Education
The decline in modern languages
Logie Bruce Lockhart The HMC is holding an inquest into the falling standards in modern languages. The state !Ystem fares no better; our decision for Europe, taI from providing a boom in modern languages, has accelerated their decline. Fewer students are studying languages — or where there are as many as there used to be, they appear to be doing so With less success.
Who is to blame? Eveyone passes the buck. The secondary schools blame the primary schools; headmasters blame teachers, or train _
ing colleges, or the comprehensive system; the teachers blame the establishment for Providing insufficient money or equipment, or they blame the children; modern language teachers blame the English and Latin teachers, and vice versa. Everyone blames the examinations. When in doubt the spirit of the times is held responsible. There have been countless inquests. The c, ures most generally offered are: first, to teach languages only to very clever boys and girls, and to confine oneself to teaching the others about Europe in English. Second, to start languages later, and to be less demanding, concentrating on tourist oral French for all but the brightest. Third, to change courses every Year or two in hopes of finding something .better. These are counsels of despair, which will lead to yet further decline. There is no reason why English children of average IQ should not be taught to speak, read and Write other languages tolerably well — certainly to '0' level. One can always blame exams, but a respectable linguist will pass examinations good or bad. The Dutch and the G, ermans have shown conclusively what a high level can be produced from ordinary children. The real reasons for the decline are: first, the small number of good language teachers now applying for jobs. Second, the confusion of teaching methods: those who can speak the language and can handle hardware often fail to teach systematically, don't understand gra/pillar, can't keep order in class; whereas those who have some idea of grammatical structure a, nd can keep order often can't speak the language, or bore the children, or can't manage hardware. Third, the widespread belief that languages don't matter, because foreigners speak English, Which is becoming an international language: ,and because one can always pick up another language by going on a crash course later.
Fourth, the late start given to languages in glish schools. Fifth, the misguided use of language laboratories in dribs and drabs of bne or two periods Per Week.
.Sixth, the increased time given to other ..0 bjects, especially the sciences, in the school tilnetabie. eSeventh, dull set books, and the cramping effect of examinations, especially 'A' levels, in wruch active use of a foreign language plays a minor part. Eighth, the impractical and often uninspiring nature of many university courses. Ninth, inth, the difficulty of combining modern _ nguages with other 'A' level subjects, especially the sciences.
Tenth, the lack of clear demand for mastery of a foreign language by employers. Lastly, the decline in some comprehensives where lack of interest of the majority seems to have affected the performance of the minority.
One of the reasons that so few modern languages graduates teach is that our move into Europe has absorbed a high proportion of our limited stock of linguists as salesmen or Eurocrats. The fact that those who do teach have a faulty technique is due to the polarisation between the old school of grammarians and the devotees of audio visual and language lab oral courses. Pure language laboratory teaching is excellent if administered in intensive doses of three or four hours a day plus homework, not so good if scattered through the week in isolated periods. Successful language teaching must be mostly in the language studied, must demand reading and writing as well as speaking, must demand learning by heart in large quantities (most unfashionable!), must practise grammar by repeated exercises in the language, must use bright and amusing readers, must ram home vocabulary and speech pattern by repeated questions and answers based on objects or pictures, whether in books, wall charts or slide projectors. It requires at some stage a concentrated three weeks of language lab drills morning and afternoon. At all times it must combine fun and hard work, neither of which can survive without the other. Never must it convey the idea that children cannot be expected to understand and practise the vital rules, like those for the agreement of participles, or the use of pronouns. It is the most difficult of arts for the teacher, but not for the pupils.
The belief that one can pick it up later from a crash course is erroneous. If one has wrestled successfully with the basics of one foreign language, then a two months' visit or a crash course for three weeks at four hours a day will work miracles. Without that basis neither visit nor course will achieve much without agonising and largely fruitless effort.
Some people claim that a late start is no handicap to learning. This is nonsense: yet a bad start can be disastrous. Competent teachers can achieve marvels with children of eight to thirteen, given the right methods, small enough classes and the expectation of success. The imitative ear and lack of self-consciousness necessary for picking up languages are at their. peak before the embarrassed teens.
The syllabus is overcrowded to avoid specialisation, but no good progress can be expected in a modern language with less than five periods a week.
The 'A' level examination is due for a radical revision. It must put the emphasis back where it belongs: on active use of a modern language. Literary graces are best measured by a separate, special paper. The Oxford and Cambridge board give as many marks for the translation into English as for the translation into French and the essay combined. The same is true of the literature paper, all of which is answered in English .. . How the Dutch or the Germans would laugh!
I enjoyed the modern languages course at Cambridge, but not everyone likes poetry and philosophy. Some of the universities are producing lively courses on present-day institutions, economics and geography; but we need more., The three 'A' level system is death to modern languages. As long as universities demand three scientific 'A' levels from their science candidates, only brilliant students will be able to add an 'A' level in a language. Even modern foreign language specialists hesitate to commit themselves to two foreign languages, preferring to keep a foot in more remunerative faculties.
Choice of 'A' levels is dicated by taste, by university policy and by employers. When all the bodies with interests abroad offer high rewards to linguists and demand good qualifications, these will no doubt emerge. In the meantime, we shall do what we can to campaign for changes.
Previous page
