Learning a language makes you more tolerant, so why aren't more universities encouraging it?

There are many benefits to knowing more than one language. For example, it has been shown that aging adults who speak more than one language have less likelihood of developing dementia.

Additionally, the bilingual brain becomes better at filtering out distractions, and learning multiple languages improves creativity. Evidence also shows that learning subsequent languages is easier than learning the first foreign language.

Unfortunately, not all American universities consider learning foreign languages a worthwhile investment.

Why is foreign language study important at the university level?

As an applied linguist, I study how learning multiple languages can have cognitive and emotional benefits. One of these benefits that’s not obvious is that language learning improves tolerance.

This happens in two important ways.

The first is that it opens people’s eyes to a way of doing things in a way that’s different from their own, which is called “cultural competence.”

The second is related to the comfort level of a person when dealing with unfamiliar situations, or “tolerance of ambiguity.”

Gaining cross-cultural understanding

Cultural competence is key to thriving in our increasingly globalized world. How specifically does language learning improve cultural competence? The answer can be illuminated by examining different types of intelligence.

Psychologist Robert Sternberg’s research on intelligence describes different types of intelligence and how they are related to adult language learning. What he refers to as “practical intelligence” is similar to social intelligence in that it helps individuals learn nonexplicit information from their environments, including meaningful gestures or other social cues.

Language learning inevitably involves learning about different cultures. Students pick up clues about the culture both in language classes and through meaningful immersion experiences.

Researchers Hanh Thi Nguyen and Guy Kellogg have shown that when students learn another language, they develop new ways of understanding culture through analyzing cultural stereotypes. They explain that “learning a second language involves the acquisition not only of linguistic forms but also ways of thinking and behaving.”

With the help of an instructor, students can critically think about stereotypes of different cultures related to food, appearance and conversation styles.

Dealing with the unknown

The second way that adult language learning increases tolerance is related to the comfort level of a person when dealing with “tolerance of ambiguity.”

Someone with a high tolerance of ambiguity finds unfamiliar situations exciting, rather than frightening. My research on motivation, anxiety and beliefs indicates that language learning improves people’s tolerance of ambiguity, especially when more than one foreign language is involved.

It’s not difficult to see why this may be so. Conversations in a foreign language will inevitably involve unknown words. It wouldn’t be a successful conversation if one of the speakers constantly stopped to say, “Hang on – I don’t know that word. Let me look it up in the dictionary.” Those with a high tolerance of ambiguity would feel comfortable maintaining the conversation despite the unfamiliar words involved.

Applied linguists Jean-Marc Dewaele and Li Wei also study tolerance of ambiguity and have indicated that those with experience learning more than one foreign language in an instructed setting have more tolerance of ambiguity.

What changes with this understanding

A high tolerance of ambiguity brings many advantages. It helps students become less anxious in social interactions and in subsequent language learningexperiences. Not surprisingly, the more experience a person has with language learning, the more comfortable the person gets with this ambiguity.

And that’s not all.

Individuals with higher levels of tolerance of ambiguity have also been found to be more entrepreneurial (i.e., are more optimistic, innovative and don’t mind taking risks).

In the current climate, universities are frequently being judged by the salaries of their graduates. Taking it one step further, based on the relationship of tolerance of ambiguity and entrepreneurial intention, increased tolerance of ambiguity could lead to higher salaries for graduates, which in turn, I believe, could help increase funding for those universities that require foreign language study.

Those who have devoted their lives to theorizing about and the teaching of languages would say, “It’s not about the money.” But perhaps it is.

Language learning in higher ed

Most American universities have a minimal language requirement that often varies depending on the student’s major. However, students can typically opt out of the requirement by taking a placement test or providing some other proof of competency.

In contrast to this trend, Princeton recently announced that all students, regardless of their competency when entering the university, would be required to study an additional language.

I’d argue that more universities should follow Princeton’s lead, as language study at the university level could lead to an increased tolerance of the different cultural norms represented in American society, which is desperately needed in the current political climate with the wave of hate crimes sweeping university campuses nationwide.

Knowledge of different languages is crucial to becoming global citizens. As former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted, “Our country needs to create a future in which all Americans understand that by speaking more than one language, they are enabling our country to compete successfully and work collaboratively with partners across the globe.”

Considering the evidence that studying languages as adults increases tolerance in two important ways, the question shouldn’t be “Why should universities require foreign language study?” but rather “Why in the world wouldn’t they?”

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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/learning-a-language-has-a-lot-of-benefits-including-making-you-more-tolerant?utm_content=buffer8d005&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

More of us need to say 'nǐ hǎo' to Mandarin Chinese

Languages are crucial for work and life in the global race, and Mandarin Chinese is one of the front-runners, says Vicky Gough.

At the end of last month, George Osborne vowed to invest £10 million in UK schools so that more pupils can learn Mandarin Chinese, just like his daughter, Liberty.

But should we really be encouraging more of our young people to say ‘nǐ hǎo’ (‘hello’) to Chinese? ‘Shì de’ (yes), we should!

The reality is that languages, in general, are crucial for work and life in the global race, and Mandarin Chinese is one of the frontrunners. Not only is it already spoken by more than a billion people worldwide, but China is recognised as the world’s second biggest economy with many expecting it to wrest the top spot from the US by 2050.

If knowing the local language is the tangible tool that provides a vital understanding of local culture – and therefore essential business etiquette in a country such as China – it really can be the ice-breaker for those looking to trade or indeed clinch that high-flying job in a competitive marketplace.

But despite all the signs seemingly pointing in Mandarin’s direction, this year’s official GCSE statistics indicated that only 3,710 students took a GCSE in Mandarin Chinese in comparison to 157,699 who took French and 90,782 students who took Spanish.

Moreover, research for the British Council in 2013 highlighted that only 1 per cent of UK adults can speak Chinese even though that same study revealed Mandarin to be the second most vital language for the UK’s future.

So, if it truly is the case that Mandarin Chinese is more and more important for the UK’s place in the world and China is becoming more and more important on the global stage, does something need to change and if so, how do we do it?

While the overall number of UK school pupils learning Chinese is still low when compared to other important languages like French, German and Spanish, there are promising signs of growth – a striking contrast to the drop most of the other languages suffered this year.

The number of entries to Mandarin Chinese at GCSE level in fact grew by a mammoth 18 per cent over the past year – a hugely encouraging statistic in itself but particularly when read alongside the rather more dismal picture of an overall decline of 4.65 per cent in language exams across the board.

That said, it cannot be denied that, on the whole, we still have a way to go when it comes to boosting language learning in the UK, particularly if we want to ensure that less common but important languages such as Mandarin Chinese become a realistic choice for a critical mass of head teachers and their pupils.

With teacher supply being identified as the most pressing issue for teaching Mandarin in the UK, it is fantastic to see investment in this area and policymakers, educators, businesses and organisations continuing to pull together in this respect, but more needs to be done.

"It cannot be denied that, on the whole, we still have a way to go when it comes to boosting language learning in the UK."

At the British Council, we already have lots of ways that schools can help encourage language learning, including Mandarin Chinese, amongst their pupils, whether it’s through employing a foreign language assistant, partnering with a school in another country or taking on a challenge such as our annual British Council/HSBC Mandarin Speaking Competition.

Let’s do whatever we can to ensure that more of our young people realise the benefits that learning Mandarin Chinese can bring and that more of ourschools are able to realistically make this a language of choice for their pupils.

Vicky Gough, schools adviser at the British Council

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11912898/More-of-us-need-to-say-n-ho-to-Mandarin-Chinese.html

Highly trained, respected and free: why Finland's teachers are different

In a quiet classroom adorned with the joyful creations of small children, Ville Sallinen is learning what makes Finland’s schools the envy of the world.

Sallinen, 22, is teaching a handful of eight-year-olds how to read. He is nearing the end of a short placement in the school during his five-year master’s degree in primary school teaching.

Viikki teacher training school in eastern Helsinki describes itself as a laboratory for student teachers. Here, Sallinen can try out the theories he has learned at the university to which the school is affiliated. It’s the equivalent of university teaching hospitals for medical students.

The school’s principal, Kimmo Koskinen, says: “This is one of the ways we show how much we respect teaching. It is as important as training doctors.”

Welcome to a country where teaching is a highly prized profession. Finland’s teachers have kept the nation near the top of the influential Pisa performance rankings since they were first published in 2001, leading to an influx of educational tourists as other teachers have endeavoured to learn from the Finnish experience.

Finland is going through a deep economic crisis, and there are financial pressures on schools, just as there are on the rest of the public sector. But the five-year master’s degree for primary school teachers is not in question. Competition is fierce – only 7% of applicants in Helsinki were accepted this year, leaving more than 1,400 disappointed.

Leena Krokfors, professor of teaching at Helsinki University, says: “The beef in the Finnish teacher training system is the time that students have to learn, and while politicians are happy for Finland to produce good teachers, that’s OK.”

The high-level training is the basis for giving young teachers a great deal of autonomy to choose what methods they use in the classroom – in contrast to England, Krokfors says, where she feels teaching is “somewhere between administration and giving tests to students”. In Finland, teachers are largely free from external requirements such as inspection, standardised testing and government control; school inspections were scrapped in the 1990s.

“Teachers need to have this high-quality education so they really do know how to use the freedom they are given, and learn to solve problems in a research-based way,” Krokfors says. “The most important thing we teach them is to take pedagogical decisions and judgments for themselves.”

In Britain, by contrast, academies, private schools and free schools can hire people to teach even if they are not qualified. Labour claimed in 2013 that becoming a teacher in Britain was now easier than flipping burgers.

For a small, agrarian and relatively poor nation, educating all of its youth equally well was seen as the best way to catch up with other industrialised countries, according to Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish educationist at Harvard who has done much to popularise Finland’s methods abroad.

In the early phase, during the 70s and 80s, there was strict central direction and control over schools, state-prescribed curriculums, external school inspections and detailed regulation, giving the Finnish government a strong grip on schools and teachers. But a second phase, from the early 90s, consciously set out to create a new culture of education characterised by trust between educational authorities and schools, local control, professionalism and autonomy. Schools became responsible for their own curriculum planning and student assessment, while state inspections were abandoned. This required teachers to have high academic credentials and be treated like professionals.The Finnish dream, as he calls it, was for all children, regardless of family background or personal conditions, to have a good school in their community – a focus that has remained unchanged for the past four decades. 

Krokfors adds her own explanation for the high regard in which teachers are held: “If we look back at Finland’s history, teachers have always been seen as the people who brought civilisation to small villages” as the country modernised in the middle of the last century, she says.

Not only is teacher education in Finland strongly research-based, but all the students on the primary school master’s course are engaged in research themselves – a point of pride for Patrik Scheinin, dean of the faculty. The course aims to produce “didacticians” who can connect teaching interventions with sound evidence, he says.

“We want to produce cognitive dissonance. The task of a good didactician is to disturb the thinking of someone who assumes they know everything about teaching,” Scheinin says. “Just because you’ve been doing something for 20 years and it works for you doesn’t mean it works for other teachers, other students, or in other subjects.”

In the city centre at Helsinki Normal Lyceum, another of the 11 university teacher training schools scattered around the country, student teachers are running day-long multidisciplinary workshops for pupils aged 13 to 19. In one, Maria Hyväri, 24, is discussing Dewey, Steiner and Montessori, and asking pupils to think critically about teaching methods at the school. Classes are mixed and there is no streaming.

“I want to make a difference,” she says. “There are all these new teaching tools and ideas, and it’s great because here we can try different things – it makes me feel inspired.” Because the school is full of student teachers, pupils are “used to being experimented on,” she says, although sometimes they might get a bit tired of the constant rotation.

Hyväri is in the middle of an undergraduate degree in French and English, but she has chosen to take an additional pedagogical year in the middle of her five-year degree, which will launch her on to a teaching track in her final two years to emerge qualified as a secondary school teacher. During this year she spends about half her time in the school, and half in the university’s teaching department.

For Olli Mättää, a teacher trainer at the school, Finland’s Pisa scores are a byproduct of the system rather than a central goal. “When we got the results, we were thinking, if we are that good, how bad are the others? We were taken by surprise,” he says.

ducationists point to historically specific factors that have helped to fashion Finland’s schools, such as the country’s small population, its relatively late dash for modernity, and broad acceptance of values such as equality and collaboration that are embedded in its version of the Nordic welfare model. But the decision to make teaching an advanced degree subject has given teaching a high profile in Finnish society.

“Teachers in Finland are autonomous professionals, respected for making a difference to young people’s lives,” says Sahlberg.

As a result, those who choose to train are devoted to teaching for life, he says. “My concern is with fast track teacher preparation programmes turning teaching into something you do for a while and move on, and almost anyone can do it.”

Back in primary school, Ville Sallinen got the teaching bug eight years ago while still at school, when he started coaching football. It sparked his interest in working with children. He is not particularly academic, he says, but like many students his passion for teaching got him on to the master’s course.

“I would like to have more experience in schools like what we are having now,” Sallinen says. “Next year we have no practical element. It is good to get experience in a real school.”

At the end of each day, he sits down with his mentor, Tunja Tuominen, to deconstruct teaching moments and to theorise them. Says Tuominen: “Student teachers come here like little chicks, mouths wide open and eager to learn.”

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http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/17/highly-trained-respected-and-free-why-finlands-teachers-are-different?CMP=fb_gu

Languages to be compulsory in English primary schools

It will be compulsory for primary school children aged seven and above to learn another language, from September 2014 in England.

The government is encouraging schools to adopt a wider variety of languages after a study found that teenagers at schools in England had the worst language skills in Europe.

Video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25634118

European glossary on education

Examinations, qualifications and titles Volume 1

Every education system uses its own specific terminology to describe the characteristics of its organisation and operation. In trying to understand and compare how the various education systems in Europe really work, we are confronted with questions of terminology. The development of precise ‘markers’ for reference purposes is thus absolutely essential for better mutual understanding and quality cooperation between European countries.

download: 

http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/european-glossary-on-education-pbEC3212292/

Language Barriers: The New Segregation?

The practice of placing students in talented and gifted programs is viewed by some as being inherently unfair. After all, who determines what is considered "gifted" in the first place? Some studies have even found that gifted programs favor white students and that Black and Latino students are constantly overlooked. These claims are generally backed up with statistics that show an overwhelming proportion of white students in talented programs and under representation from other demographics.

I've written before about the New York Times findings at Public School 163 where one-third of the talented and gifted students are black or Hispanic combined but only 18 percent of the regular student population is white. Teachers there admit that the requirements to enter the program are parent-centric which tends to favor white families in that district. Outright admittance of discrimination is missing from the teacher reasoning, as expected, but the numbers seem to imply it.

But what about districts with obvious discriminatory practices in place? Take Illinois School District U-46, for example. In this particular district, over 40 percent of the student population is Latino but only 2 percent of the gifted program is from this demographic. In July, a federal district court judge found that the school system had discriminated against its gifted Latino students by placing them in a program separate from white peers. The judge also ruled that the policies in place to identify gifted students had a "disparate impact" on the Latino school population. The lawsuit was spearheaded by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

In this particular case the Latino students who were placed in separate gifted programs had English as a second language, or were bilingual at least. The language barrier appears to be the excuse used by district leaders for separating Latino students from their white counterparts. Is knowledge of the English language a prerequisite for academic success though? As the world becomes less segmented, particularly when it comes to communication, is it fair to separate our student populations based on their native language?

It all makes me wonder if language has become the new source of segregation. Just as the ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education found that "separate is... unequal" when it comes to skin color - is the same true of language preferences?

I also wonder how much discrimination is masked by the language excuse. It is taboo to demonstrate the belief that a particular race or ethnicity is inferior but there is often an audience for those who believe English is the superior language. In other words, it is okay to discriminate against fellow citizens if a core American value - like a unified language - is the reasoning. This Illinois case is indicative of what might be found in any school district in an area where Latino students are prevalent and it represents a subtle acceptance of racism if it goes against mainstream behavior.

I think that the judge in the Illinois case got it absolutely right. Separating these Latino students when it came to gifted programs was unfair and certainly sent the wrong message to the students at the school. I also think that these underhanded discriminatory practices exist in other subtle ways whether it involves gifted programs, retention and social promotion, or any other subjective decision making in the nation's K-12 classrooms. Language preference is just a new twist on an old tale of discrimination in our schools and for all students to have equal opportunities, this point needs to be recognized and eliminated.

What do you think? Is language the new form of segregation in K-12 classrooms?

Dr. Matthew Lynch is the author of the upcoming textbook, The Call to Teach: An Introduction to Teaching.

The benefits of multilingual education

Language is a bridge between cultures as much as it is a tool for communication. The complex role of language has led to controversy over whether it is better to provide education in a minority language (a language spoken by the minority of a population) or simply educating students in the dominant language of a given region. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem: 20 percent of the population of the United States speak a language at home other than English, 56 percent of Europeans are bilingual, and it is believed that over half of the entire world’s population is bilingual.

Given the growing size of the bilingual population, students should receive bilingual education starting in elementary school, in which humanities and social studies are taught in one of the country’s minority languages, and math and the sciences are taught in the dominant language. After establishing fluency in both languages, from middle school onwards, students would be taught their classes in the dominant language — in preparation for college admissions or job searches, depending on their intended career — in addition to one literature class continued to be taught in a minority language. This ensures that students are more skilled and maintain a competitive edge when applying to colleges or for jobs, and that students retain their newly acquired command of their minority language.

Teaching math and sciences in English benefits both students and the global scientific community. It equips students with a universal tool with which to contribute to future scientific research. For example, schools in the Philippines teach Filipino history in Tagalog, but math and science in English. Speaking with international students at MIT reveals that the Philippines is not the only country that adopts this system. Many foreign students attest to the fact that learning technical subjects in English enabled them to be admitted to, and thrive at an institution such as MIT. In an increasingly competitive global economy, allowing foreign students to learn technical subjects in English may even give the U.S. an edge in attracting the best and brightest from a global pool of talent.

Furthermore, teaching humanities classes in the minority language would benefit both students and their local communities. Studying their minority language in a cultural context would not only enrich students’ cultural identities, but it would also cultivate their social relationships with people of similar cultures. As revealed by a recent linguistic survey on German and Italian education in schools in South Tyrol, friendships between students who are native speakers of different languages encourages students to each others’ languages. Furthermore, the linguistic preservation and revitalization that comes with teaching literature or history in a minority language would be valuable to any community. For example, in Hebrew day schools in the United States, the Old Testament is taught in Biblical Hebrew while Israeli history is taught in modern Hebrew. Teaching ethnically relevant subjects in the most appropriate language is more likely to capture the subtleties that may only be aptly expressed in that language.

Even if one has not grown up in a bilingual environment, it is not too late to reap the potential benefits of a multilingual education while at college. Although MIT teaches subjects primarily in English and has no foreign language requirement, students still have opportunities to immerse themselves into a foreign culture through Foreign Languages and Literatures. The FL&L department offers a selection of foreign language classes at a range of levels, as well as culture classes that have quite a popular reputation. In fact, I have handfuls of friends who began studying a second, or third language at the Institute. They were able to study these at a level advanced enough to spend a summer in the country of that language, and returned with a newfound appreciation of a culture that was once foreign to them.

In a globalized society, it is more important now than ever to both be communicative in the dominant language common across global communities, as well as to preserve one’s cultural identity by retaining or learning one’s minority language. A bilingual education would prepare students for future professions, enrich their connection with their cultural heritage, and enhance their social experiences.

Implementing bilingual programs may be a challenge, but it is challenge worth pursuing.

Erika Trent 

http://tech.mit.edu/V133/N49/trent.html

No comprende: are the benefits of languages getting lost in translation?

We need to find new ways to express the importance of learning languages, writes Professor Nigel Vincent

At the British Academy last week we released a report called Languages: State of the Nation. It analyses the worrying state of the current demand and supply of language skills in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and is the latest in a series of reports and position papers we have dedicated in recent years to the declining status of languages in our schools and universities. The aim of all our work is to drive home the message that languages are vital for the health and wellbeing of the education and research base, for UK business competitiveness and political standing, and for individuals and society at large.

The report draws on new data from a survey of UK employers and Labour Market Intelligence and demonstrates how we are suffering from a growing deficit in foreign language skills just at a time when the global demand for language skills is expanding. Worse still, in the words of the report, we are trapped in a "vicious circle of monolingualism". Employers respond to the weak supply of these skills in one of two ways. The first is to realign their market, choosing to deal only with those who speak English, and therefore remove language requirements from their job adverts. Alternatively, if they are really pushed, they train existing staff with language skills or hire native speakers. Either way there are no market incentives for learners and little pressure on government to prioritise these skills.

Luckily, it's not all bad news. We can and should celebrate the diversity in our schoolchildren, as well as in our world-leading educational institutions. There is a plentiful supply of multilingual skills in UK society – one in six school children in England speak a foreign language as a mother tongue. Census data released just last month confirm just how plentiful this resource is in the UK. More must to be done to unlock this talent. We need to ensure that our education system enables and enhances the UK's aspirations for growth and global influence. Demand already exceeds our current capacity.

And we must make sure that the right messages are getting through to children in schools if we are to bridge the gap between the education and employment sectors.

We need too to ensure that, whatever the precise form the English Baccalaureate Certificates or its successor takes, languages have a prominent place as disciplines within that scheme, whether those are the major European languages traditionally taught in our schools or languages like Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Hindi and Indonesian that will surely have an ever increasing presence in the world today's children will live and work in. And we must reverse the disturbing trend for those languages to become the preserve of the fee-paying schools and Russell Group universities.

Last week we launched our second year of Schools Language Awards. The awards aim to encourage excellence in language learning in schools throughout the UK. Applicants from both mainstream and supplementary schools are invited to demonstrate innovative and attainable plans for improving take-up and enthusiasm for language learning beyond the age of 16.

The 2012 National Winner, Dallam School, impressed the judging panel with its bilingual groups in years 7, 8 and 9, where PSHE and various humanities lessons are run entirely in another language. This ensures that students get extra exposure to that language on a day-to-day basis, including daily routines and informal banter in these busy, mixed ability groups. This is supplemented by bilingual activities such as Europe and international days, adventure learning, spelling bees, film studies, French cookery days, visiting and exchange opportunities to countries and extra time with foreign language assistants.

In short, we need a new strategic approach to stimulate both demand and supply. We must find better ways of identifying and expressing the need for languages. But we are not starting from scratch. Our greatest challenge lies in building on the firm foundations that already exist in our society so that we can respond to the opportunities that the future holds.

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Professor Nigel Vincent is vice president at The British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/feb/20/learning-languages-schools-importance

Mind your languages! UK is warned it cannot carry on at bottom of class

The 'Why should I bother with another language' attitude does not work any more, says EU education Commissioner

Britons can no longer rely on the rest of the world speaking English to get by in the world of business or work, the European Education Commissioner warns.

Androulla Vassiliou cited figures which showed the UK languishing at the foot of a European languages league table - the EU had set a target of 50 per cent of people speaking two foreign languages fluently - yet in the UK only nine per cent of 15-year-olds spoke one foreign language.  That compared with more than 80 per cent of 15-year-olds in the Netherlands and Sweden, who topped the table.

Interviewed by The Independent, Ms Vassiliou said: "The results of the survey were disappointing - and very disappointing for the UK because it came last.

"I think it is because the majority of people (90 per cent) who learn foreign languages have their first foreign language as English," she said.  "There is absolute confidence amongst the British 'I can get along with my language - why should I bother with another language?'."

She added:  "This attitude doesn't work. We live in a globalised world. We travel a lot.  The EU, for instance, won't employ people unless they speak two other languages."

In addition, more business was being conducted online and people were more reluctant to conduct their business online in a foreign language.

Ms Vassiliou, who was addressing the London Languages Show in Olympia yesterday, added that Britons were also reluctant to sign up for programmes - such as Erasmus+ - which offered more than four million people across the EU the chance to spend part of their studies or training in another country.

Figures showed nearly 40,000 British citizens were receiving grants to study abroad from the EU - compared with 83,000 a year in Germany and more than 70,000 a year in both France and Spain.

She added: "It's not just about improving language skills.  It's about opening up minds to new ideas and meeting people from different cultures."

Figures also showed the number of degree courses in French and German had plunged  - from 105 to 70 in French since 200 and 105 to 50 in German.  In addition, the number of 18-year-olds applying to study European languages had plunged by nearly 17 per cent since 2010.

She said that the UK should take a leaf out of China's book which had asked for its teachers to be trained in all the languages of the EU so it could communicate with each country in its own language.

However, she said she had detected a willingness on the part of the Coalition Government to tackle the problem.

"There are two or three things which make me more optimistic," she said. "For instance, as from next September, they are going to teach one foreign language from the age of seven which is very good.  The earlier you start the better - but seven is a good age."

She also cited Education Secretary Michael Gove's new English Baccalaureate GCSE ranking measure for school league tables - which meant pupils  could not qualify for it unless they received a top grade pass in a language.  "It encourages young people to take a language - and the chances that they will continue with it are very good, too," she said.

In addition, private sector language provision was flourishing.

http://www.independent.co.uk