Language programmes evaluation: interim report

This evaluation focuses on a number of initiatives designed to improve the teaching and learning of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) in English schools. The data gathered shows that the following factors are important in strengthening the teaching and learning of languages:

• networking and collaboration between schools to help staff reflect on and revisit their pedagogies and curriculum
• staff access to high quality continuing professional development (CPD) and sources of support and advice from outside the school (e.g. access to the German Expert Mentors (GEMs), specialist German teachers)
• languages need to have sufficient curriculum time
• supportive school senior leadership to strengthen the status of languages in school
• lessons that focus on grammar, phonics and vocabulary, use as much of the target language as possible, are briskly paced and cover a range of activities
• the delivery of activities and events to build and maintain pupil enthusiasm for languages, for example contact with schools abroad, cultural activities
• provision to support Home Heritage and Community Languages (HHCL) including opportunities to take HHCL GCSEs
• opportunities for pupils to work with Language Assistants (native speakers) who can offer small groups support and broaden pupils’ cultural knowledge

This report presents the interim findings from an evaluation of a number of the Department for Education’s (DfE) Language Programmes which support MFL provision in schools in England: the Language Hub programme; the Language Assistants programme run by the British Council; the UK German Connection (UKGC); and the German Promotion Project (GPP).

The evaluation was conducted (and commissioned) in the context of a decrease in the uptake of languages at GCSE level, especially among disadvantaged pupils. The Teaching Schools Council’s Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review (MFLPR, 2016) argued that the vast majority of young people should take an MFL at GCSE. The review recommended a planned and sequenced approach to language learning, focusing on teaching vocabulary, grammar and phonics and ensuring that pupils quickly grasp common words to ensure confident communication.