SHOULD FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BE COMPULSORY IN BRITISH
SCHOOL?
THESIS STATEMENT
We believe that foreign languages should not be
compulsory in British schools because they are
inessential, there are more important skills that should
be taught and learning a foreign language should
be a choice.

OUTLINE
1. Foreign Languages are Inessential
2. More Important Skills
3. Choice
Conclusion
References
FOREIGN LANGUAGES ARE
INESSENTIAL
ENGLISH

A global advantage (Guardian, 2006)
Most spoken language (Guardian, 2006)
Speakers > 1.3 billion (Internet World Stats, 2011)
Widely spoken/Official status in 101 countries (ESL,
2012)
Internet users > 550 million (Internet World Stat,
2011)
MORE IMPORTANT SKILLS
Rate of illiteracy:
Reading + Writing:
Best
Worst
3
2
1
4
United Kingdom
(Daily Mail, 2012)
UK pupils reading:
7th
25th
MORE IMPORTANT SKILLS
Numeracy + Literacy skills: 55-65y/o > 16-24y/o
Young people: Reading skills: 22/24
Maths: 21/24
8.5mil adults maths skill=maths skill of 10y/o
Talent pool of highly skilled adults in England are
likely to fall in next few decades
(Daily Mail, 2013)
COMPULSORY?
Reason why ppl believe FL should be compulsory is
because employers values ppl who can speak > 1
lang. (Molyneaux, G. 2010).

CHOICE
(Molyneaux, G. 2010)
CONCLUSION
No foreign languages should not be made
compulsory in British schools because its not
important, there are more important skills that need
to be taught and it should be a choice for the
learner.

REFERENCES
Internet World Stats (2011). Internet World Users by Language. Retrieved February
27, 2014 from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
ESL (2012). The Most Widely Spoken Languages. Retrieved February 27, 2014 from
http://blog.esl-languages.com/en/esl/most-spoken-languages-world/
Daily Mail (2012). Illiterate Britain: One in five adults struggling to read and write and
some can't even use a chequebook. Retrieved February 27, 2014 from
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2122007/Illiterate-Britain-One-adults-
struggling-read-write-t-use-chequebook.html
Daily Mail (2013). Schools go backwards: Pupils are worse at maths and literacy
than their grandparents. Retrieved February 27, 2014 from
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2449481/Education-crisis-Pupils-worse-
maths-literacy-grandparents.html
Guardian (2006). Why bother learning foreign languages?. Retrieved February 20,
2014 from
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/oct/13/whybotherlearningforei
gnla
Images
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