Atlas languages questionnaire report

Selected results from a survey of school students’ attitudes towards learning languages, Nov-Dec 2002

Questionnaires were returned from 687 students in the age range 14 19, in the nine partner schools/colleges, representing a wide socio-economic range and a variety of institutional organizations. Focus group interviews in each of years 10, 11 and 12 were used to explore issues in more depth.

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

First Language

40 different languages were named as a first language.
63% of the surveyed students speak only English.
31% speak a language other than English at home.

Parents studied a language at school

30% of the students said they did not know but 51% said their parents had studied a language, (mainly French).

The fact that 51% of students do know may imply that they’ve talked about it at home. Parental help is an issue in language learning.

Parents studied a language at university

Languages studied in secondary school

12 languages were mentioned. The main ones are:

	Years 7 - 9	Years 10 – 11 (GCSE)
French	77%	70%
German	40%	21%
Spanish	31%	23%
Italian	3%	3%

German declines significantly from year 9 to 10

Year 10 and 11 students’ intention to study a language after GCSE

	Yes	No	Don’t know
Year 10	18%	35%	44%
Year 11	23%	58%	16%

Experience in year 10 appears to be critical. The survey was conducted early in the academic year (November). The year 11 sample has a much larger proportion of negative replies than the year 10 sample, while the percentages of positive answers in both years are roughly similar.

Factors influencing choice about continuing to study a language post GCSE

The categories listed in the table below were generalized from the written statements of the students:

Factor influencing choice	Number of times mentioned
Relevance, or lack of relevance, to future career plans	95
Success/failure in study	64
Lack of enjoyment	54
Lack of interest	40
Difficulty	38
Comparison with other subjects	32
Other reasons	10

12% gave positive reasons for continuing a language to AS level. There was only one dominant reason:- relevance to future career plans.

Years 10 and 11 students’ opinions on language study

	Agree
a) Skill in the language gives good job opportunities.	78%
f) Other subjects are more important for my future.	78%
e) I’d like the chance to travel	75%
g) I like other subjects better.	74%
c) I am doing well in the subject.	66%
b) I am interested in the language and culture.	55%
d) I like the teaching methods used.	40%

There appears to be an anomaly. A high percentage recognise that skill in languages gives good job opportunities and, elsewhere, a high proportion say relevance to a career is a factor affecting choice, yet the take up of language study, once the subject is optional, is low.

Less than half (40%) like the teaching methods in the GCSE years. Focus groups provided some detail (see below).

A selection of reasons given by year 10 students for continuing or not continuing the study of a language to AS level

Because I do not enjoy doing languages, I am awful at learning languages

Because I don't want a job using languages when I am older

Because it's hard and boring

Because the job I want as a primary teacher only needs a basic knowledge. If it was necessary to do the A-level then I would

Depending whether or not I choose a career abroad or involving languages

Depends on how well I do in my GCSE's and the other subjects I choose to take

Easier to get the job that I want with languages

Family is half French and it is part of my family

Feel that I'm good at Spanish and my School has a good reputation for teaching languages

Find it too stressful and hard

I don't see the point

I enjoy languages and want to be bilingual and pursue a language orientated job

I find French difficult. My brother took it for AS but dropped it after 1 term as it was much more difficult

I plan to travel a lot to countries that are Spanish speaking so it would be useful to know Spanish

If I feel confident enough. Sister took it for GCSE and got A, but found it hard in AS and A-level

It's a big advantage knowing how to communicate to someone in another country and maybe useful in my future career

Languages are very useful and I enjoy learning them. I also want a job involving different languages

Intentions to continue study of a language from year 12 (AS) to year 13 (A2)

Percentage of the year 12 group doing a language at AS level = 21 %

Intention to continue a language from AS to A2	% of those students doing a language at AS level
Yes, I will continue	63.8%
No, I won’t continue	16.6%
Don't know	19.4%

No surprises here. The intended continuation rate is roughly what would be statistically expected in the new system where most students take 5 AS subjects in their first year and continue with 3 at A2 level.

Intention of year 12 students to continue particular languages from AS to A2

Language studied	Studying a language(s) at AS in year 12	Intending to continue to study the language(s) at A2 in year 13	%
French only	13	10	76.9%
French and German	3	3	100%
French and Spanish	3	3	100%
French total	19	16	84.2%

Spanish only	11	6	54.5%
French and Spanish	3	3	100%

Spanish total	14	9	64.3%
German only	0	0	0
French and German	3	3	100%

The proportion of those studying French only and intending to continue to study it, is higher than would be expected, given that most students now drop from 5AS to 3 A2 subjects. For those studying Spanish only, it is lower. However, the numbers are too small to make any reliable generalisations.

Obviously students who are committed to two languages in the first year are likely to continue them

Reasons for continuing, or not, study of a language from year 12 AS to A2

Based on answers from year 12 and 13 students

Factor influencing choice	Number of times mentioned
Success or failure in AS study	34
Liking	17
Relevance/irrelevance to future career	17
Interest or lack of interest	10
Difficulty	4

As expected, by far the main reason given was how well they do in the first year.
Relevance to a career is still an issue but not so dominant as in year 10/11.

A selection of reasons given by year 13 students for continuing or not continuing study of a language from AS to A2

Amount of work too high: too difficult - would not be able to get high grade at A2

Because I enjoyed studying it

Believe it to be useful

Decided that I wanted to continue on into university so decided to finish the whole A level

Did well so thought i should continue

Enjoyment in subject and usefulness in future life

Found it hard and had to drop one subject

Found it hard had to drop one subject (French)

Found it too hard and wanted to concentrate on other subjects

Good for future and sometimes interesting

Happy with my AS result I felt I could gain a good A2 result if I continued

I chose to carry on my languages to A2 as I found them more interesting than my other subjects and I thought that I might do best in them

I continued with French as I dropped Maths and wanted to have 3 A levels to go on to university option was to keep French

I decided to drop Spanish because I failed it at AS level

I decided to improve my level of French and learn as much as possible at school. I also enjoy speaking the language appreciate the culture

I failed

I found the transition from GCSE to AS level very difficult and did not feel I would be able to get a good grade at A2

I had very much enjoyed the AS

I wanted to further my knowledge of the languages and culture of the countries. A2 grades are also needed for university

The use of computers in language learning

How useful do you think computers are in learning a language?

How often do, or did, you use computers in studying a language at school?

Very useful	19.3%
Quite useful	47.7%
Not very useful	21.3%
Not useful at all	5.8%

Once a week or more	16.7%
Once a fortnight	17.5%
Once a month	11.6%
Occasionally	33.0%
Not at all	15.6%

The more students use computers in language learning, the more they consider them useful. Overall 67% consider them "useful " or "very useful". This figure increases to 78.8% with those who use computers for language learning once a fortnight or more often.

Opinions about language learning in general (all years combined)

(Statements rearranged in order of agreement)	Strongly agree/ Agree
d) Learning a language widens your horizons.	80.9%
g) Some people have a gift for learning languages.	77.8%
b) Learning languages is important.	75.3%
c) I’d like to meet people in another country through learning a language.	73.4%
f) I want to do well in learning languages.	72.0%
i) My teachers have been helpful in my learning languages.	67.2%
j) My parents have encouraged me to learn languages	68.2%
a) I enjoy learning languages.	59.1%
e) I am good at learning languages.	48.2%
h) As English is a world language, there is little point in learning another.	22.9%

Strong recognition of the importance and usefulness of learning languages and a desire to do well in spite of negativity elsewhere.
Little support for the idea that students think "English is enough".
Fewer than half think they are good at languages.

Some cross tabulations

There is strong idea that there is such a thing as a "gift" for languages but this does not appear to be a rationalization for failure as it was equally distributed across those who thought they were and those who thought they were not doing well.
There may be some rationalization as regards the opinion that "English is enough". Of the low number, (22% of the whole year), who thought there was little point in learning another language, 72. % considered they were not good at learning languages.

Languages and jobs

Which degree gives the best chance of employment?	All students
Computing	27.6%
Business	19.9%
English	16.0%
Sciences	14.4%
Languages	10.5%
Media Studies	2.3%

Students have a misconception of the employability of language graduates. This is particularly so among year 10 and 11 students. Only 5.4% of year 10 and 8.0% of year 11 students thought a degree in languages gave the best chance of employment. This is important considering the influence of likely future career possibilities on AS subject choices.

Figures published in 2001*, show that unemployment among graduates in Modern Languages was 5.3% - less than in Computing (8.3%) , in Business (6.7%) or Biological Sciences (6.8%)

Area of employment thought most common for language graduates to enter.	All students
Tourism	33.2%
Teaching languages	24.2%
Business	17.4%
Media/journalism	11.7%
Government	4.5%

Students also have a misconception about the kind of employment that language graduates enter. In 2001*, 26.9% of language graduates went into Business Services; 13.1% into Banking and Finance 11.8% into Wholesale/Retail and 10.1% into Manufacturing. Apart from the language specific skills of language graduates, their expertise in general communication skills is highly valued. (*HESA/LLAS web site/Keith Marshall)

How useful do you think learning a language is for you to get a job?	10/11	12/13
Very useful	19.3%	26.8%
Some use	45.5%	45.6%
Not much use	17.5%	15.0%
Not at all	6.7%	5.1%

Although a high proportion think languages are useful for them to get a job, a low proportion continue learning them after GCSE.
Again year 10 and 11 students have the least belief in the usefulness of a language for getting a job.
All three questions above indicate that there is a need for more education early in the school life as regards employment and languages.

Languages at university

Considering applying to university	10	11	12	13	Average
Yes	61.6%	72.7%	77.2%	84.0%	73.8%
No	7.0%	11.2%	3.5%	7.6%	7.3%
Don’t know	25.4%	10.2%	13.5%	3.5%	13.2%

No surprise that year 10 has the largest number of "don’t know"s and year 13 the highest positive answers.

Will you consider studying a language at university, either on its own or with another subject?	10	11	12	13	Average
Yes	14.6%	12.8%	14.0%	15.3%	14.2%
No	35.1%	55.1%	55.6%	66.7%	53.1%
Don’t know	40.0%	18.2%	19.9%	9.0%	21.8%

While positive answers remain fairly consistent across the years, the increase of negativity from year 10 to year 13 is interesting and needs explaining.

If "yes" which language will it be?	% of the whole sample
French	9.1%
Spanish	4.3%
German	1.8%
Italian	1.0%

Little of significance here except the smallness of the numbers, especially in German. Eleven other languages were mentioned but none more than 1%. They represent individual interests/background.
This supports the impression that students at university who study "minority" languages, on the whole do so because of personal connections.

Main reasons for deciding whether or not to study a language at university

The number indicates the times the factor was mentioned, either singly or in combination

	Number of times a factor influencing choice was mentioned
	Year 10 and 11	Year 12 and 13	Total
Relevance, or lack of it, to future plans	46	65	111
Success/failure in study	27	26	53
Lack of enjoyment	20	26	46
Lack of interest	16	17	33
Comparison with other subjects	13	12	25
Difficulty	5	14	19
Other	1	20	21

Admission to university was probably too far ahead for the majority of the year 10 or 11 population to consider. Of those who did answer, clearly the most influential factor was relevance/irrelevance to future career plans,
Liking/disliking, success/lack of success and interest or lack of it continued to influence.
Difficulty becomes an issue in year 12/13 and this can be seen in the context of comparison with other subjects which may be seen to be less difficult, more interesting and more enjoyable.
The last point is supported by previous research which shows that the "jump" from GCSE to A level deters students considering languages at university for fear of a similar "jump".

A selection of answers by year 12 students on why they would or would not study a language at university

Because I would like to be able to speak another language well

Cos I enjoy it and it gives more/better chance of employment

Don't see the point in studying a language

I find it very interesting to learn a new language or extend my prior knowledge that I acquired at GCSE

I may want a job in a foreign country in the future and knowing the language will help me

I only want t o study the English language in university because I want to work abroad and teach others

I really like French and I would like to learn more about it because I may like to live in France in the future

I want to get a good job

I would study a language at university because it is very useful when traveling

I wouldn't want to do French alone, so it depends if it would fit with what else I study. I think I would prefer to develop my French through traveling

If I can without taking it at AS it will help get a job

If I still enjoy learning it and what other subjects I could take it with

If the language I need will be useful

It's difficult and boring

It could be useful

It is perceived as being too hard

Languages are important and an ever increasing demand encourages the idea of studying languages

Useful for medicine; won't need a translator. Will be able to read sources in another language so I wouldn't be limiting what I have access to know

New languages at university

10.4% of the whole sample was interested in finding out about studying a language at university that they had experienced in a "taster" at school.

49.2% knew that you could start many new languages at university without having studied them at school.

40% were interested in starting a new language at university.

These figures give hope to those who wish to encourage take up of new languages at university.

If you were to start study of a "new" language at university which would it be?

Italian	12.8%	Japanese	6.0%	Chinese	5.3%	German	1.6%
Spanish	12.2%	Russian	5.%7	French	4.0%	Czech	1.4%
		Portuguese	5.6%	Arabic	3.2%	Greek	1.2%

Above are just those languages that scored 1%+. Numbers are too low to be of much significance. Still it is interesting that Spanish and Italian are easily the most preferred.

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