For many years learning a foreign
language has been considered a very important part of education. French and
German have been the most common, although in the last ten years there has been
a rise in the number of schools teaching Spanish. Being able to speak another
language has always been thought of as an asset; it can lead to greater
opportunities. Working abroad is made significantly easier when you can speak
the native language, or even with working in the UK in an industry that has
multinational clients or offices around Europe. Being multilingual widens your
career opportunities and therefore, your potential income.
As a former teacher I am
passionate that compulsory education should ensure children have as many
opportunities as possible so they can make informed decisions about their
future. Unfortunately the state of learning in the UK has changed, notably with
languages. Fewer children are taking a language forward to GCSE, let alone A
Level and university. Part of the problem seems to be that children aren’t
finding lessons interesting enough. To make it more engaging we need more
teachers, who can then hopefully bring fresh ideas to lessons. With fewer
studying at each education level, fewer become teachers and as a result, it
becomes harder to add new ideas and approaches. It’s a vicious cycle and has led to language
departments in universities closing because there aren’t enough enrolling.
Whilst native English speakers
aren’t taking to languages in this country, the market for English language
courses to foreign speakers is doing exponentially well. If you want to study English in the UK there are multiple options; you can go to
university here or simply take a course. However, the issue of immigration has
been at the centre of recent UK political debate and it makes you wonder if we
will see a decline in the number of people coming from abroad to study here
because of it. It is possible immigration laws will be
tightened; there could be restrictions on how long European nationals can
remain in the country, and the questions they’re required to answer to secure
their visa might become more intrusive.
Related to this is the concern
about the potential impact of leaving the EU would have. To those wanting to
study here, this only adds to growing worry about anti-foreign sentiment. If
foreign nationals don’t feel they would be welcome here then that not only harms
our cooperative system with other European countries, but also the economic and
cultural benefit they bring by filling the language teacher roles we so lack.
Another possible result of leaving the EU, as discussed in this article from The Guardian, is that EU nationals may have to ‘pay full
tuition fees and would have no access to student loans’. As language
departments are closing because there aren’t enough UK-born people taking the
courses, we need EU nationals more than ever as they’re the ones keen to live
here and enrol.
This hasn’t even touched on the
other benefits of having native language teachers in the UK. Those abroad,
because they are native speakers to their country, could make lessons more
interesting for children and students. With a grasp of their country’s culture,
history and politics, they could bring modern topics to lessons, such as
debating French political policy or discussing the Spanish stock market.
The issues of immigration and
leaving the EU could have a significant two fold impact on the state of
learning languages in the UK: fewer EU national teachers and fewer UK language
teachers. There is the potential to limit our already limited pool of teachers.
We want the best for our children and that means giving then all the
opportunities we can. With more teachers and more enjoyable lessons it’s
possible that our children will go on to study languages beyond GCSE, which
will give them greater options in the job market and therefore, more
opportunities in life.
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