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British Academy Launch of Rethinking Language policy research project 23 September 2013 Baroness Garden

Thank you to Richard and the British Academy for inviting me to join you today.

The title ‘Born Global’ neatly encapsulates the international world in which this generation lives. Technology has revolutionised the speed and range of communication. It brings together the multilingual nations of the world and the UK will certainly be sidelined unless we can participate in languages other than our own.

I read French and Spanish at university in the days when speaking the language was regarded as a somewhat flippant distraction from serious academic scholarship. There is a danger that that attitude has not entirely disappeared from some of our ivory towers.

We know that language and intercultural skills are valued by business and make UK students more employable. We also hear the concerns that these skills are in short supply.

We think of English as the language of business, but it is not right to keep relying on the use of English as the ‘de facto’ world language. Only 6% of the world population speaks English as a first language and 75% of UK trade takes place with countries where English is not the first language.

As Willy Brandt so famously said

o  "If I'm selling to you, I speak your language. If I'm buying, dann mussen sie Deutsch sprechen."

So what is the government doing to address this?

We believe it is vital that children get a good early grounding in a foreign language. DfE has confirmed that the teaching of a foreign language will be compulsory throughout Key Stage 2.

Responding to consultation about which language or languages should be taught at this stage, we have broadened the range so that primary schools can teach any modern or ancient language, and can make use of local language expertise if they wish.

Key to the drop in language study was the last government’s decision to remove the requirement for a language beyond the age of 14. The EBacc has started to reverse the trend at Key Stage 4, with a healthy increase in GCSE entries in 2013, We hope that this increase will be sustained.

The importance of languages in Higher Education is recognised by the way Government funds higher education. HEFCE has had a policy framework and programme of work in place to sustain Strategically Important and Vulnerable Subjects (SIVS) since 2005.

HEFCE has and continues to, make investments to sustain and protect the supply of strategically important subjects. This includes investment to incentivise the continued availability of Modern Foreign Languages in higher education.

Strategically important and vulnerable subjects remain a priority as the teaching grant provided directly to institutions reduces with the move to higher tuition fees.

At the request of Government, HEFCE has already made, or planned, a number of interventions to address specific risks to languages in the new fee and funding system. The key interventions agreed to date are:

·  Exemption from the adjustment to Student Number Control for 2012-13 and 2013-14. HEFCE has taken steps to ensure that the implementation of the Government’s Student Number Control proposals do not provide incentives for providers to move provision away from subjects such as languages.

·  £3.1 million further funding for student demand-raising activity in languages. From 1 August 2013, a consortium led by the University of Southampton (the current Routes into Languages provider) will deliver a new three-year programme, which will build upon previous achievements. It will promote the principle identified in Michael Worton’s review of Modern Foreign Languages in 2009, namely that the modern foreign languages community should be encouraged to secure its own future.

·  From 2014-15, we have introduced a tuition fee supplement of approximately £2,250 per student engaging in a year of study or work abroad through the ERASMUS exchange programme, or study abroad through another route. This amounts to a further investment of £25 million.

·  Additional funding of up to £1,100 for postgraduate taught and postgraduate research language students.

What more?

Last week saw the launch of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Language Centre. Since the last government closed the previous centre, the language skills of our diplomats have declined, to the detriment of international relations and business. Recent figures indicate that up to 90 per cent of Foreign Office personnel have no recognised language abilities for the country where they are posted. This cannot be right.

The state-of-the-art centre will seek to rectify this. It will provide language training to up to 1000 students a year, including to staff from other Government departments.

BIS has provided development funding for a National Centre for Universities and Business. The NCUB www.ncub.co.uk will gather evidence, bring together university and business leaders, and share best practice. It will cover all aspects of HE-business working skill needs, including languages, work experience and graduate recruitment.

I am very pleased to see that there is a proposal in our Employer Ownership Pilots to include foreign language skills in a new Apprenticeship: that’s positive and encouraging, and we shall hope for more to follow.

There is an important role too for professional specialists, such as the Chartered Institute of Linguists. The Chartered Institute has, for over a century, promoted language solutions to create a more peaceful and prosperous world.

And the British Academy will be well aware of the wide-ranging skills within university language departments

This century has seen a revolution in learning styles. Learning can take place interactively on line, through personal media such asiPods, through MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) which are expanding rapidly, thanks to the Open University’s Future learn, and bringing learning within reach of new cohorts. On-line learning offers a very inclusive, flexible option for people who cannot for whatever reason access the more traditional courses.

·  Higher education providers can encourage demand for language study by making courses appealing to students. Institutions that provide access to better information about their institutions and courses, such as graduate outcomes, will be able to attract the fee income to offset any reductions in grants. Students will choose the courses that will provide them with the experience they are hoping for and one of these factors will undoubtedly be their future employability.

Ladies and gentlemen

·  Academia and industry have incentives, and the means, to help in remedying the UK’s language deficit. I have outlined some of the ways in which the Government will be supportive. Together we can ensure that the UK is equipped with the language skills to face up to economic challenges and commercial globalisation.

I wish you well with the research and look forward very much to hearing progress of ‘Born Global’.

·  Thank you.