Generation monoglot

AS THE new term starts across England, schools are chewing over this summer’s results in the 16-plus exams. One trend is clear—the coalition’s emphasis on pupils achieving five core academic subjects, including a language, in its new EBACC (English Baccalaureate) qualification has raised the number of candidates taking language exams.

This marks a reversal of a long period in which English schools turned out a rising number of monoglots (see chart). The past two decades have witnessed a sharp decline in the numbers of teenagers poring over French verbs, let alone the oddities of German, which as Mark Twain, a 19th-century American writer, observed, renders a girl neuter but a turnip feminine.

In 1993 over 315,000 pupils sat the 16-plus exam in French, compared with just over 177,000 this year. German had 108,000 entrants in 1993; there are fewer than 63,000 now. Only Spanish fared better, with 91,000 GCSE entrants this year, rising from 32,000 in 1993. Largely to blame for the slump was a decision by the Labour government in 2002 to end the compulsory status of a language in secondary schools. That accelerated a longer period of modern-languages decline, as pupils switched to subjects perceived to be easier or more practical. Now the coalition is claiming that the rise in this year’s exam entries at 16 marks the first step to correcting the resulting monolingualism. Yet progress has been modest—the number of GCSE French entrants, for example, merely returned to 2010 levels, around half the numbers of the 1990s.

Neither has this development translated into enthusiasm for languages in A-level exams, taken at 18. French and German A-level entries have fallen, by 11% and 10% respectively. The low number of entries and the dearth of top grades have prompted the main exam boards and Ofqual, the qualifications regulator, to launch an investigation.

Reasons for the reluctance to persist with languages might include emphasis by successive governments on maths, science and technology. But overall, incentives to learn languages in Britain remain frustratingly haphazard. Primary schools are not required to teach a foreign language. Steve Smith, a teacher and blogger on language trends, notes that the university admissions system no longer treats a language as a core requirement. He thinks more should follow the example of University College London in re-introducing a GCSE requirement for all applicants.

At least London’s status as a global hub means that there are a decent number of candidates for exams in Bengali, Farsi and Russian—though most candidates have family links to the language. Despite a push to increase Mandarin teaching by outfits like the British Council, the government’s soft-power arm, the number of GCSE entrants is still under 3,000 and concentrated in private schools.

A reason for Britain’s poor record of producing linguists may also lie in the thought that they are not essential, because English dominates. Daniel Hannan, an outspoken (and multilingual) member of the European Parliament, says the case for learning French and German is dwindling as travel and trade widen out beyond Europe. Pupils may well do better to know Turkish and Arabic instead, he says—assuming that they don’t mind the humiliation of struggling with a French menu.