Call for all UK students to learn a second language from age 5 - 16
94 replies, posted
[B]All children should learn a foreign language at primary and secondary school, a House of Lords committee has said. [/B]
The UK's attitude to languages has prevented its students from studying in Europe, according to the House of Lords' EU committee.
It says the UK has been popular with EU students keen to improve their English, but it is now facing competition.
[B]Education Secretary Michael Gove also favours language learning from five.[/B]
A new league table measure for England is expected to lead to more teenagers studying languages.
Known as the English Baccalaureate, it is given to pupils who get good GCSEs in five key subjects including a language.
[B]Languages are not compulsory in English and Welsh secondary schools beyond the age of 14, although a review of the curriculum is under way in England.[/B]
The Lords' committee says [B]too few British students are taking part in schemes designed to encourage movement among students in the EU[/B] and blames "monoglot" (speaking just one language) attitudes.
[B]Students in France, Germany and Spain were three times as likely as those in Britain to take part in an EU programme called Erasmus[/B], where students can study or work abroad as part of their degree, the committee said.
Its inquiry follows a report from the European Commission last September which said that European universities had "under-exploited potential" to contribute to Europe's prosperity and society.
[B]The Lords call on the EU to allocate more funds to research and education to help in the region's long-term economic recovery.[/B]
Committee chairman Baroness Young of Hornsey said: "The government must place higher education at the heart of their growth agenda in order to maintain and contribute to the economic and social wealth of the UK and Europe as a whole.
"In the immediate few months, this will require the government to negotiate ambitiously to allocate a greater proportion of the long-term EU budget to research, innovation and education."
[B]The committee reject a call from the European Commission to bring in a new ranking system for universities.[/B]
[B]And they call on the government to "remain vigilant" about attracting students from overseas[/B], particularly following the increase in tuition fees.
From the autumn, fees at England's universities will be allowed to rise up to a maximum of £9,000 a year, although they are covered by student loans which do not have to be paid back until graduates are earning £21,000 a year.
Fees are also rising in other parts of the UK, although students from Northern Ireland who stay there to study will not be affected and those from Wales will be subsidised wherever they study in the UK. Students in Scotland will continue to pay no fees.
The UK is facing tougher competition for students from the EU and further afield the report says, particularly as[B] some universities in mainland Europe are teaching courses in English and have lower fees[/B].
[URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17466166[/URL]
This is still useless unless the way schools teach is reformed as well.
Teaching someone exactly what they need to know for the exams, and nothing else, is not going to help people anyway.
learning a second language in school didn't really help me since i kinda forgot it a year or two after i finished the courses
[editline]22nd March 2012[/editline]
im sure if i actually went to where the language was spoken and had to use it then it would have stuck with me a bit better, but it was pretty pointless since i wasn't able to do that
I got the top grade in my French exam.
Forgot everything after a week.
I just hope there's plenty of option as to what they learn.
I was lucky enough to get a school that was also teaching German. Everybody still took French, but I think it's nice to have the ability to plan ahead if you want to move to a particular country like I plan to.
totally un-necessary to force it in
like how universities used to require a second language at a level, it really does fuck all to help you if you have no interest in speaking it
Yeah if you don't use the language anywhere you will forget it quite fast. Especially if you are learning it at such young age. The only reason I know english so well is thanks to internet and videogames being in english which exposed me to the language quite a lot. Otherwise I would've forgotten it quite soon like I did with german.
[QUOTE=The golden;35245938]Learning a language is not a easy task and you cannot just force it onto people.[/QUOTE]
This can be said about pretty much anything you get taught in school with equal validity.
I was in quite good classes for all my subjects at school except French, it meant that lesson was always a laugh :v:
Don't really remember much of it though
If you start learning at 5, it's a lot easier to do well at it. I know because I've done English since I was 5. I'd say the main problem is the way that second languages are taught in UK schools, not the fact that they are there in the first place.
Bout time. As long as it isn't French.
[QUOTE=The golden;35245938]This is so useless.
Schools here in B.C already do this, and everyone forgets everything 2 weeks after school ends anyway. Learning a language is not a easy task and you cannot just force it onto people. Hence why so many people just don't pay attention and then instantly forget everything.
If a person genuinely wants to learn a second language, then they probably already know it by now. Primary/High school would be the LAST place I go to learn my second language. (If I was interested)[/QUOTE]
Languages are not mandatory in BC Secondary Schools. I dropped (Read: Failed with 18%) French in 8th Grade and I was fine.
On topic, I think knowing a second language can be helpful, but it shouldn't be mandatory.
[QUOTE=The golden;35246024]I'm willing to bet that learning history or art is easier than learning German. (My sisters school even offered Japanese)[/QUOTE]
All depends on how far you want to take it and how early you start. Some people find maths to be pretty much like an alien language to them that they feel they can't ever comprehend properly.
I have 6 years of german on my back.
Ich hasse sex jarhe of deutsch im mein arsch.
How did I do? Seems like a waste
The problem with languages is that if you don't use them regularly most people will just forget them. It's fairly pointless to try and force other languages on people considering the main language in the world is English.
[QUOTE=The golden;35246079]I don't know how things work over there, but schools here offer different levels of math difficulty that you can pick from. Everything from advanced calculus to basic stuff (like how to do your taxes and mortgages).[/QUOTE]
Same with languages. I couldn't be bothered doing French properly, got dropped down to the lowest level and managed to accidentally pass a test while trying to fail it.
[QUOTE=Thom12255;35245871]I got the top grade in my French exam.
Forgot everything after a week.[/QUOTE]
I still know "je suis fromage".
As I've always said, either teach it properly (from a young age) or don't bother, teaching it only in high school is a pointless waste of time
[QUOTE=AK'z;35246102]I still know "je suis fromage".[/QUOTE]
and I still know how to say je suis dans la piscine avec le cheval
As an Eastern European citizen I have to know my native language (Latvian), the cancer-language you can't live without (Russian), English and I'll learn French and Spanish in uni.
So, please, learning languages is piss-easy.
This can be a good idea. Starting to learn a language from the age of 5 will most likely nail it in their heads at an older age.
Like most of the world has to learn English in school from an early age, although you're more exposed to that language than let's say French.
I had Spanish classes throughout JHS and I forgot everything. Starting at this age is pretty pointless, so 1st grade is the way to go.
omlette du fromage
I'm doing a diploma in I.T, and it's left me no time for language lessons. It's been like this for almost two years now.
I did French for 3 years. I remember how to say hello. Nothing else.
Languages are badly taught in this country. The main issue, I guess, is that they aren't taught early enough.
I think the problem is that you're taught how to pass an exam, not taught the language.
[QUOTE=Roflking;35246162]I think the problem is that you're taught how to pass an exam, not taught the language.[/QUOTE]
Pretty sure that's sadly the case with most subjects.
[QUOTE=Roflking;35246162]I think the problem is that you're taught how to pass an exam, not taught the language.[/QUOTE]
GCSE coursework, at my school anyway, was to write about a certain topic in French, and you could do this at home, with Google translate
Then you had to memorise what you had written and write it under controlled conditions
It was a memory test. Fucking retarded
I fucking hate learning a language and see no point in it [b]whatsoever[/b]
My English is the result from studying it since 5th grade (I think). I'm still having trouble with things like subject verb agreement and some spelling certain words such as "necessarily" or "enthusiastailya".
But it's a great initiative. However perhaps a bit useless when everyone else on the globe are learning English :v:
Oh and yes, doing a second or third language in high school is pretty useless. I've studied German for a few years and have practically forgotten everything.
Schnell! Jawohl! Kaputt!
I'd like this. I didn't like learning languages while I was doing it but now I'm older I wish I'd put some more effort in.
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