Exporters: Foreign Language Teaching (Hansard, 3 February 1987)

§ Lord Rodney
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Lucas of Chilworth)
My Lords, Her Majesty's Government have taken a number of measures, some with the help of the British Overseas Trade Board, to impress upon exporters how important it is to speak the language of one's customer and to understand the social and economic environment. We have been active in stimulating facilities for foreign language teaching which meet the needs of exporters.

§ Lord Rodney
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that encouraging reply. But does he agree that for the most part foreign languages are still taught in schools as dead languages and little thought is given to students leaving school actually being able to speak a foreign language?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, with minor reservations I agree with my noble friend. It is particularly for this reason that the Department of Education and Science has undertaken a review of the place of foreign languages in the school curriculum. The review is to underline the importance of being able to communicate in a language rather than perhaps learning some of the deeper aspects of it, particularly in languages other than French.

§ Lord Strabolgi
My Lords, would it not be better if some of the secondary schools were encouraged to concentrate more on teaching foreign languages rather than some of the more dubious subjects that are at present inflicted upon pupils?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, the acceptance of what the noble Lord says right across the House, leaves me with no alternative but to agree with him.

§ Lord Broxbourne
My Lords, following my noble friend's reference to dead languages, will the Minister make it clear that there will be no discouragement to the teaching of classical languages, having regard to the fact that a study of Latin and Greek is a useful if not an indispensible adjunct to the speaking of most European languages?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, although my noble friend's question is perhaps a little wide of the original one, and although I have no personal experience of this, again I have only one alternative and that is to agree with him.

§ Lord Mellish
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the image of the exporter in years past has been pretty grim? It has been a story of a black coat and striped trousers and a brief case stuffed with brochures; of a man spending two days in the Middle East and coming home without any orders. However, the Japanese send out a team, stay for days with plenty of money and use bribery to get to the top and obtain orders. Can the Minister say whether there has been any improvement on our side?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, that again is a little bit wide of the original Question. What the noble Lord describes may have been an impression given many years ago, but in particular there has been a great change of attitude by employers towards language skills for employees. There are encouraging signs that exporters are developing greater language skills.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that what is needed are not only the learning and teaching of foreign languages but also more substantial backup in terms of personnel and equipment? For example, word processors should be able to cope with French accents. How many word processors in use in this country can produce documents in Japanese, for example? Is this not something that the Government should look at?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I do not know the answer to the first question. I shall look at the second.

§ Lord Moyne
My Lords, although it is not possible to have extensive language teaching by conversational methods in schools, is not the system by which written learning is backed-up by exchanges between pupils from British schools and schools abroad for terms or half terms the very best that has lately been devised?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, once again I can only repeat to my noble friend the point I made earlier. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science is undertaking a review to establish which is the best way to encourage language teaching particularly in schools and places of higher education so as to meet today's needs.

§ Lord John-Mackie
Has Esperanto no future, my Lords?

Lord Hunt
My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that in a number of primary schools a promising start is made in teaching the spoken language at an age when young people easily assimilate it? Is not the weakness between the primary and secondary sectors of education, and is it not a pity that that promising start is not continued?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord. It is encouraging that a start has been made. It is the purpose of the review to ensure that that start is continued right through.

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn
My Lords, is the Minister aware that many schools throughout the United Kingdom would love to do all kinds of things with language laboratories and so on but the difficulty is the lack of finance? Therefore, they can concentrate only on the priorities before them.

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, that most certainly is not true. There are adequate funds. It is a question of education authorities devoting those funds to the best advantage. That is called management.

Baroness Vickers
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the arrangement of competitions among schools in languages is very helpful? For 15 years in schools in Plymouth the masters and mistresses have given their time to do all the judging free, and it is very helpful because several of the pupils already have found jobs.

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend. Her knowledge of what happens in Plymouth is well known since she was such a distinguished Member of Parliament for the constituency. I am sure she is absolutely right. I am also sure that any stimulus that can be given to young people and older people to encourage their language learning and practice is to be welcomed.

§ Lord Taylor of Gryfe
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that in the interests of invisible exports in the much maligned City in most modern banks there is a wide range of languages, including Japanese, Arabic, German, Spanish and Russian, and that that assists them in conducting this kind of business?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, there is only one point on which I disagree with what the noble Lord said. He described the City as much maligned. I do not agree with him. I agree that the City makes a significant contribution to the economy of this country, and the City itself and all its institutions have taken advantage of the techniques available, including language, to improve their position.

§ Lord Swinfen
My Lords, can my noble friend tell me whether he thinks that we are producing enough teachers of non-European languages?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I am sorry that I cannot answer my noble friend. I simply have no knowledge about the supply of language teachers.