Originally published in TEACH Magazine, July/August 2021 Issue
By Ellie Chettle Cully
It’s fair to say that languages other than English have never been top of the educational agenda in the U.K., where I live and work as a primary teacher at an inner-city school. Once upon a time, it was compulsory for all students to study a Modern Foreign Language (as we call them here) until the age of 16. However, students are now only required to take a modern language until age 14. This has led to a significant decrease in the number of students who continue their second language studies as far as university. The view that English is “enough” seems to prevail.
Then in 2014, changes to the country’s National Curriculum made it mandatory for children ages 7–11 to begin studying a second language. This was part of a government-led process aimed at helping kids to become multi-lingual and culturally-aware citizens. A great idea in theory, of course, except it still isn’t being put into practice in many places.
Ellie Chettle Cully is Languages and International Lead at an inner-city primary school in Leicester, U.K. She teaches French, alongside extra-curricular Spanish and Latin, as well as runs training sessions in the delivery of languages to teachers in her local area.
