Languages: Curriculum

Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government have taken since 1997 to encourage more students to learn foreign languages at school.

Jim Knight
In 2002 the Government's National Languages Strategy was published, with the overarching objective of improving the teaching and learning of languages across all phases of education, including delivering an entitlement that by 2010 all Key Stage 2 pupils (ages 7-11) will be able to learn a language at least in part in class time. Research commissioned by the Department shows that 70 per cent. of primary schools are already teaching foreign languages in class time.

In light of the continued decline in take-up of languages at GCSE following the decision in 2004 to lift the requirement on young people to be taught a language at Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16), we commissioned the Languages Review, chaired by Lord Dearing. This reported in March 2007 and made a number of recommendations that we are now taking forward. These include: making languages a compulsory part of the primary curriculum when it is next reviewed, backed by a teacher training programme in a primary languages specialism, increased funding for local authorities to support primary languages, and access to sources of support for classroom teaching; promoting a broader range of languages at Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14) by relaxing the requirement that schools first teach a working language of the European Union so that they can offer any major world or European language; and encouraging take-up of languages at GCSE level by including two new performance indicators in the Achievement and Attainment Tables to measure attainment and participation in languages and providing challenge and support to schools from School Improvement Partners and Ofsted.