What to look for in a language department Which language? Thomas Underwood, University College School
● ‘Success in public exams, the teaching of at least three languages and plenty of trips abroad’
● ‘A school that enters all its pupils for a language at GCSE, even if it means some weaker grades at the bottom end. It shows they care about teaching languages and not just results’
Rob Pavey, Lancing College
● ‘The use of new technology as well as traditional teach- ing methods. Online newspapers, radio stations, news bulletins, YouTube and other media give students direct access to other cultures. WiFi allows students to carry on their own research. Digital recorders improve speaking skills’
Ros Fletcher, Eton College
● ‘Overseas students, as native speakers of other languages, make for a very positive environment for language learning’
Stephen Owen, Ampleforth College
● ‘Overseas trips. Every day abroad is equivalent to a whole week of study in the classroom. We have 19 modern-language trips a year’
Nick Mair, Dulwich College Nick Mair
● ‘German is the most useful for economic, political and cultural reasons’ Thomas Underwood
● ‘Any and all. We offer French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin. The important thing is to learn a language, any language’
Rob Pavey
● ‘French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Polish, Arabic. A strong case can be made for these and others. Italian opens up wonderful cultural riches’
Stephen Owen
● ‘It’s up to the individual girl and her parents. All languages are important. Given the phonetic nature of Spanish, it’s a good language for dyslexics to study’
Judy Palmer, Cheltenham Ladies’ College
● ‘French for cultural reasons, but also German (which boys seem to enjoy the most) and Spanish for business reasons. If you feel up to it, Mandarin. We give a free Mandarin lesson to parents so that they understand what’s involved. I’d say it’s twice as hard as Japanese and perhaps six times harder than French’
The world’s top 1 0 languages 1 Mandarin (1,151 million speakers)
2 English (1,000 million) 3 Spanish (500 million) 4 Hindi (490 million) 5 Russian (277 million) 6 Arabic (255 million) 7 Portuguese (240 million) 8 Bengali (215 million) 9 French (200 million) 10 Malay, Indonesian (175 million)
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is something independent schools seem to have mastered
’
Making learning enjoyable
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