Are you speaking my language?

The Maltese start learning a foreign language aged 5, Finnish schools teach up to 4 different foreign languages, and 80% of Danes are fluent in another tongue. Yet if multilingualism is on the rise in the EU, English is more than ever Europe’s only lingua franca, writes Lindsey Evans in this article published by café babel. 

Abstract

Multilingual communication is the oil that keeps the wheels of international co-operation turning, makes intercultural understanding possible and strengthens our sense of world citizenship. And it comes in pretty handy for global trade. People with language skills have better job prospects, better brain function and, if a poll of UK dating agencies is to be trusted, greater sex appeal and self-esteem. What better reason to become a polyglot?

Discrepancies across the continent

In a Europe where the use and study of foreign languages varies wildly from one region to the next, encouraging universal proficiency is high on the agenda. In 2002, the Barcelona European Council voiced a need to “improve the mastery of basic skills, in particular by teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age”. The age of introduction to language learning fluctuates from as young as five in the Netherlands to as old as 11 in the UK, and there are differences in the range of languages on offer, the length of time during which they are studied, and the degree to which this learning is compulsory or optional. For example, Swedish secondary schools offer a pick-and-mix credits system allowing pupils to determine the language emphasis of their timetables; other nations’ curricula are more prescriptive in terms of which languages are studied, when.

A recent Eurydice report into language teaching in Europe does identify some promising common developments, and reveals that multilingualism is on the rise. Learning at least one foreign language is obligatory in almost every country, and two is the norm. The duration of mandatory learning has gone up by roughly one school year since 1994. Furthermore, many countries have responded to the call for increasingly early integration of languages into primary education, including Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Austria and Italy.

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Please click here to read the café babel article in full