“Hear-ye! Hear-ye! Languages are no longer compulsory!”
The Town Crier of the DfE announced the news, spreading the view of the monarch.
The local MFL townsfolk cautiously huddled around their replica Camembert boxes and sombreros, knowing what this meant for their subject: it was the death knell. Students opted out of languages so quickly that it should have become the new metaphor for desertion, replacing rodents and sinking ships.
Flash forward: two new babies are born in the Royal Castle, EBac and Progress 8, both screaming for MFL, a necessary and essential part of their diet. Yet the town folk were cautious: would anyone even want to learn their subject? And they’d only just got used to teaching citizenship...
Missed opportunities
For some schools, the wilderness years of MFL were great. SLTs were full of glee as they removed that oily stain on the league tables; all those missed C grades were suddenly swept away.
But the real effect of the absence of language teaching? A genuine loss of skills.
I welcome the return of MFL not just because it’s the subject I teach, but because it means that our students will embark on one of the most challenging (and rewarding) subjects in their school careers.
We need to remember that MFL isn’t just for students who pop to the Dordogne for the weekend and want to ‘have a go’ at ordering a croissant. It is not just about grasping the basics of a language, though that does, of course, have serious value.
Despite the era of low-cost, low-comfort travel being well and truly upon us, many students may never travel abroad and experience other cultures. Languages, when taught correctly, need to be embedded in the culture, teaching students about the historical and contemporary issues. For some it will prise open a small window of light, for others it will burst forth an age of bratwurst and waiting to cross until the light is green in the German style. MFL gives students opportunities to explore difference.
Multiple benefits
In addition, as the old adage goes, “learning a language will help you understand your own.” Never has that been truer. The only reason that I can recognise an indirect object pronoun is because my secondary Spanish teacher spent three hours on them with us. With new Spag tests and higher standard of written accuracy in all subjects, MFL is the subject that tests, twists and re-explains those rules. Have a problem with students ignoring what they’ve learned in English? MFL is the answer, as long as it is organised correctly.
Those are the subject-specific skills: if you look beyond the language itself, you’ll find an embarrassment of riches. The obvious skills jump out, such as presentation and close listening skills, both of which are key to any students’ education and growth beyond MFL. Except that’s not it: numeracy, structural grammar, creating logical argument, creativity, tolerance, even writing PEEs (point, evidence, explain) can be built in. Often lauded as the subject of the elite, it’s not: in many ways, it’s more multidisciplinary than people think and every student deserves to learn from it.
Schools scared of languages pulling down their overall position in the league table should reconsider their view. To discourage students from MFL because they’ll get a D not only is unfair but is closing the door to a great number of necessary skills, opportunities and an ever-shrinking world.
Benjamin Davey is head of world studies (MFL and humanities) at the Bridge Learning Campus, Bristol
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