Why the language teaching crisis matters for Britain

The Tower of Babel (Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563)

Fairly recently, the Guardian reported that 40% of university language departments face closure in the next 10 years. In 2000 there were 105 universities offering modern language degrees. At the beginning of this academic year there are only 62. A further 20 are at risk.

This problem can be traced at least partially back to secondary schools, where from 1996 to 2012 the number of candidates for French and German A-levels fell by 50%. So there is an ever smaller pool of school leavers with a basic grounding in foreign languages for the university departments to attract into modern language degree courses.

Why does this matter?

I was at the Labour Party conference last week, where there were debates on all sorts of topics. Three of the key themes were: better politics, Britain's global role and stability and prosperity. The modern languages crisis in Britain is important for all three of these areas.

Better politics

I studied German and Italian at the University of Bath, but I didn't just learn about nouns and verb tenses. I learnt a huge amount about the history and politics of the countries where those languages are spoken: Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. But not only that - I also learnt a lot about politics generally and world history. And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that I wouldn't have been at a party conference as a delegate if it hadn't been for that modern languages education.

Learning a foreign language is a powerful way to understand other cultures and societies and, by comparison with them, your own. So one way to raise the level of political debate in Britain in the future is to ensure that as many schoolchildren as possible pick up a foreign language. That's better politics.

Britain's global role

I believe a key part of Britain's global role is its active membership of a strong European Union.

But at the moment, we provide only 4.5% of the staff of the EU Commission, despite the UK making up 11% of the EU's population. Italy, by comparison, accounts for 10.3% of Commission staff.

We need to encourage more children to pick up foreign language skills and develop them to the highest level if we are going to start pulling our weight in Europe and making it work for us, and to sustain Britain's global role.

Stability and prosperity

Fluent Latin-speaker Boris Johnson - and let me say I have nothing against Latin. I was taught Latin myself at a state school and I consider myself lucky. More schoolchildren should have the opportunity to learn Latin, not just the children of the rich - Boris Johnson says we should forget about Europe and focus instead on trade with the Commonwealth countries.

But why can't we do both? I think we must do both, and not only that, but what about China, Japan, the Middle East, Brazil and the rest of Latin America?

The global economy isn't dominated by the British empire any more, and it's about time we recognised that. Speaking other people's languages is essential to secure the future stability and prosperity of this country.

Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg didn't refer to the crisis in foreign language education in his speech to the Labour Party conference, but I hope he will dedicate some time and energy to policy in this area.

Stephen Twigg at Labour Conference 2013 (Flickr/PolicyExchange)