The government has announced it will inject £53m into schools to improve the teaching of modern foreign languages (MFL) in schools.
Apparently this is to counteract a drop in the take-up of language GCSEs since they were made non-compulsory.
Pardonnez-moi? Wouldn’t a £53m cheaper way of solving the problem be to make French and German compulsory again? Er… no, according to schools minister, Jim Knight.
Jim tells the Guardian: “Compulsory French or German GCSE study simply does not motivate pupils. We will generate enthusiasm and confidence for studying languages in secondary school and beyond – far more effective than simple compulsion.”
Ah sod it - lets make Maths and English optional too – it won’t be a problem because we’ll just generate some enthusiasm with a few more millions.
I sort of see where he’s coming from though. Making kids do something is a sure fire way of putting them off – but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere. There’s no reason why we can’t “generate enthusiasm” as well as making French and/or German compulsory.
One of the ways the government want to boost MFL take-up is by introducing it to kids in primary schools. In fact, the one thing they are making compulsory is the teaching of an MFL in primary schools.
I feel obliged to say they shouldn’t make the teaching of languages compulsory – they should just “generate enthusiasm” for the teaching of languages.
I did briefly try teaching a bit of French to my year fives – it went down a treat (see here) – but that’s because I know a some French already and I do a mean impression of Thierry Henry. But I think asking a primary teacher with no specific language knowledge to teach a language is a step too far.
If the government seriously wants to go ahead with this plan then it needs to think very carefully about how it is going to deliver effective MFL lessons to primary school kids. Otherwise, children who would previously have arrived at secondary school with no preconceptions about French or German, will turn up less enthusiastic than ever before.
Really interesting post!
Never stop iterating and don’t fear failure. Choose well-understood conventions where they will do to the most good , shortcuts you might take will cost you more to fix later than to try to get right up-front today.
Thanks , Zoli Juhasz
If this is the Government’s idea of boosting achievement then I have to agree it seems slightly bizarre and potentially doomed to failure.
We all know that given the choice at 15 or 16 (or 14) we probably would have opted out of French had it been an option. Who wouldn’t? This surely can’t be the best way of boosting numbers, acheivement and British French speakers!
The 53m injection is sort of a side issue. But it’s a lot of money – and a big slice of the Education budget. Why waste it on doing something which could more easily be done by compulsory education?
Compulsory education – while admittedly probably not always the best way of motivating pupils and boosting enthusiasm – is really necessary to build the foundations of learning – which can then be expanded, specialised and enthused!
We might not like it, but we need it. Is sort of how it goes for this kind of thing.
Bring it back!
Paying kids to go to school after they are 16 now appears to be the norm so I say pay them at Primary/Secondary schools too. That way they won’t have any idea what it is like to work for your money, like when I was a lad, and we will become a nation of wasters, but at least we will speak French down the dole office.
Speaking from the P.O.V of someone who studied French and German to A Level and for a good two weeks (don’t ask) at degree level it is tough and back then was, in my view, poorly taught.
I had to toil away with the delightful Herr Matthews and his strange German helper/captive Ulrich for two hours periods three times a week, poor little lamb I hear you cry, but schiving little sod and I invariably had a dentist appointment or went to work instead.
I am a true believer that the best way to learn a language is not to learn verbatim the various verb tenses but to go to the country and speak to people.
Get the little bleeders on RyanAir flights for the £53 million.
In other European countries, the Netherlands for example, children are taught English at an early age and so are more or less fluent by the time they reach secondary school age. I tried learning both German and French at secondary school but had to drop German because learning the two languages was too confusing. I think when a a child reaches secondary school the chances of them enthusiastically learning a foreign language from scratch is slim. If the teaching of foreign languages is to be made compulsory in primary schools then perhaps the teaching of French and Spanish might be more appropiate given that Spanish is more widely spoken than German. I’m not an expert on what ages a child learns most effectively at but I think the earlier the better. Its common sense that there’s more chance of them continuing to learn the lanuguage well and enthusiastically if they have a good knowledge of it already.