French is a 'useless' language, says former foreign minister

At last, someone finds the courage to tell the truth about the uselessness of French (which is proportional to the irrelevance of the places where it is in use):

A former Foreign Office minister has branded French a 'useless' modern language.

Chris Bryant, now a shadow Foreign Office minister, told the Commons other languages - such as Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic - were more important.

'Unless we have sufficient numbers of people who speak modern foreign languages - and not just the useless modern foreign languages like French ...,' the Labour MP said.

Amid Tory protests that this was 'insulting' to the French, Mr Bryant, who was minister for the EU before Labour lost power, said: 'I've said this to the French. I think they realise there are problems.'

He defended his remark, insisting that while French had been the 'most useful language to use because it was the diplomatic language', things had changed over the last 30 to 40 years and now 'it certainly isn't.'

He said the most significant languages to speak now, aside from English, were Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic.

Mr Bryant was advocating the importance of young people taking up languages to win business in the emerging economies.

French was once one of the most popular languages taught in British schools. But in recent years, the education system has shunned it - and Spanish and German - for more 'fashionable' languages.

French and English in Europe

Dr Svetlana Carsten, Deputy Director of the Center of Translation Studies and Director of Postgraduate programmes in Interpreting at the University of Leeds, has published a pdf document about main trends of language teaching in Europe. A few screenshots might be of interest before the presentation is taken offline. Click the thumbnails to enlarge:

I find it particularly interesting that French as a foreign language has all but disappeared from Eastern Europe except in Romania. Not really what Francophonie propaganda would have you believe.

Further Erosion of French Teaching in UK

The Joint Council for Qualifications reported a further decline of French entries in British examinations in August 2009. Of all foreign languages, French has experienced the steepest fall over the last few years:

Entries in modern foreign languages continue to decline with French down by 13,252 or 6.6 per cent (from 201,940 in 2008 to 188,688), German, down by 3,226 or 4.2 per cent (from 76,695 in 2008 to 73,469). However, entries in Spanish are stable, only down by 22 (from 67,092 in 2008 to 67,070).
Other modern languages continue their upward trend, by 1,429 or 4.5 per cent (from 31,682 in 2008 to 33,111).

Is French program headed for guillotine at Manchester's Memorial Elementary School?

The Gloucester Times ran this story on January 27, 2009. Scrapping French-language programs in schools is a good idea since French as a subject is a waste of taxpayers' money, while languages such as Mandarin Chinese or Spanish are going to be more and more in demand.

Is French program headed for guillotine at Manchester's Memorial Elementary School?
By Robert Cann
Staff Writer

MANCHESTER — Proposed cuts to Memorial Elementary School's French language program will be among the items on the table tonight as part of a budget workshop hosted by the Manchester Essex Regional School Committee.

At an earlier School Committee meeting, Superintendent Marcia O'Neil proposed that the French program at the elementary school be cut as a part of a reallocation of funds.

Since that Jan. 6 meeting, however, committee members, parents and language teachers have demonstrated strong opposition to the proposal.

At last week's School Committee meeting, Manchester Essex Regional Middle School French and Spanish teacher Dorris-Ann Vosseler suggested introducing an "exploratory" language program in both elementary schools — Memorial in Manchester, and Essex Elementary.

The exploratory program would share one teacher between the Manchester and Essex elementary schools, with that instructor teaching Spanish for one semester and French the other, giving students at both schools the opportunity to try both languages. Essex Elementary does not now offer French.

According to School Committee Chairwoman Susan Beckmann, Vosseler's proposal will be given more consideration this evening.

Vosseler said the district's program has traditionally been very successful. Last June, four seniors received linguist awards for completing all four advanced placement language courses offered: French language and literature, and Spanish language and literature.

Vosseler referred to the district's language program as a "marble column that could be devastated by these cuts."

The meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the high school music room.

Robert Cann can be reached at gt_reporter@gloucestertimes.com

Dramatic decline of French at UK universities

Richard Garner, Education Editor, in the Independent, 19 August 2008:

Figures show that German, especially, has plummeted, with only 610 students accepted on degree courses last year, compared with 2,288 a decade ago. French is the second biggest casualty, with numbers dropping by a third from 5,655 to 3,700 in 10 years.

Overall, the figures show the number of students accepted on to language courses has slumped by almost a quarter during the past decade.

The researchers, from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and the University of Stirling, say there was a "steep decline" in the first half of this decade – with overall numbers tumbling by 20 per cent. Since then, French and German have continued to fall – although the decline has been partially offset by a rise in those studying newly-available languages such as Mandarin and Arabic.

The Decline of a Cultural icon

In The Decline of a Cultural Icon: France in American Perspective, by Bertram M. Gordon, Copyright © 1999:

Recent reports from both Britain and the United States show a decline in French language classes. Richard Needham, trade minister of Britain, in May 1995 stated that schools in the United Kingdom did a disservice to Britain’s students by teaching French instead of Spanish, when growing business opportunities in Latin America called for training in the latter language. According to Needham, “French is a difficult language and it’s not a language of world business. Spanish is easier and it’s a gateway into French anyway.”¹ A BBC study published three years later showed French language classes with a 5 percent lead over Spanish for adult education students, a decrease from the 18 percent lead a year earlier. The reason given for this was the jump in British tourism to Spain.² Twenty-five years ago Spanish overtook French as the most popular second language taught in U.S. schools; university enrollment in French courses dropped about 38 percent between 1968 and 1990, while Spanish rose 46 percent. By 1990, according to the Modern Language Association, 534,000 U.S. college students were studying Spanish, twice the number of those studying French. Gladys Lipton, president of the American Association of Teachers of French, reported a 25 percent decline in French studies at the U.S. university level between 1993 and 1998.³
(...)
Symbolically, de Gaulle’s death in 1970 marked the closing of an era of French iconicity in America. The last wave appears to have corresponded to the gastronomy peak in the 1970s. Since then, study of the French language in the United States has declined. An Alta Vista search on the Internet in 1998 showed English with about 77 percent of the listings by language. Japanese was about 7 percent. German, followed by French and Spanish, were all pegged at between 2 and 3 percent. Adding the French minitel to these figures, it might not be unreasonable to estimate the French proportion at roughly 5 or 6 percent—in other words, similar in proportion to the Japanese.⁸⁸

(...)

1. Paul Marston, “Minister Urges Schools to Teach Spanish Not French,” Electronic Telegraph, 18 May 1995, Home News, http://www.telegraph.co.uk.

2. David Millward, “Spanish to Overtake French in Classroom,” Electronic Telegraph, 21 Sept. 1998.

3. James Brooke, “North Dakota, with German Roots, Adopts Spanish as Second Language,” New York Times, 2 Mar. 1996, 6. See also Merri Rosenberg, “Teachers Try to Renew Interest in French,” New York Times, “Westchester,” 25 Oct. 1998, sec. 14, 14.

(...)

88. Internet search on “language/nationality” retrieved on 2 Oct. 1998 using the Alta Vista search engine.

French at UK Universities 1998-2002

French down by 19% at UK universities:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR625.pdf

French at UK high schools 2002-2008

August 28, 2008:

Amongst the largest falls in entries in 2008 were French, down by 14,778 to 201,940, or 6.8 per cent. Entries for German were down by 4,366 to 76,695, or 5.4 per cent.
GCSE blow for languages
However, entries in Spanish continued to rise, by 3,114 to 67,092 , up 4.9 per cent.

In 2004, pupils were allowed to drop languages in Key Stage 4, the two GCSE years. Since then the numbers taking a GCSE qualification have fallen from about three quarters of the age group to half, with the biggest decline being in state comprehensives.

Thursday January 10 2008:

In the 2007 GCSEs, German entries were down by 10.2% to 81,061 and French down by 8.2% to 216,718. Spanish entries rose by 3% to 63,978 and other modern languages rose 5.5% to 30,794.

August 26, 2005:

Formally, the obligation to study a foreign language at GCSE ended only last September. But the Government turned a blind eye as schools took advantage of the flexible rules allowing them to make languages optional a year early. The results have been devastating, with French down by 46,000, or 14.4 per cent, compared with 2004 while entries for German have fallen by nearly 17,000 or 13.7 per cent.

Thursday August 22 2002:

Languages appeared to be the biggest loser, however, as entries for German fell by 6.6% (to 126,216 from 135,133 last year) and French down by 2.5% (to 338,468 from 347,007 last year). The only modern language to buck this trend was Spanish, where entries rose for the third year running - to 57,983 from 54,326 last year, but still represented only one per cent of all GCSE entries. This year French entries accounted for 6% of the total - down from 6.2% last year - while German also slipped by 0.2% to 2.2% from 2.4% last time. Even in the GCSE short courses, entries were down in French and German though slightly up in Spanish.