HC Deb 09 March 2001 vol 364 cc601-8

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Sutcliffe.]

2.32 pm
Mr. Denis MacShane (Rotherham)

I am grateful for the chance to discuss the Nuffield report on the teaching of foreign languages in our schools. I think that it was Bismarck, who spoke many languages, including French, Italian, Russian and English, who said that speaking many tongues was something that head waiters should do. Charles V, the 16th-century emperor, said that he spoke Spanish to God, Latin to his confessor, Italian to his mistress, French to his men and German to his horse. I shall make a plea for a more modest aim: that we in Britain seek to improve our knowledge of foreign languages so that more of us can speak at least another language.

A monolingual Britain will not survive in the global economy. For the first time in our nation's existence, we have given up insisting that an effort should be made to speak other languages. England has lost an empire but still believes in the imperialism of English. That is a huge mistake because already more than half those accessing the internet are no longer doing so in English. In the United States, Spanish-speaking Hispanic citizens are poised to overtake African-Americans as the country's biggest minority group. Of course, as we know, President Bush campaigns in good Spanish.

There are more than 100 million German-speakers in Europe. As language follows money, the growing economic dominance in central and eastern Europe of Germany, Austria and Switzerland means that more and more German is spoken in that region. We know how far French reaches in Africa and Canada, and Spanish and Portuguese dominate in Latin America. In Asia, Chinese is increasingly becoming a second language.

English is the world's most popular choice for a second language, but as the rest of the world is now learning English or another second language, why are we so foolish and arrogant as to believe that we do not need to speak other tongues? It was not always thus. Throughout our history, our kings, queens and Prime Ministers have spoken and written European languages. Until recently, it would have been unthinkable for in "educated" man or woman not to have some knowledge of other languages.

That was not merely a question of elites; skilled workers would often finish an apprenticeship by working abroad, although, as we know, apprenticeships have gone. Young men would go off to become police inspectors in Hong Kong and learn fluent Cantonese. Army sergeants and corporals would give orders in different tongues to local troops in far-flung parts of the old British empire. Administrators and business people working in different parts of the world would master other languages.

It is a huge error to assume that English will suffice in 21st-century business. On every page of yesterday's "Appointments" supplement to The Times, in which executive jobs are advertised, appeared calls for "fluency in French, German or Spanish", "fluency in at least one foreign language essential" or "language skills—a plus". I cannot stand the awful term "UK plc" but our economic future as a nation will not be secured until we can speak in more than our own tongue.

As a Kipling fan, Mr. Deputy Speaker, you will recall that he wrote: what should they know of England who only England know? We will better understand our own nation, its needs, what it can offer and what it can do if we know other languages and cultures. Britain, despite the xenophobia of the current Leader of the Opposition, will not become a "foreign land", but we shall become less and less British and less and less able to contribute to the shaping of the modern world while we wallow in the pretence that we do not need to understand other languages.

We have a monarch and a Prime Minister who can make a speech in fluent French, but our great multinational nation is turning its back on the source of speaking a foreign language—namely, the teaching of languages in our schools. In 1992, 31,261 school students sat A-level French; last year, only 18,221 did so—a drop of more than one third. The number of A-level German students was 11,338 in 1992, but 8,692 last year. There has been a modest increase—500 or so—in the number of A-level Spanish students, but overall during the 1990s the picture was clear: we were turning our backs on learning the great languages of Europe.

Currently, nine out of 10 children stop learning languages at the age of 16, and more than 95 per cent. of all A-level students do not study a language at all: That, in turn, affects our universities and teacher training institutions. Today, there are barely 10 dozen men training as language teachers and sitting the education certificate in our teacher training colleges. In every university there is concern about the teaching of foreign languages, because students are not coming up from schools. I know that the Government want to improve language teaching in schools, but there are simply not enough teachers with the necessarily specialist training and knowledge.

Last year, the Nuffield report into the teaching of foreign languages was published; it provides a damning indictment of the indifference in Britain to the provision of adequate language teaching in our schools. Sir Trevor McDonald and Sir John Boyd and their team produced an excellent report, to which I want the Government to respond in a far more positive way than they have so far.

This year is the European year of languages. Ministers at the Department for Education and Employment—I pay tribute to Lady Blackstone—and at the Foreign Office, notably our excellent Minister for Europe, have gone out of their way to stress the new importance that the Government attach to foreign language training. I can reveal that Ministers have been told that they must learn a foreign language if they are to carry out work for the Government in Europe. Thanks to diligent homework, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary now speaks remarkably good French, and I understand that Linguaphone is ready to offer its excellent cassettes to enable Members of Parliament to learn a foreign language as we drive home to our constituencies. I believe that no official should be promoted to high office in the civil service without some experience of work overseas and proficiency in another language.

However, until we grasp the nettle of building language teaching into our core school curriculum, we shall continue to lag behind our competitors and partners. That must begin at primary school, when children are not as self-conscious as they are in secondary school. In our country, the road to successful language teaching begins—or should begin—before the age of 11.

We have some interesting initiatives. In my constituency, the year 6 pupils—the 10 and 11-year-olds—at Coleridge primary school are taught Spanish for an hour a week by a teacher from Clifton comprehensive school, thanks to the special provisions of the mini education action zones that the Government have introduced. The head teacher, Mrs. Hall, tells me that her year 6 pupils enjoy their Spanish lessons, especially as the project is linked to a school visit to Spain later this year.

There are many other such language clubs in primary schools throughout the country. I understand from the Government that there is some language teaching in about a quarter of all primary schools, but none of it is formally built into the core curriculum. I have discussed that with head teachers, and the problem is that limited time is available for another compulsory primary school subject, given the obligation—wholly necessary, in my view—to teach the literacy and numeracy hours. However, it is my hon. Friend the Minister's task to find an answer to that problem, not to claim that it cannot be solved—we are a Labour, not a Conservative Government.

At least two primary schools in each constituency should offer a consistent, taught, foreign language. That needs to be followed up by secondary schools teaching foreign languages, and they should do so in the full sense, providing a knowledge of grammar, literature, culture and history—not simply a Berlitz guide, useful for tourist conversation. I very much hope that the move to specialist schools recently announced by the Government will facilitate such a development.

I recall that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment told my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner)—alas, he is not in his seat today—that he hoped that Latin would return to the secondary school curriculum, and my hon. Friend recited, "Amo, amas, amat". That shows that our finest working class leaders had a grounding in Latin, to become effective socialists. So we need structure, grammar and precision, and Latin is not the worst way to prepare a 21st-century generation of young Britons for the programme of renewal that our nation needs.

Entrance to university should require some knowledge of a foreign language as a minimum requirement, as is common on mainland Europe, and business can play a leading part in that. In France, the quality of foreign language knowledge has increased enormously in the past 20 years, because the French Government mandated a training levy for all firms, and one of the best ways to spend that money was in teaching the languages in which French business earns more and more of its income.

Exhortation is not enough. A Minister from the Department for Education and Employment will reply in this debate, but action is required in other Departments to compel firms to provide adequate language training for their employees. The internet can help, but I should like the DFEE and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to discuss with our European partners how education Ministries in France, Berlin, Rome or Madrid could provide e-mail or web tuition designed for individual students. The excellent French and German ambassadors in London, Mr. Bernard and Dr. von Ploetz, have formed a double act—a duet, speaking perfect English as they offer their countries' services to any institution in Britain that would like to improve French and German teaching.

Learning languages is a lifelong business, but it must start in schools, and at an early age. Many school trips are to mainland Europe, but I fear that the children act as a crowd, giggling together in English. I wonder how much real knowledge of a foreign language they ingest. I should like the Minister to take on board my suggestion that the schools that apply for specialist status to teach foreign languages should be given priority over other applicants for specialist school status.

I will not act as a Solomon, declaring which languages should be taught. We have an immense wealth of languages in our county. In south Yorkshire, there are 70 or more languages among the boys and girls arriving in our schools. Many of my Kashmiri constituents and their children have a knowledge of Urdu. That is truly impressive. Can we not build on that cultural linguistic wealth? We are members of the European Union, which is soon to be enlarged to take in the great nations and languages of central and eastern Europe, but I make a plea that the dominant languages of Europe—French, German and Spanish—should be the priority.

As Goethe put it, Whoever is not acquainted with foreign languages knows nothing of his own. Shakespeare would never have been Shakespeare without his Latin and Italian. Gibbon could never have written "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" sitting in England and speaking only English. In a great speech just after the war, Winston Churchill said: Prenez garde, je vais vous parler en francais". In doing so, he brought a message of Englishness that was all the more powerful because he paid his audience the compliment of delivering it in a foreign language.

If we want our country to grow again and attain the top ranks of nations—and remain there—we will have to speak more than English. I commend the recommendations of tie Nuffield report to the House and I hope that the Government will be able to advance its proposals.

2.45 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Jacqui Smith)

May I start by congratulating; my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) on gaining the opportunity to discuss this important issue and, in his customary way, delivering his views entertainingly and convincingly? I, too, have taken up the language challenge as part of the European year of languages and have made a small start on learning Spanish. When I took my husband to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, I made good use of that fieldwork opportunity.

I share my hon. Friend's view that modern foreign languages are key to our social and economic success and that they enable and encourage an understanding of other cultures and of our responsibilities as global citizens. My hon. Friend rightly identified the key issues, which are how to promote language learning in primary and secondary schools; how to ensure that we promote further study of languages; and the importance of lifelong language learning and links to business. I shall cover those areas in my response and talk about how we intend to take forward the Government's work in relation to the Nuffield report.

I know that teachers are enthusiastic about languages at primary level. They tell me that they are concerned to convey to young minds the importance of absorbing the culture of other nations. By doing that, children come to see that understanding a language means more than just learning words and phrases. We do not have a statutory curriculum for modern foreign languages at key stage 2, but languages in primary schools are popular with children and teachers as a voluntary option. That is so, not just outside the curriculum, but inside it, using classroom time. The Government are keen to support and enhance activities in primary schools on the practical and can-do basis that my hon. Gentleman urged.

On that basis, the Department for Education and Employment has supported the early language learning initiative and guidance for teachers at key stage 2 between seven and 11, and it has supported a new scheme of work produced by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority for primary French and the development of further materials for primary German and Spanish. The QCA's materials have been very successful in the short time that they have been available and feedback from teachers has been positive and supportive. Five thousand copies of the scheme of work alone have been distributed since their introduction.

The early learning language project is a unique project within a subject area and a unique collaboration with the centre for information on language teaching and research. It started in September 1999 and has 18 pilots, covering about 150 schools. It has already enabled the development of an early years languages framework, which builds on the schemes of work and other curriculum support and guidance. It will develop high-quality curriculum materials for teachers; indeed, it has already done so. It will develop and disseminate models of good practice; establish a network of practitioners using information and communication technology; and review and co-ordinate training for teachers of modern foreign languages in primary schools.

I am sure that my hon. Friend is pleased that, last week, I announced a further £200,000 to extend the early learning good practice project, winch is managed by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research. We want to build on that and to develop beacon primary schools and teacher training initiatives with partners in France, Germany and Spain. We will also carry out an audit of language resources available to primary schools, and promote their use through the national grid for learning and other appropriate media.

We need to make sure that the language skills acquired in primary schools are not lost when pupils transfer to secondary schools. We must ensure that primary and secondary schools work together. That is why our key stage 3 strategy, covering all the foundation subjects and aimed at raising standards in the early years of secondary education, will play a crucial role in improving the teaching of modern foreign languages. This year, we will pilot a new programme of training and support for teachers in foundation subjects, including modern foreign languages. That support will be available in more than 200 schools. We will aim to extend that nationally from 2002-03.

As my hon. Friend said, all secondary schools have a role to play, but there is a special role, which he outlined, for specialist language colleges, both in links with primary schools and in raising standards in secondary schools. The Government want the links between language colleges and primary schools to be strengthened. We have made that a key part of our response to the Nuffield inquiry. We want to strengthen links such as those made by Sir Bernard Lovell school, Gloucestershire, which has established a network of 30 primary schools in England, France and Italy.

Specialist language colleges are leading the way in performance improvements in language learning. The first language colleges became operational in 1995. Under the Government, their number has grown to 108 across 81 local education authorities. The colleges are tasked with raising standards of teaching and learning in modern foreign languages, fostering an international ethos and cultural awareness throughout the school, encouraging the active participation of business community sponsors in school life and—this is important to help us raise standards—encouraging the dissemination of good practice and the sharing of resources through closer contacts between language colleges, other schools and the wider community.

The results for GCSEs in language colleges have been particularly impressive, with the average percentage of pupils who gained at least 5 A to C grades showing an increase of 3 per cent. in one year alone. That is greater than the average improvement in specialist schools as a whole and in all schools nationally.

My hon. Friend knows that our recent Green Paper, entitled "Schools—Building on Success", proposes that we expand the number of specialist schools to 1,000 by 2003 and to 1,500 by 2006. We expect the number of language colleges to increase as part of the general growth in the number of specialist schools. We believe that there is a sound basis on which to raise standards in secondary education and build important links with primary schools. We are keen to create links between many more primary and secondary schools, to allow primary schools to develop their teaching of modern foreign languages.

My hon. Friend rightly mentioned teacher recruitment. He will be pleased to hear that, as we announced this week, applications for post-graduate teacher training places are up 7 per cent. over last year for modern foreign languages—an encouraging sign and a result of the strong action taken by the Government to attract people into teaching. My hon. Friend may be interested to know that, from September, we will be running a pilot to offer teacher training places in modern foreign languages for primary specialists as well.

My hon. Friend expressed concern about A-level entries. The new AS qualification introduced in September 2000 should encourage the take-up of modern foreign languages post-16. Students also have the opportunity to take language units as part of vocational A-levels and GNVQs. We are evaluating whether the reforms have encouraged more young people to continue to study a modern foreign language at advanced level.

As my hon. Friend rightly pointed out, last year, the Nuffield report on modern foreign languages was produced, and the Government responded to it in January. However, our response did not end then. To underpin it, we are currently working on the national strategy for languages. That strategy will be inclusive and will explore especially how we can build on the good work in primary schools that I described; explore new ways of bringing languages into the classroom; and build on the language elements of our key stage 3 strategy. We shall also develop a strategy that makes greater use of adult vocational learning to promote languages and that engages business, persuading it of the importance of languages within the work force.

Mr. MacShane

My hon. Friend knows that the distinguished permanent secretary at the Department for Education and Employment, Sir Michael Bishard, has announced his retirement. Will she pass a message to the Secretary of State that Sir Michael's replacement should be someone who has some overseas experience and speaks at least one foreign language fluently? I do not ask my hon. Friend to respond, just to take the message.

Jacqui Smith

I will, of course, be a diligent messenger.

We need to develop a strategy for lifelong learning and for business involvement in language learning. We need to persuade business of the importance of languages in the work force, perhaps by increasing work placements abroad and by the appointment of regional language champions to work with senior business people and with educators to promote language learning to adults at work.

We need to maximise the use of information technology in language learning. We must use the European year of languages, of which my hon. Friend is a vocal supporter, to raise the profile and importance of languages while putting in place mechanisms to guarantee sustainability. We must ensure that our achievements during the European year of languages can be developed.

I want to make sure that we involve key stakeholders in the shaping of the national strategy for modern foreign languages. As my hon. Friend made clear, the issue cannot be dealt with by a single Department or even by Government alone. There will be many views on what we should do and we will take on board as many of them as possible when formulating the strategy.

Last week, I announced our plans to establish a national steering group, which I will chair, to oversee the development and implementation of our plans. I expect the group to include members drawn from the organisations that I mentioned and from other Departments, which have a key stake in improving our national capability in modern foreign languages.

It is clear from today's debate that there is considerable support behind the work that we are doing to offer quality resources and support—especially in those all-important early years—to people who want to learn a language. We must continue to place a high profile on language learning—from the cradle to the grave.

That is the real language challenge that faces us nationally. I assure my hon. Friend that we accept the challenge.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at two minutes to Three o'clock.