The demise of modern languages has been greatly exaggerated

The University of Aberdeen’s proposal to make drastic cuts to its provision of modern languages is an issue of national importance and has attracted a great deal of attention, including from the Scottish government. The university management’s proposals are framed by claims about the supposedly poor health of the subject area as a whole in the UK. But a number of these claims are specious and need to be corrected.

First, while it is true that there has been a decline in applications for modern language degrees over recent decades, research by the University Council For Languages (UCFL), alongside the British Academy, demonstrates that this is not uniform across the sector. It is more accurate to say that modern languages degrees are changing, diversifying to cater for the priorities and preferences of a changing student population.

There are many examples of successful initiatives demonstrating this adaptation. These include the marked growth in joint or combined honours with social sciences, such as international relations or politics, and the popularity of translation studies programmes, which often require proficiency in two additional languages. Partnerships between schools and universities across the UK to support and motivate young linguists have also shown strength and resilience at a time of national upheaval and transformation in our relationship with Europe.

Aberdeen’s proposed cuts to degree programmes in French, Gaelic, German and Spanish would also seem to run counter to recent positive developments in Scotland. The Scottish government has led the way by introducing its flagship “1+2” programme, which introduces all pupils to a first additional language from the age of five and to a second one from the age of eight. Moreover, Aberdeen is currently the only institution north of the River Tay to offer degree programmes in languages and cultures, so stripping these back would create a huge cold spot in provision, imperilling access for students from low-participation neighbourhoods.

Although there is still some decline in uptake at school of European languages in the UK more generally (especially of German, French and Italian), there are signs of improvement. We are seeing increased uptake at GCSE of Spanish and other languages, including nationally important ones such as Chinese and Arabic. Renewed attention is being paid to so-called “heritage”, “home” and “community” languages, with growing recognition that the UK is already a multilingual and multicultural nation.

The Department for Education is funding a number of promising initiatives in England. At the end of 2021-22, 74 schools were participating in the Mandarin Excellence Programme, and a £14.9 million nationwide hubs programme has recently been launched to re-energise language learning in state-maintained primary and secondary schools, including a special project to promote German supported by the Goethe Institute. Furthermore, a national coalition of key organisations is working to improve the pipeline of language students into tertiary education. And a new YouGov survey underlines public enthusiasm for this vision, with 70 per cent of UK adults supporting the idea of making the study of a modern language compulsory in secondary school.

Part of the excitement of modern languages is the changing nature of the disciplinary environment. Over recent years, the subject area has developed greater closeness with the social sciences, with researchers regularly engaged in fieldwork and complex interdisciplinary projects. The Arts and Humanities Research Council’s multimillion-pound funding “Translating Cultures” programme and “Open World Research Initiative” have encouraged the development of ambitious research projects based on the principle of co-production with the public.

The global turn in humanities scholarship, coupled with the commitment to decolonise the curriculum, has also led modern languages departments to combine the study of a given geographical area with enquiry into the development of culture in far broader terms. Language courses in all departments explore the movement across time of people, practices and ideas as they have shaped cultures and societies  – including the perpetuation of inequalities and systems that continue to haunt the present and compromise the future.

The impact case studies produced for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework demonstrate the contribution modern languages researchers are making to key issues of our time, including health and well-being, migration, community cohesion and integration. They have helped inform policy on the revitalisation and teaching of the UK’s indigenous languages, including British Sign Language; they have advised the Foreign Office about different, often difficult, parts of the world; and they have offered expertise on election quality and scrutiny. Moreover, Covid-19 demonstrated the importance of multilingual provision in ensuring communities – including linguistic minorities – have access to important public health messages. There are now formal channels for engagement between linguists and policymakers through the Cross-Government Languages Group (xGLG).

In its essence, modern languages are about seeing how the world appears from multiple positionalities, cultural contexts and points in time, with a view to informing responses to issues of immediate concern – including the perils of imposing the cultural norms of any one group on another. Any university course structure that is not built around this principle inadvertently contributes to the pursuit of a kind of cultural colonialism, not to say vandalism.

Wendy Ayres-Bennett is emerita professor of French philology and linguistics at the University of Cambridge. Charles Burdett is director of the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Emma Cayley is chair of the University Council For Languages and professor of Medieval French at the University of Leeds.