Widespread introduction of English, longer courses

In Western Europe the teaching of English has become the general rule, and all pupils now learn English. This situation has come about at different rates depending on the country and its specific circumstances and first made its appearance in the countries of Northern Europe, the Netherlands and the German-speaking countries. The trend spread to France and then to all the Southern European countries.

According to a Eurydice study covering 29 countries (the 15 Member States and the applicant countries), nine of them, including the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, and several German Länder, have made the learning of English compulsory.

Note: The Eurydice [juri’disi] network supports and facilitates European cooperation in the field of lifelong learning by providing information on education systems and policies in 36 countries and by producing studies on issues common to European education systems. It consists of 40 national units based in all 36 countries participating in the EU Lifelong Learning programme (27 Member States, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and a coordinating unit based in the EU Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency in Brussels. Since 1980, the Eurydice network has been one of the strategic mechanisms established by the European Commission and Member States to support European cooperation in the field of education. Since 2007, Eurydice has been included in the EU Action Programme in the field of Lifelong Learningin which, as part of the transversal programme, it helps to support the development of policies as well as cooperation at European level.

In the others, the obligation to learn a foreign language, in conjunction with the widespread introduction of English teaching, gives English a quasi-compulsory status, albeit one that differs on the political and cultural front. English courses are getting longer in nearly all countries. Language learning in primary school (children under 11) is an ancient tradition in central and Eastern Europe. Northern European countries have organised it on a large scale since the 1970s.

It became the general rule in all non-English-speaking countries of the European Union in the 1990s. In all cases it has been or is about to be made compulsory, with learning starting between seven and ten years of age. The early learning of languages has benefited English almost exclusively. The only other language taught to any significant degree is French but even here only 4% of the school population is reached. The share of the other languages is too small to appear in the statistics.