The popularity of languages in Northern Ireland’s schools is “slowly recovering from the pandemic”, a British Council report says.
The Language Trends Northern Ireland report says that the decline in language learning at post-primary schools is plateauing, with Spanish emerging as the most popular language, overtaking French.
The research was led by Dr Ian Collen, director of the Northern Ireland Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (NICILT) at Queen’s University Belfast, and follows a previous report that said language lessons were “hardest hit” during Covid-19.
The latest report says that Spanish is now the language most frequently taught in Northern Ireland’s schools at both GCSE and A level, overtaking French as the most popular GCSE language in summer 2021.
Although French was the most studied language at GCSE up until two years ago, the subject has been in steep decline since the turn of the millennium.
‘Urgent need’ to invest in languages
Meanwhile, Irish has remained relatively stable at GCSE since 2007. At A level, it has now replaced French as the second most popular language.
German continues to decline, with the subject offered at key stage 3 in only 17 per cent of schools that responded to a survey, and uptake at GCSE almost halving between 2002 to 2022.
Schools offer several languages as part of “extracurricular or enrichment subjects” at KS4, including Polish, Portuguese, Arabic and Mandarin, with a growing number of schools offering students the opportunity to take exams in their home or community languages (63.2 per cent of schools in 2023 against 56.3 per cent in 2021).
Despite this, there was a sharp decline in the uptake of these languages at GCSE during the pandemic.
When looking at languages that students would like to learn, Italian came out on top. Almost one in five (19 per cent) of Year 9 students expressed an interest in learning Italian in addition to the language or languages they already learn at school, followed by Spanish (16.6 per cent) and then Irish (11.3 per cent).
When asked about the value of languages, almost all students did not see the potential for languages to be a part of their future careers: just 14.2 per cent of the 1,158 Year 9 pupils surveyed expressed any likelihood of using languages in the future.
However, motivation for language learning in Year 9 is still high, with most young people (74 per cent) enjoying languages at KS3.
Meanwhile, in primary schools languages are also recovering, having “all but collapsed” during the pandemic.
The report shows that 51 per cent of responding primary schools currently teach languages as part of the curriculum, with Spanish the main language taught at KS2, closely followed by French.
When asked if languages should be statutory at KS3, 84 per cent of responding schools agreed, with Northern Ireland remaining the only part of the UK and Ireland where pupils at primary school do not have an entitlement to learn a language as part of the curriculum.
Dr Collen said that following years of decline, language learning in Northern Ireland had stabilised.
“Whilst other UK jurisdictions and Ireland are investing in language learning, there is an urgent need to start similar endeavours in Northern Ireland to ensure that we have a multilingual workforce ready to grow our economy,” he said.
“It would be timely to overhaul curriculum content and assessment of languages to better reflect the lives of young people today, and offer appropriate vocational qualifications in languages through progression pathways for all learners.”
Jonathan Stewart, director of the British Council Northern Ireland, said the report gave cause for optimism.
“Our increasingly multicultural society makes it more important than ever to promote languages in our schools, equipping young people with the skills they need to thrive in future careers,” he said.
“Strong language skills enhance communication and interpersonal skills, expand career opportunities and develop intercultural awareness.”
