The Meissen Commission finished its five-year work period on Monday and our report will now be completed and published in due course. The new Commission will begin work in the new year, completing its work in 2016 – leading into Germany’s Reformation Year, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.
In a podcast recorded at the German Embassy last Thursday evening I referred to the deplorable state of language teaching and learning in England. This was picked up by several newspapers and has gained some wider comment.
In fact, I wasn’t criticising teachers. Language teaching in our schools is heroic. But, many teachers feel they are fighting a losing battle against cultural and political forces that are rooted in an island mentality. We might understand the emphasis on science and technology in schools, but the relegation of language learning to a not-very-enthusiastically-encouraged poor option says much about the British understanding of identity, communication and business.
First, language learning is essential to a good and broad education. Simply to be able to read or listen in one’s own language is severely limiting to potential. As Helmut Schmidt wrote in his marvellous book Ausser Dienst, no politician should think of entering the Bundestag (Parliament) unless they speak at least two foreign languages to a competent degree. Why? Because, says Schmidt, you can’t understand your own culture unless you have looked at it through the eyes of another culture. And, to do that, you have to know something of the other language.
I said this to Ken Livingstone in a television studio last year and he laughed and said that we wouldn’t have any politicians in the UK. I thought that spoke volumes.
Second, we are disadvantaged in the business world with which we seem in this country to be obsessed. As I said in the podcast, business isn’t all done in English over the table; the real stuff goes on behind your back and if you can’t understand what they’re saying privately, you’re stuffed. It is appalling that we produce so few professional linguists, but – more seriously – we don’t produce ordinary business people who can cope with a foreign language.
Third, we Brits seem to find language learning too hard. Yet, we have Asian kids in our schools who move easily and unselfconsciously between two, three or four languages.
Fourth, we have a political class that is narrowly focused on an economic prejudice that concentrates on technique and technology as if they could stand independently of wider linguistic, communication or cultural factors. Language learning is being presented as less important than other studies, ignoring the importance not only of ‘knowing stuff’, but also ‘being able to communicate it’.
This isn’t special pleading by a one-time linguist. It stands for itself as an important cultural deficit in England. And, not only are we depriving our own children and young people of a vital dimension of human living, but also we are shrinking the cohort of potential language teachers for future generations.
It is serious and needs some intelligent attention.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Bradford
September 21, 2011 at 11:31 pm
Hear hear! Great blog and absolutely stated with pinpoint accuracy in relation to attitudes towards other languages.history surely teaches us that at a basic level if you cannot converse with others then simple misunderstandings become major international incidents.
I am working currently with a
Director who speaks fluently AND idiomatically in five languages.there are four people in the cast all of different linguistic backgrounds.she speaks to all in their own language even though English is spoken.she says it’s a matter of respect and I see from the results that she is right.
The education issue is the big one and sadly doesn’t look like changing in the near future though speaking with uncharacteristic optimism education priorites go in predictable cycles and so languages will rise again because
They have to! We are an island but still
Will trade and holiday with the French
, Germans and Italians et al “un baguette” just isn’t going to be enough . Would love to say more but hey
September 22, 2011 at 9:29 am
Its impossible to disagree. I only speak one other language – French and have found that it has been very enriching.
I do not know if it is still the case, but years ago I recall it being said that our Imperial past had skewed us a little so that whereas the general populace does not have familiarity with our close major languages – French German Spanish – our Universities and Diplomatic Services had a wide range of oriental/african languages being taught. I suspect that is still the case so there is a small mitigating factor – our breadth at the top of the tree may partially compensate for our weakness in the general populace at the roots.
I recall that the late Enoch Powell was reputed to have had a good grasp of 26 languages. I cannot conceive how anyone can do that.
September 22, 2011 at 9:47 am
We visited a prospective Secondary school for my son on Tuesday morning with four other families. During the chat with the head teacher at the end one of the parents asked about the teaching of languages at the school and raised the issue of the school focusing on one foreign language. You will not be surprised to learn that the mother who asked the question was German. I wonder how many English parents would have raised languages as a priority in selecting the school for their child’s education? When I told someone (a linguist and former Bible translator) about the visit this morning they asked why the parents hadn’t considered our local international school. This highlighted for me the perception that many still see multi lingual teaching as a specialism.
btw I noticed you are still using BlogPress for your iPad. I’ve switched to Blogsy. It’s a more complex interface but more flexible and it does enable embedding links in the post etc.Might be worth a look.
September 22, 2011 at 10:03 am
Great blog post, great points; but please would you replace “it’s” with “its” in the first two sentences? (“it’s” is always short for “it is” or “it has”)
(sorry to pick nits, but in an article about language…)
September 22, 2011 at 10:15 am
Don’t get me going on this one!
I was part of a pilot scheme back in the 1960′s where French was taught in Primary School. I only had a year before I moved schools but it took away the fear of learning a language. Nothing seemed to come of the scheme and I have been banging on about reintroducing it at an early age ever since.
Our two nieces, living in Belgium and France, can speak, read and write in two languages (probably more).
We’ve just come back from Slovenia where most young people can use at least three languages competently and may well manage five.
We’ve been fed this idea that languages are for the specialists and not for everyone. You’re right, the many immigrant families who come to stay happily cope with at least two languages so why can’t the Brits? It’s more a case of won’t rather than can’t, it’s down to attitude.
So from me…
au revoir
dasvidanye (sorry, no cyrillic script on this keyboard)
nasvidenje
September 22, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Very interesting, hope I’m not letting lazy Brits off lightly, or failing to see the political / cultural issues, but I would like to plead that native speakers of English do seem to just find it harder to learn subsequent languages. perhaps its just something in the endlessly irregular grammar and spelling and the highly word order based semantics that ruins our capacity for further langauge acquisition. I know I found my school French and German to be a real slog, and my present koine Greek studies feel overwhelmingly difficult to memorise.
On a separate point I recall one neat thought experiment at the time that the EU was expandign and taking on more languages, that the EU should only have two official languages, for example French and German, and that every national representative could choose which langaue she spoke, except the French who would have to speak German, and the Germans vice versa.
Learning language, much like reading music to some people, or motor mechanics to others, just seems to be a magical “black box” process.
One final story from reader’s digest, two American tourists in Paris hear a 4 year old boy talking to his gradnfather – “look” they say “he can speak French already!”.
September 22, 2011 at 12:14 pm
On a similar note I just love the story attributed to “Ma” Ferguson, governor of Texas in the 1920′s who when refusing to sign into law a statute making Spanish an official langauge, placed her hand on the trusty KVJ and said “If English was good enough for the Lord Jesus Christ, then its sure good enough for the children of Texas”.
September 22, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Ian Scott-Thompson, how embarrassing. This is a problem with iPad which always wants to replace ‘its’ with ‘it’s’. I usually spot and correct, but obviously not this time! Thanks.
September 22, 2011 at 5:35 pm
I could never get on with languages at school, though I’ve picked up a bit of Greek and Hebrew since, trying to do it the academic way. We’re bilingual at home, though; I’ve picked up Krio simply due to listening to it spoken. Just as well too, since the kids had no English when they arrived here! Id you’re actually interacting with people from another culture and language, it makes all the difference.
September 22, 2011 at 7:58 pm
The virtual annihilation of Latin from state schools was one of the disasters perpetrated by the “progressives” beginning with Crosland who wrecked the aspirations of working class children in Britain, while they sent their own children to private education. Germany largely avoided these errors.
Three years of Latin would hugely benefit many children, not least in their grasp of grammar, English vocabulary, and their grasp of Romance languages – not to mention theology and history …..
Few British children learn much in the way of grammar, so the transition from the laughably easy GCSE in French to the real French of A level (with subjubctives, preterites etc etc) comes as a nasty and sometimes insuperable shock. German is in desperate decline in English schools, while Spanish (a pretty easy language, at least to begin with) is doing tolerably well.
Incidentally, this lecture today by a well-known German intellectual to the Bundestag should be read by the effete and deeply ignorant English political class :”The Listening Heart: Reflections on the Foundations of Law”. The philosophical positivism of Nick Clegg (who, I think, knows Spanish) is exactly the kind of atheistic intolerance targeted by this erstwhile professor.
September 23, 2011 at 10:52 am
[...] moaned – with absolute legitimacy – about the state of language learning in England, I open [...]
September 23, 2011 at 11:48 pm
As usual some deeply peneetrating and thoughtful insights here. Nick
However a bit of a heartfelt plea if I may Please do continue to aim the criticism at the educators rather than the “waiting to be educated”. I only took one language at school, and that was Spanish. Every other year bar my own took both French and Spanish.
For some bizarre, unfathomable reason, in my first year at secondary school, our Head Teacher at the time came into our class and asked how many of us would like to do French. The majority in our class put up our hands and that was the last we heard of it! No French lessons for us! The following year, normal service was resumed and the first years were once again taught both French and Spanish. I still have a sense of being linguistically robbed even today
When I was in 18, just before I went to away to college, Liverpool Diocese hosted a large number of clergy from across South America for a lengthy stay in Liverpool. Our inner city parish church was allocated the Bishop of Asuncion and the vicar of St Andrews chuirch in Ascuncion, Paraguay. It may not surprise you that I was the only person in a fairly large congregation who was anywhere near “fluent” in Spanish and I acted for the next 8 weeks as interpreter, especially for Jorge, the vicar from Ascuncion who could not speak any English at all. This was pretty daunting as I had not studied Spanish for more than two years as I didn’t take it at A Level.
One other thought and this is not meant to be a cirticism but more of an observation/query. I understand that it must be frustrating for you to find yourself criticised for the deplorable state of language teaching in England. If it was a case of being completely misquoted, then please disregard this last statement. However, if you rightly bemoaned the state of language teaching but didn’t make it clear that you were not being critical about teachers themselves, and that language teachers are often attempting an heroic task with often very little support, I can understand why teachers would feel annoyed.
In your podcast you state “language teaching and learning in England is delporing and declining drastically” I accept that in a short podcast you can’t go into anywhere near the same level of detail and reasoning behind this as much as you could in a 40 minute lecture for example. But as a very media savvy guy , it surprised me a bit that you did not make it that clear who you are blaming for the deploring and declining state of language.and I can see how some people might have thought you were implicating teachers ..when hopefully it was very much the system and culture you were having a go at.. And it doesn’t take much for the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph etc amongst others to pick up on what you say and skew it mightily!
And before I sign off, I am going to get myself in real hot water now (hey what’s new) but as with any subject, including preaching and teaching it is often how engagingly, creatively, intelligently and inspringly the subject is taught that is crucial. It is also not just about how well a teacher knows a subject but how they communciate what they know.
And here can I have permission to get on a soapbox.
As a Reader of some 16 years, virtually every sermon I preach has been heard and assessed by at least one (or two in some cases) clergy members and there is nothing wrong in that whatsoeverl. However, it does appear to me that once a curate has finished training and takes on her/his own parish the level of scrutiny and assessment diminshes rapidly, and it would seem that assessment is undertaken on an annual basis by ministerial review, where the assessor never attends a service where the incumbent is either leading, teaching and/or presiding (or in the worst case scenario doing all three!
Some very insightful writers have been saying increasingly in recent years that what congregations are crying out for more than anything is applied preaching and teaching…that is engaging preaching and relevant contemporary teaching which people will remember at the coal facein the heta of a frenetiuc week on a Wednesday such is its impact, and not just for 20 minutes on a Sunday. There is some really good teaching/preaching around, but consistency and relevance across the piece is not what it should be I feel.
When was the last time a serious review of the quality of preaching and teaching in Church of England rigorously undertaken? Are Bishops and Senior church leaders willing to go there, or is it a nettle they are unwilling to grasp I wonder?
I am sure it would be unfair to say thathe standard is “deplorable”, but I think there may be grounds for arguing that in some areas it has declined and needs significant improvement. There is only one vicar I have served under who has been secure enough and courageous enough to try and go there, and he was willing for his team’s sermons (including his own) to be appraised, both by members of his team and congregation. Sadly, his approach I guess is not that common.
Ouch!! I had better go now before I really begin to cause trouble!
September 24, 2011 at 9:27 am
Great comment Phil, and if I may continue on the off-topic trail. I too have long been frustrated at the didactic model of many churches. I do accept that sometimes a sermon’s function is more exhortatory, encouraging, comforting or challnging, but in many cases the stated purpose and the need is to teach. In these instances we seem to leave behind eveything that is known about effective educational experiences and use a monologue, with no visual aids, handouts, exercises, q&a or notes taken – little wonder we might conclude “nice sermon vicar” but be challenged to recall any of the points in any deatil.
September 24, 2011 at 3:02 pm
What about the state of science learning too – that also leaves a lot to be desired. And talking of what leaves a lot to be desired, what about bishops who muddle its and it’s?! Cheeky, I know – but I cannot help having automatic proof reading built in!
September 24, 2011 at 3:14 pm
The history curriculum has always been fairly restricted (I left school in the late ’60s); but the idea, surely, is that it provides the interested with the necessary tools for pursuing the subject further. And in view of the huge audiences for history programmes on the telly + works of popular history, this approach seems to pay off, generally.
Simon Jenkins? Would that be the same one who, in his series on English Churches on Channel 4, stated that: Beckett was murdered in 1148 on the orders of King Henry II (difficult that, given HII’s reign didn’t begin ’till 1154; B’s kililng took place in 1170); Elizabeth 1′s grandmother was ‘Lady Margaret Beauchamp’ (instead of Beaufort) and dismissed the entire Herefordshire School of sculpture as essentially Anglo-Saxon (when any fule kno it was heavily influenced by continental romanesque)? That one? Ah, obviously a voice worth taking seriously.
September 24, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Simon
Thanks for your supportive reply…I was expecting…possibly a lukewarm/hostile respons to my comments. That might still happen!
I was deeply challenged recently by a vicar who said that he was at the back of church shaking hands one day when a guy in his congregation said to him..”really good sermon…but it didn’ really help me decide which seven people in my company I have to make redundant tomorrow…”
Now OK admittedly he has to make those decisions themselves but hopefully Christian teaching should ahve something to say and apply to the daily lives of those listening to it. I actually think that those of us who do teach, both clergy and lay often preach into something of a vacuum because we are unaware of, or possibly too busy, to really be aware of some of the challenging and difficult contexts that people in our congregations face on a daily basis. I think the nature and content of some of our preaching and teaching may well drastically alter if we did.
And I do wonder if some non-Christian teachers were to come and assess the standard of Christian teaching in churches what their conclusions might be…It would be a pretty interesting exercise to see what they thought re style , content, relevance etc.
September 25, 2011 at 6:09 am
..”really good sermon…but it didn’ really help me decide which seven people in my company I have to make redundant tomorrow…”
Fair point. Sermons rarely help me choose my lottery numbers either,but I could also fall back on the hymnboard – until they started projecting everything ….
Sometines the problem lies not in the preaching but in our listening. If a sermon promotes faith in Christ Crucified and Risen as God’s answer to our sinfulness and exhorts us to faithful prayer to the Father, obedient living in the way of the Cross, and seeking the transformation of the Holy Spirit into holiness and love, then we should find something to help us there.
September 25, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Hi Kieran
Really sorry to have to report this but not just the words of the hymns but the liturgy and everything else in the service as well is projected every Sunday morning in our church! And I can assure you, putting the whole service together by Powerpoint each week involves a lot more work, having just prepared and led our All Age service this morning! However having people look up, around and and engage rathet than look down/away in a hymn/service book has appeared to enhance our worship.
Counsel for the defence is that for the past 12 months we have worshipped in our inner city, 3 year old, state of the art local state community primary school and children’s centre…a VERY long story…no church building…previous one already demolished, plans to renovate a building into our new parish church suddenly hit trouble and went pear shaped.. The Head Teacher welcomed us and invited us in with open arms when we were “homeless”, which is opening up some really good missional opportunities, of being “church” in a very different context
I do accept Kieran that when that guy made his decision on who to make redundant he has to make that decision himself thoughtfully and in line with biblical principles as far as possible, but it was the fact that many sermons are delivered without much of a considered attempt to apply ancient, timeless truths to contemporary 21st century contexts which this guy found disappointing I think.
With regard to your main point I agree that sometimes the problem can often lie very much in the listening as in the preaching….people need to want to be taught and to want to apply what they hear and learn. And I agree that your desire to see faith in Christ Crucified and Risen as God’s answer to our sinfulness, exhortation to faithful prayer to the Father, obedirent living in the way of the Cross and seeking the transformation of the Holy Spirit into holiness so that we can find help is really important.
However it doesn’t really address the problem of application of what is taught to daily life. I am not arguing for people to be “spoonfed” and for their intelligence to be insulted on a weekly basis, but some thought and assistance as to how such timeless truths can helpfully be applied in the here and now should be an integral part of any sermon.
But I used to share a house as a student some time ago with two friends from a very strong non-conformist evangelical background who used to be driven absolutely bonkers by the fact that week in, week out they would hear such preaching delivered soundly, loudly and clearly , yet it was the same people they were preaching it to..and guess what…even they soon began to switch off…in fact they could often fairly accurately predict the outline and content of the following Sunday’s sermon!
The question is not just you must exercise faith, you must pray faithfully, you must live obediently, and you must be transformed by the Spirit.. .but preachers and teacher must relate the”you must” into “HOW do I do it in MY context…” and that is what is so often missing.
When was the last time those involved in a preaching/teaching ministry actually spent even as much as a day shadowing either a teacher, a social worker, a Company Director, a banker, a salesperson, a police officer,or a, Trade Union representative, a busy housewife/husband, an unemployed person etc amongst their congregations in their daily, working/non-working lives. And vice versa, how many opportunities exist for members of congregations to spend a day with their vicar/pastor/minister/youth pastor so at last they can pray for them and generally support them more relevantly, appropriately and realistically.
I can only speak from an Anglican perspective it would be really good if many Dioceses were seeking to try and develop such initiatives .Maybe they are, especially those involved in contemporary industrial mission contexts, but I am not aware of too many. Maybe I need to get out more often!
I can already hear the “but we are already so busy”, from those who teach/pastor, but maybe a bit of reprioritising to make such opportunities possible would be a valuable way forward..
September 27, 2011 at 9:43 pm
#18: No argument from me. Sound Brethren-style sermons every week that never engaged with the actual world we live in would bore the socks off me – just as I never listen any more to the boring post-Christian liberal bromides of “Platitude for the Day” (I much prefer Classic FM now).
One of Blessed John Stott’s qualities is that he remained a faithful evangelical to the end in a church that has largely lost its way but always sought to understand and engage with the world.
(And we’ve never used hymnboards – just my little joke. But I may walk out one day if someone shows yet another “cute” youtube clip in a “sermon”.)
September 29, 2011 at 12:12 pm
I’m glad that you are interested in the state of Language education in Britain, but very disappointed that the net headline I read was, ‘Language Teaching Deplorable’. I agree with the poster above who says that it seems to are taking a pot-shot at teachers, rather than the state of the system. Language teachers have a real battle on their hands trying to persuade Senior Management Teams in schools that learning a language is a worthwhile exercise at GCSE. (Because it is easier for pupils to get a grade in other subjects which don’t have the same severe grading – so some encourage students to take subjects that will be better for the school’s position in the league tables, rather the subject that will be most appropriate to the individual.). It would be really helpful if commentators did a lot more research and found out all the details of an issue before making this kind of sweeping statement. The truth is that much language teaching is very good in this country, and some is poor, but teachers are struggling against both a monolingual culture and the league tables. Read the ALL website and Lord Dearing on severe grading to find out more…
September 30, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Rosa, and you must read beyond the headline (which I did not write). I have made it clear that my remarks were aimed at the political and cultural drivers, not the teachers. My sister is head of Modern Languages at a secondary school and I am fully aware of what is going on. I have also just written a long opinion piece for a newspaper on the subject. I think you and I are on the same side.