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20/10/2014

“There are two language disadvantages: one is not knowing English; and the other is knowing only English.”


Long time ago there was a question: why should British people worry about learning other languages if everyone else in the world places such an emphasis on the importance of developing a perfect command of English?  
Today things have changed dramatically and the issue then becomes: why would an international company hire a monolingual English speaker when it can hire a bilingual, trilingual or multilingual one? The United Kingdom has been sitting on its linguistic laurels for decades and now pays the price.
The recent move towards the development of the so-called English Baccalaureate has restored languages to their rightful place as one of the core subjects within the academic curriculum, and thus as a good stepping stone towards university admission. The downside is that languages have tended to retrench back into the private sector of education, with the attendant risk of social stratification between those people who have a command of languages and those who do not. It is essential to ensure that languages have a place at the heart of the curriculum for all our pupils, and that it is possible to continue to study them (and their associated cultures) throughout the school years. In the UK there are large numbers of different communities who speak a whole range of languages.
Moreover a British Academy report emphasizes on the need for languages in UK diplomacy and security as strategic importance as a nation. Yet they have no developed system for accrediting this knowledge.
In short, there are many challenges that face British people in the domain of languages. UK urgently needs to find ways to meet them to keep up in the global race for excellence.

Thanks to Professor Nigel Vincent


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