Foreign Language Learning

Available for over a year

Students are no longer choosing to study modern foreign languages. In the first of a new series of Word of Mouth, Chris Ledgard asks how much this matters. In 2001, 78% of pupils in England did a language GCSE. By last year that had fallen to just 43%. Chris Ledgard talks to Andy Burnham, Shadow Secretary of State for Education; Vivienne Hurley of the British Academy; Professor Andrew Hussey of the University of London Institute in Paris; John Rushforth, Deputy Vice Chancellor of UWE; Swansea University language student Catherine Rendle; Luke Young, President of the NUS in Wales and Glyn Hambrook, a former language lecturer, to find out the true picture and ask if it really matters.