For a decade it has been government policy in Scotland that children should learn two languages in school - starting their first language in P1 and their second in P5, and continuing with them until at least the third year of secondary.
However, the figures show the policy - which began being introduced in 2013 and was supposed to be fully implemented by August 2021 - has yet to be fully realised.
Research published by the government in April last year, based on a survey of 86 per cent of primary schools and 88 per cent of secondaries, shows that just 69 per cent of primary schools were delivering a second language continuously from P1 to P7.
A further 29 per cent were “partially” delivering a second language and 2 per cent were delivering no second language whatsoever.
All secondaries were delivering a second language in S1 to S3 - but not all of them were doing so continuously: 70 per cent said they were delivering the entitlement to a second language in full.
And that’s before we get to the third language.
Yet despite this, there is much to be positive about when it comes to language learning in schools, says Fhiona Mackay, director of SCILT (Scotland’s National Centre for Languages).
For a start, language learning in primary has been transformed by the 1+2 languages policy, says Mackay, who was speaking to Tes Scotland to mark Languages Week Scotland 2023.
Implementation might be “patchy” but, prior to the policy’s introduction, some exposure to languages in upper primary was the best that could be hoped for and still secondary teachers generally assumed they were starting with a clean slate in S1.
Now, she says, cluster working is commonplace, with the secondaries engaging with feeder primaries to build pupils’ language skills from a much earlier age. She also says there has been a shift away from relying on specialists to deliver lessons in primary and towards “everyone being a teacher of languages in primary school”.
She believes that pedagogy in primary and secondary has improved vastly in more recent years - moving away from an overreliance on worksheets and textbooks to an offer far more likely to inspire a love of languages.
Mackay says: “There has been a change in how languages are taught. I’ve seen really exciting changes where you’ve got children and young people exploring controversial issues like gender equality and climate change - things that genuinely do concern them - through languages.
“Doesn’t that just beat the hell out of talking about what you did at the weekend?”
Of course, there are caveats. Teacher confidence is an issue, says Mackay. In primary, that is about being proficient enough in the language to be confident to teach it, and in secondary she believes more time is needed to allow more staff to delve into the kind of pedagogy that she believes is really exciting.
“Teachers are getting the message that lessons shouldn’t be overly reliant on the textbook but that puts a huge emphasis on the teacher to be creative and to look for new ways of doing things. But quite frankly teachers don’t have an awful lot of time on their hands.”
The government delivering on its promise to cut class contact time by 90 minutes a week would give teachers more space to network and engage in professional development and learning, she says.
Mackay also still believes the position of languages remains “fragile” in secondary.
She says: “I do think we are still fragile in the curriculum. Yet we know that language learning is such a good thing. We know it opens up employability and develops mother tongue literacy, and it’s the kind of qualification that employers and further and higher education are looking for. And we know that there is a dearth of language qualifications in the workforce.
“So if we know it’s such a good thing for young people to do, why is that message not getting through? Why don’t they see that? What are the barriers? We need to start looking at that properly.”
It’s long been said that the move to studying six subjects in S4 - as opposed to seven or even eight - has seen languages squeezed out as pupils advance through secondary and Mackay repeats that point.
But she would also like to see a wider range of qualifications in languages offered - something she is hopeful the ongoing review of assessment and qualification might help address - as well as a change in attitudes.
“I would like to see people thinking of languages as a vocational skill not just an academic subject. People should see being able to speak a language as a life skill like being able to operate a computer or drive a car - just one of these things most adults can do to a greater or lesser extent.
“We seem to have this idea that languages are only useful when you are bilingual or completely fluent - or if you want to be an interpreter or a teacher - and that’s not the case.”
Mackay went on holiday to Austria recently. After losing her baggage, having a flight cancelled and having her taxi pulled over by the police on the way to the airport, she found herself resurrecting her secondary school German.
“I pulled that German out to make sure that I could be understood and that I could get to where I needed to go. It was incredibly useful just to have that.”
And that essentially sums up why Mackay believes Scotland needs to turn around the decline in language learning, because having another language gives you an edge - in all sorts of scenarios.
