have Mandarin/Arabic (certainly the case in FCO recruitment where they are prioritised.) A few schools offer these subjects- but certainly not your average one.

I did loads of MFL at school for the love of learning for learning's sake. One of the big issues is that this 'mood' has almost entirely vanished from education and right up to government level.

Perhaps we need to re emphasise that MFL learning is good for your brain?

I am in an area where MFL has always been taught at KS2 (this was mentioned on the HE thread) and in a rare state school that still has 3 languages. They are popular at GCSE- but at MFL this evaporates and classes are barely viable. I see this as part of the bigger picture of the decline in arts and cultures A levels - but also (sorry MFL teachers !) the rather elitist rhetoric that surrounds MFL as being for the very brightest and very hard just doesn't work as a recruitment strategy in a landscape that has lost AS and where the brightest are increasingly steered away from MFL , English Lit etc to maths, physics and chemistry.

I'm not sure it's entirely accurate that MFL is thriving in independents, though. Tiny class sizes there, too - it is just those schools are far less likely to have to decide not to run an A level group with two students.

One glimmer of hope? Aldi and Lidl's famous graduate recruitment programme (highly paid; great ts and cs) prioritises German speakers.

but also (sorry MFL teachers !) the rather elitist rhetoric that surrounds MFL as being for the very brightest and very hard just doesn't work as a recruitment strategy in a landscape that has lost AS and where the brightest are increasingly steered away from MFL

I am not aware of anywhere that attempts to recruit on a ‘brightest and best’ basis. It would be foolish to do so, given the numbers issue (which is not new, I did A level in a group of 4 30 odd years ago now). The problem is students who get a grade 9 at GCSE can go anywhere from A* to E at A Level. The gap between GCSE and A Level is enormous (and going to be bigger still if the new GCSE comes in as it looks it’s going to come in) and not everyone copes with it, despite doing really well in other subjects. Adding in the issue of native speakers who tip the balance of results a little higher than they would be without them (hence, MFL is hard) and a student who wants to go to a Russell Group uni to study something competitive isn’t going to take the risk. There are no easy solutions, other than universities doing ab initio courses as a possible add on for all subjects, not just business, with aggressive marketing that makes people feel daft not to give it a try!

@Changechangechanging
MFL degrees are not competitive at RG universities though. If you take a MFL as part of a degree, you might get a lower offer. You might actually get an offer! Therefore it’s not a huge risk to go for a MFL degree. It’s a much higher risk to go for English!

No, I wasn’t meaning MFL. More choosing it as an A Level in the first place. I think I have gone off at a tangent - my apologies.

We don't really have 'native speakers' at my school. Even at GCSE, less able students , who could validly enjoy the subjects, are steered away and towards 'easier' subjects. Unfortunately this is a consequence of results based culture in schools.

Lots of parents steer away from MFL too. The belief that everyone speaks English so why bother is completely embedded. As a country we don’t value MFLs but think it wonderful that others do. Students prefer IR to MFL at university and get nowhere. MFLs will open doors in some areas of employment.

Less able students tend to extra English to get their grade up! MFL dropped to facilitate this.

My DD struggled with German at GCSE. It was her lowest GCSE grade and was never on the cards at A level. However, she spent 4 months of her gap year au pairing in Germany and fell in love with the language. She is now about to finish BA Geography with German at the LSE.

@Oldowl So at LSE can you do a joint honours German degree without the A level? Is she doing it ab initio?

You can do a ‘with’ degree at the LSE with any single honours course. You have to take a full module each year in the language that increases in difficulty. DD took intermediate, advanced then proficient levels. In the first year she had 5 hours of teaching in German each week, 4 hours in the 2nd year and 3 hours this year plus weekly German conversational groups with native speakers organised by the language centre.