British educational and foreign language policy

"English is not enough"; "Young people from the UK are at a growing disadvantage in the recruitment market", "The UK desperately needs more language teachers".

Those, Ladies and Gentlemen, are not my own statements. They are in fact the (1)……… of the Nuffield Languages Inquiry of the year 2000. It is a regrettable fact that for many years, after a strong period in the 1980s, the (2)……… foreign languages, French and German, have been in continuous and sometimes dramatic (3)………. in British schools and universities.

Britain (4)……… the great task of changing this trend. It is absolutely in this country's interest that British young people, now and in the future, should be (5)………. in foreign languages. In January 2002 the House of Lords debated the (6)………. of foreign language learning. All the speakers agreed that in a (7)……… world characterized by international links and intercultural connections, linguistic (8)………. and international experience are crucial for (9)………. and career. International skills should have a major part in every young person's school (10)………..

torecognize, on a voluntary basis, significant, vitally, criticism, an approach, promising developments, compulsory, difference, society, serious

Text B

However, recently the Government's own interim report noted a further (1)……… decline in foreign language teaching. Probably the main reason at this moment is that the ending of (2)………. language learning between ages 14 and 16 is already having (3)……… effects. This issue - whether language teaching should be compulsory teaching - is actually probably the greatest cultural (4)……… between foreign language teaching here and in Germany. In Germany, foreign languages are compulsory from the first school year. In Britain, language learning seems to be more (5)……… and priority is given to other curricular requirements. But that's (6)……… which comes in for a lot of criticism, including in Britain itself.

However, there are also a great many (7)………: for example, the requirement for primary schools to offer foreign languages from 2012 and the creation of Specialist Language Colleges. But at the broadest and deepest level, it's probably also necessary for (8)……… as a whole (9)……… the value of foreign languages and to create an atmosphere and an environment in which language learning is seen as (10)……… important.

Ex 4. What can you say about the foreign language policy in Russia? Use additional sources of information and make a short report on the issue in class. Give examples of foreign languages politics in other countries.