EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES HIGHLIGHTS UK'S POOR RECORD

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 26th Sep 2007

The 26th of September sees the annual European Day of Languages being celebrated around the continent and is a time to reflect on how well we can communicate with our neighbours. A West Midlands MEP says that while there are great resources available for private learning, the government decision to stop languages as a compulsory GCSE subject has been catastrophic for language learning in the UK.

Speaking today from the multilingual city of Strasbourg, Liz Lynne said:

"I hope this day will highlight to the government that they should be doing more to promote language learning. Their decision to remove the requirement for every pupil to study one foreign language at GCSE level from 2004 has seen numbers taking languages fall dramtically. It sends entirely the wrong signal when in so many European countries it is normal to study two or more.

"European Day of Languages is a wonderful initiative which raises awareness of the importance of language learning and celebrates Europe's rich linguistic and cultural traditions, but the UK's record of language knowledge lets us down.

"We should be encouraging more people to study languages, not the opposite. This year the number of pupils taking GCSE French was less than half than the 236,000 taking it in 2001 - a stunning statistic. If the trend of falling interest in languages at school continues there could be serious economic implications in the future, with our compatriots losing out in job interviews because of their poor communication skills to other, more roundly educated Europeans.

"While we should all do more to learn to be able communicate with our neighbours in their languages, it is the government who must realise that they have the potential to give our teenagers this vital skill."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

European Day of Languages was established in 2001 by the Council of Europe with the support of the European Union.

National Centre for Languages page with details on resources and activities on European Day of Languages: http://www.cilt.org.uk/edl/resources.htm.

Their West Midlands region page is at: http://www.cilt.org.uk/comenius/westmidlands/index.htm