University subject profile: modern languages and linguistics
Learn to speak and write in another language, along with literature, history and cultureWhat you’ll learnOnly 32% of young people in the UK can read and write in another language, compared with 90% of...
View ArticleRoy Wisbey obituary
My friend and colleague Roy Wisbey, one of the leading figures in British German studies, has died aged 91.Roy revolutionised the study of modern languages by pioneering the field of digital...
View ArticleFears language degrees at risk as Erasmus replacement focuses on UK trade agenda
Study of modern languages at university has fallen by 38% in 10 years. Will the post-Brexit Turing scheme make things worse? The dramatic fall in students taking language degrees in the UK could...
View ArticleIan Wallace obituary
My father, Ian Wallace, who has died aged 78, was a lecturer in German and European studies. He was drawn to exile studies, which follows the Jewish writers who had to leave Germany under Hitler, but...
View ArticleIrish language still resonates powerfully | Letters
Colonisers used Ireland as a testing ground, says Brendan Kelleher, as Jane Foxworthy detects English admiration for foreign language abilityAdaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s piece on the consequences of an...
View ArticleUK schools are turning to foreign governments to fund languages
Some primaries would be unable to afford specialist language teaching without the money they receive from overseas schemesIn Holly class, Matilda, aged six, calls the register. “Ciao, Tyler,” she says....
View ArticleLanguage exams: how hard are they and is there a crisis?
Why modern language GCSEs are in decline and what the government is doingResearch by Suzanne Graham, a professor of language and education at Reading University, shows that even though many students...
View ArticleOfqual is killing off modern foreign language education | Letters
Exams that are too difficult and unreliable grading are among the problems driving demoralised learners and teachers out of the subject, say 152 university language teachersThe education secretary is...
View ArticleModern language teaching ‘under threat from tough exams’
Academics say regulator is ‘killing’ subjects as GCSEs and A-levels are marked too harshlyThe exams regulator in England, Ofqual, is “killing off” modern languages by failing to address the excessive...
View ArticleUniversity subject profile: modern languages and linguistics
Includes French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, south Asian, African, Australasian, modern Middle Eastern languages, and literature and linguisticsWhat you’ll...
View ArticleWe need languages graduates to steer us through our post-Brexit troubled...
Languages departments are closing as undergraduate numbers fall. This must change to protect the UK’s international relations Just after the first world war, the UK produced its most comprehensive...
View ArticleAmerica’s origin myth, and its reputation at risk | Letters
Contrary to popular belief, the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci has little to do with the name of the modern-day continent, writes Colin Moffat. Plus Patrick Billingham says Donald Trump has...
View ArticleFrench and German GCSEs to be marked less harshly, Ofqual rules
Regulator responds to students being put off foreign languages due to grading severityFrench and German GCSEs are to be marked less severely from next year amid concerns that students are being put off...
View ArticleWhy are British people such nervous linguists? Shame | Adrian Chiles
I have failed at French, German, Croatian – and now I’m learning Welsh‘No other subject,” says my language teacher, “is the cause of so much shame. You might struggle with other subjects, but you’ll...
View ArticleSoas survived the end of empire but can it recover this time?
London’s School of Oriental and African Studies was already struggling as modern language study declines in UKSoas to slash budgets and staff as debt crisis worsens in pandemicFor more than 100 years,...
View ArticleUniversity subject profile: modern languages and linguistics
Learn to speak and write in another language, along with literature, history and cultureWhat you’ll learnOnly 32% of young people in the UK can read and write in another language, compared with 90% of...
View ArticleRoy Wisbey obituary
My friend and colleague Roy Wisbey, one of the leading figures in British German studies, has died aged 91.Roy revolutionised the study of modern languages by pioneering the field of digital...
View ArticleFears language degrees at risk as Erasmus replacement focuses on UK trade agenda
Study of modern languages at university has fallen by 38% in 10 years. Will the post-Brexit Turing scheme make things worse? The dramatic fall in students taking language degrees in the UK could...
View ArticleIan Wallace obituary
My father, Ian Wallace, who has died aged 78, was a lecturer in German and European studies. He was drawn to exile studies, which follows the Jewish writers who had to leave Germany under Hitler, but...
View ArticleDear Gavin Williamson, if Latin is about levelling up, I have other ideas |...
Why not emulate private schools with class sizes, playing fields, music facilities and modern languages?Just as many of us are thinking ahead to winter and a possible next wave of Covid, worrying about...
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