A friend from my university back home had found this house for us to live in, and these housemates – British girls my age – became very close friends and companions for my year abroad. As a group of British girls in a new city where none of us spoke Spanish as our first language, we had a lot in common; the one major difference was that I was the only one who had gone to a state school.
While not a bad thing in itself, it made me wonder – is there something about doing a year abroad that makes it more attractive to privately educated students?
There is undoubtedly a disparity in language uptake between independent and state schools in the UK; the British Council found in 2023 that in more than half of independent schools, every pupil learns at least two languages until year 9, compared to less than 16% in state schools. Moreover, there is a nationwide shortage of language teachers. In 2024, 60% of schools cited difficulties in finding Modern Foreign Languages teachers.
A teacher at a state secondary school in north London told me that during her three year tenure, at least two language teachers left every year, and sometimes there would only be one new candidate applying to replace them, resulting in potentially ‘premature promotions’, such as her being made head of the languages department in only her second year as a qualified teacher. In addition, she described situations where ‘they employed teachers whose practice was not of the quality we might have hoped for these students, but we simply didn’t have anyone else to choose from.’ In the face of such intense pressure for teachers who remain, is it any surprise that an increasing number choose to leave the profession? More broadly speaking, in 2023, up to November, 43,552 teachers left their jobs, a figure almost as high as the 44,002 who joined the profession.
In the context of state schools not being able to provide the ideal environment for language education, the motivation often falls to the students and parents themselves. This is an exposure often restricted to the wealthy, much like travel. Wealthier and more middle-class parents have the means to build up their children’s experiences through travelling, something which would ideally be open to everyone. In addition to being more limited in an economic sense, opportunities to travel and learn another language are restricted for many families due to ‘time poverty’. In a Western environment where time and money are interlinked, with the Venn diagram of employment showing that some of the lowest-paid jobs involve some of the highest hours worked, and the furthest distance travelled to work, travel emerges as a priority for few.
However, the wealth divide in the UK cannot shoulder the entirety of the blame for young Brits not learning other languages. This is not just a problem in state schools. Rather, it is symptomatic of a historic lack of enthusiasm in the UK for learning a second language, which has arguably been exacerbated by Brexit. The most common question I have been asked as a Brit in Argentina, by Argentinians and Europeans alike, has undoubtedly been in some form: What are your thoughts on Brexit?
Brexit has become one of the UK’s defining movements in the last few decades, and we must be careful that it does not make our island even more insular; in 2018, 32% of 15 to 30-year-olds in the UK could read and write in two or more languages, in contrast with an EU country average of 80%. Aside from the obvious and understandable justification that English is in some ways the lingua franca of Europe, it would seem that the UK government does not see second language learning as a huge priority. Indeed, less in-demand subjects such as languages and arts are threatened by nationwide education cuts, which hit state schools rather than independent ones.
The language teacher I spoke to felt that one of the main causes of a lack of motivation for language learning, seen in both government policy and the desires of parents and students, is an attitude reminiscent of colonial British identity, an attitude that has arguably been reignited by Brexit. While Brexit could offer the UK opportunities for investment and trade further afield than EU countries, in my opinion, it is crucial for our global identity that we do not lose the connection we have enjoyed with our European neighbours for so long. Indeed, it hurts us rather than helps us to be content with speaking only English; in 2019 the British Council wrote that the lack of language skills in the UK costs 3.5% of GDP. In fact, in 2022, a report found that ‘a full eradication of language barriers with Arabic, Chinese, French and Spanish-speaking countries could increase UK exports annually by about £19bn’.
In order for the UK to step outside of languishing in our English language privilege and instead expand our horizons as a nation, more money must be invested into not only Modern Foreign Languages teaching in schools but arguably in other cultural learning that could take place in subjects such as Business, History, Music, and Arts. Furthermore, if the UK is serious about increasing language proficiency, students need real and consistent speaking practice in school. For example, more state schools could be given the budget space to employ language-speaking assistants, a tool often only available in independent schools.
I have massively enjoyed the opportunity to come to Argentina, and use the still-not-perfect Spanish it has taken me 10 years to learn in the slow, often only once-a-week language teaching common in the UK, and I think it will be a real shame if more British students are not encouraged to do the same.
