Dr Anthony Seldon, Head of Wellington College, argues that our collective weakness in speaking foreign languages is turning us into a “Little Britain”. Pulling no punches, he argues that we are becoming deeply insular, expecting all foreigners to speak English.

He goes on to say “”Our record in language learning is uniquely bad in the developed world. We cannot simply assume the rest of the world will learn English to accommodate us. We cannot lose the plot at a time when other countries are expanding their language teaching. We desperately need to shift that culture and dramatically expand the teaching of languages which are increasingly important for our future.”

His speech comes at a time of hyper competitiveness for jobs….and while multi-lingual continentals can come here and take up British jobs, UK students have not a hope of taking up jobs on the continent without language skills.

The facts are truly shocking with the number of students taking GCSE French for instance down by nearly a third in just 5 years. Michael Gove, the Minister for Education has said we must halt the slump and wants all children learning a language from 5 years old….

Here is the article on the BBC website

Schools are increasingly using KLOO MFL Games to make language fun.

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