Letter from retired teacher

Dear ...,

I am a retired schoolmaster, i/c German in an independent school, and anxious to ascertain your views, as prospective parliamentary candidate for Thirsk and Malton, on the position of language teaching in the maintained sector.

My interest is as a provider of continuing professional development for language teachers principally in the independent sector through the organizations to which I belong and on whose committees I serve, but training and development open also to language teachers in the maintained sector.

I take no pleasure in having correctly pointed out in letters published in the national press and in the TES, at the time that the labour government removed the requirement that all secondary pupils continue with the study of a modern foreign language to the age of 16, that this action would drive the study of languages into almost the exclusive preserve of the independent sector. This has happened and the government's hasty plans to redress the balance by rendering compulsory the study of languages in the over-burdened primary sector, but without any attempt at a mandatory curriculum at this level ,look likely to fail for much the same reasons as previous attempts in the '60's. The situation is catastrophic for reasons which will readily be apparent to you. The numbers studying languages in our schools, despite the imposition of quotas, continue to fall, (see the recent ALL/ISMLA) survey), and the position of my own first teaching language, German, is, as a perceived difficult language, parlous in the extreme. In a multicultural society, in a world increasingly globalized, it is short sighted in the extreme, not to mention overweeningly arrogant, for us to expect the rest of the world to master our language. How can we understand cultures,let alone respect them, when we have no understanding of that major manifestation of their cultures, their language? How can we rescue languages in our schools?

I look forward to learning how important this question is for you and how you, if elected as an MP this year, propose to address these problems.

I am, Sir, Yours sincerely,