British Children Encouraged To Study Languages

The House of Lords' EU committee favours a move to encourage more British children to study languages at primary and secondary schools.  With the introduction of the English Baccalaureate it is also hoped that more teenagers will then decide to study languages which could ultimately boost the number of British students studying languages at University.

The House of Lords committee is concerned by the 'monoglot' (speaking just one language) attitude which appears to be prevalent in the UK.Since the last government stopped making studying languages compulsory at GCSE there has been a distinct decline in the number of teenagers taking up a language at school. Learning a language at secondary school is still not compulsory in English and Welsh schools.

The House of Lords' EU committee says that the UK has been particulary popular with EU students coming over to learn or improve their English but not many British students have been taking up schemes which encourage students to move between universities in the EU, such as with the EU programme called Erasmus.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary is keen to encourage chidren to learn languages from as early as five years old.

If you have a child attending primary or secondary school; if they are learning a language, consider why you would like them to learn it.

Read more about the move to encourage more British children to study languages>>