The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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@Linguist_CIOL APRIL/MAY The Linguist 21 FEATURES review at a major university in the UK, I met with senior management staff and the position could not have been made plainer: whether MFL is seen as strategically significant or not, decisions about whether languages should be stopped, and how they should be shaped, are entirely market-driven. Far from being unusual, this is true across the entire UK HE sector. This fact has implications for how we offer MFL to potential students – or, seen in this light, 'customers'. Nowadays they are, indeed, paying customers: paying fees in England, and paying no less in terms of time in Scotland (five years for an MFL degree). So lecturers and tutors now have to respond to student needs and demands (and is this such a bad thing?). For many years, tutors of German have relied on Martin Durrell's revision of Hammer's German Grammar, but not all students appreciate a grammar-based approach (hence the moniker 'grammar Nazi', applied to anyone invested in more traditional approaches to MFL acquisition). Student (or customer) feedback can be highly revealing about the expectations of MFL learners in HE institutions today. In a recent survey with my first-year students of German, they asked the instructor to stop "giving 'useless' information that can't be used for the exam"; "avoid bringing in other languages in case students have no knowledge of them"; and stop "giving us difficult german [sic] texts to read, for example, Nietzsche". (As an aside, the depth of response a text by Nietzsche can provoke is surprising – sometimes overwhelmingly positive, sometimes blisteringly negative.) A new approach: the three 'c's So maybe the traditional 'lang & lit' approach to MFL is no longer the most appropriate one, even if it is the approach with which most practitioners at HE level are familiar (especially older ones). Perhaps it is time to consider a different approach to MFL, one that recognises the economic realities of the HE sector and the economic needs of graduates when they enter the workforce. In short, I propose that MFL articulates clearly the three 'c's: commerce, culture and content. First, languages are about commerce, that is to say, about exchange in the widest possible sense. To use language, there needs to be a point or purpose to using it. Getting our students interested in how languages give access to areas that would otherwise be inaccessible to them is key. Languages can help students with their other subjects, too, especially regarding the economic and political complexities in which they are growing up. Part of that knowledge involves an understanding of how the economy works – or doesn't work – in other countries and cultures (including how it works or doesn't work in our own, especially post-Brexit). Second, we cannot teach language without also teaching culture. In order to teach someone how to construct a grammatically graduation and £23,000 after five years. While the LEO data might not be the most accurate, it confirms the picture gained from the ONS figures that medics are the most employable graduates (95%), followed by engineers (92%). It is important to note that the ONS and LEO use average and median figures respectively, meaning that while some language graduates will be earning more than the stated amount, others will be earning less. One might speculate that if someone decides to work part-time translating for £10,000 a year, possibly while furthering their studies, they might be perfectly content; then again, they might not be. Rising to the challenges Within the context of HE becoming more commercialised, where does this leave modern foreign languages (MFL)? As a professional linguist who is passionate about the subject, I believe MFL can rise to these challenges – not least in a post-Brexit economic environment. More than 20 years' experience within the field has enabled me to gain something of a long view – if not quite as long a view as the one envisaged by the Radio 4 programme of that name. However, I am the first to admit that I might be wrong, so my views are intended as a Denkanstoß: a stimulus to further discussion and debate. Practitioners of MFL at HE institutions have been slow to grasp that education, nowadays, is a business. Participating in a recent quality © SHUTTERSTOCK