Ever since it became a required topic in 2002, citizenship has crept into lessons where it doesn’t belong. Languages are one of the casualties.
‘What do you think about the dangers of smoking?’ ‘Do you have problems with pollution in your local area?’ And my favourite — a suggested question for French GCSE: ‘What is the best thing that has happened to you as a homeless person?’ All significant problems, ça va sans dire. But is a French lesson really the best forum for discussing them?
I now run a website (www.thisislanguage.com) that hosts authentic language videos for GCSE students. Our mission is to teach young people to speak foreign languages in a natural way about subjects that might actually be useful to them. We have a growing library of more than 2,000 short and spontaneous videos featuring young French, Spanish and German speakers. And needless to say, they react badly to the prescribed citizenship material. Time after time while filming in Paris, Berlin, Madrid or Bogotá, the young locals we interviewed would laugh nervously or stop answering when the citizenthemed questions came up.
Why continue to impose these questions? It’s time our language courses received the same kind of clear thinking that Michael Gove has applied in ICT.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in