Monolingual England: The Crisis in Foreign Language Enrollments from Elementary Schools through College

In 2005 the BBC reported that in reply to a survey conducted by the European Commission, 66% of English respondents indicated that they spoke no language other than their mother tongue. This proportion was far higher than in any other European Union nation taking part (BBC "£115m to Boost Language Learning") but compares fairly favorably with the United States, where one-fourth of adults are reported as being able to "speak a language other than English well enough to hold a conversation" (Gallup). The BBC article also flagged up at least one of the repercussions of this widespread lack of second-language knowledge, reproducing comments from a Department for Education and Skills spokesperson who observed, "In the global economy too few of our employees have the necessary language skills to be able to fully engage in international business" (BBC "£115m to "Boost Language Learning"). More recently, the London-based Times Higher Education newspaper reported that the British Academy, Britain's national academy of the arts and humanities, had published the findings of a year-long investigation concluding that the decline in the study of modern languages endangers the country's status as a leader in world-class research because UK-born researchers cannot compete with their overseas counterparts who are more linguistically competent (Times Higher Education "Languages Provision"). In at least two areas key to the nation's knowledge economy, as well as its financial systems and markets, England's ability to compete and engage successfully is jeopardized when compared with other nations within Europe and beyond as a result of its citizens' poor or nonexistent language skills. This linguistic inability also compromises cross-cultural communication and comprehension for, as a Modern Language Association (MLA) report has concluded in an observation as relevant to England as to the United States, "Deep cultural knowledge and linguistic competence are equally necessary if one wishes to understand people and their communities." Ruth Kelly, then the education secretary, was cited in 2005 as saying, with specific reference to the teaching of languages in schools, "Languages are vital for children in today's world. They open doors to new experiences, increase employment opportunities and break down cultural barriers. They also boost community cohesion and our economy's competitiveness" (BBC "£115m to Boost Language Learning").

In twenty-first-century England, the languages deficit and strategies to overcome it are the subject of inquiry by governmental and other national bodies, and a range of policies has been developed to try to remedy our linguistic incompetence.¹ A key impediment to achieving this, however, would appear to be the ongoing closure of languages departments and modern foreign language courses at English (and other British) universities. As early as 2002, Times Higher Education—Britain's newspaper for staff in Higher Education—reported that "At least 15 university language departments are under threat of closure or merger as fewer students opt for pure language degrees" (Times Higher Education "Demand Falls"). Five years after this alarm was sounded, The Guardian noted that sixteen British universities no longer offered degrees in any of the four main languages: Spanish, French, German, and Italian (The Guardian "Chattering Classes"). More recently, The University of Bradford decided to close its world-renowned M.A. program in interpretation and translation, sounding a likely death knell for its languages department (Times Higher Education "Bradford"), while this year the University of the West of England was reported as considering closing its department of languages, linguistics, and area studies, and Queen's University Belfast was about to end German provision, both of these moves coming "just a week after a damning report highlighted the risks of language decline to British research and the economy" (The Guardian "Threat of Closure"). The head of German at Queen's was reported as claiming that he and his colleagues "felt the moves were the result of the government diverting funding away from arts and humanities subjects to protect the sciences" (The Guardian "Threat of...