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
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/914406
FEATURES commented: "The finances, lack of expertise and pressure on performance targets all impact on our decision." Even in those schools with a strong history of MFL teaching, provision may be patchy and may not have seen improvement, as one respondent commented: "It's so frustrating to see what has been built up over a number of years wither away." Curriculum time Inadequate time is one of the biggest constraints on provision of languages. A recent report commissioned by Ofsted, the schools regulator, looked at a sample of 106 inspected primary schools and found that 73 spent less than an hour a week on foreign language learning. 2 According to the Language Trends survey, around 80% of schools dedicate 30-60 minutes a week to languages, while 10% do not provide even the minimal 30 minutes' language tuition in Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11). A number of respondents used the word 'inconsistent' to describe the allocation of curriculum time to languages. There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that pupils in Year 6 are only taught a language after their SATs, towards the end of the school year. Staff cuts With a third of state schools now experiencing a cash deficit, there is some evidence that staffing is being cut. One primary French teacher said: "I have found that cuts have impacted. I am teaching French to Year 5 and 6 classes only now, as the budget won't stretch to Year 3 and 4. At the moment, they are not receiving anything. Hopefully, that will change throughout the year when I have done some staff training. Some of my friends who teach in primary schools have specialist teachers who come in but some are now having to teach it themselves." It is not uncommon for schools to employ a language specialist Teaching Assistant (TA) as the Subject Lead and have them teach languages during teachers' Planning, Preparation and Assessment time. Funding cuts have resulted in a number of redundancies of TAs, with an inevitable impact on languages provision. Furthermore, some primary schools that had previously relied on a secondary school for staffing or support are being forced to terminate the arrangement for financial reasons. Schools are being forced to look in-house for their MFL provision; where teachers' subject knowledge is insufficient, or staff lack confidence, provision may cease altogether. Juliet Green, a primary languages specialist in West Yorkshire, was recently made redundant from the school where she was teaching all classes across Key Stage 2 (KS2) for 45 minutes a week. She describes how languages were seen as an optional 'add-on', rather than a statutory area of the curriculum. Observing how staff were struggling to continue with language provision she made the unusual decision of returning to the school on a voluntary basis, although her teaching time has been reduced to 30 minutes per class. In addition to the loss of staff, a decrease in the number of primary teachers attending continuing professional development (CPD) sessions was also reported, with 30% of respondents stating that they had no access to specialist support, compared to 23% in 2015. For some, this was due to a lack of funding: "We did attend network meetings until funding was withdrawn from the local authority." Another commented: "We would like CPD but funding for training is not available." There is also evidence to suggest that primary teachers now have reduced access to funding to promote their subject knowledge – a priority for many non-specialists. One teacher explained: "I would like to see more funding made available by the government for teaching languages in order to have more support from specialist teachers. It is hard to motivate teachers who are unconfident about "It is so frustrating to see what has been built up over a number of years wither away" FADING FROM VIEW? There is evidence of languages being cut altogether in some primaries due to budget cuts and other concerns © SHUTTERSTOCK