There is a storm brewing for modern language education in the UK. The uptake in higher education has more than halved in the past 15 years. And in the same period, ten modern language university departments have closed, while a further nine have been significantly downsized.
Meanwhile, language provision in schools is patchy. There are substantial regional differences, and only half of pupils in England learn a language at GCSE level. Together, these issues have created an overall problem with access to language learning.
Given these challenges, as language lecturers we believe the way we teach and assess modern languages in our universities needs a rethink. That’s why we want to explore how more creativity in the subject could help to make language learning more attractive and sustainable in the future.
Despite numbers that suggest an overall sector decline, current trends indicate that it is mostly single honours studies with one language and traditional language choices such as German, French, Italian and Spanish that are affected by dwindling numbers. Combination degrees, especially with non-European languages, appear to be relatively stable.
