English and other languages

While English and other languages are still competing in central and eastern Europe, such competition has virtually ceased in western Europe. The other languages are taught when the curricula include a second or third foreign language (FL-2) but their place is much smaller than that of English. The teaching of two languages is very far from universal.

During the 1990s the proportion of the school population learning French remained at 32% to 33% (including the English-speaking countries, where it is the first foreign language), while the proportion learning German – confined mainly to the northern European countries –amounted to between 18% and 19%. The learning of Spanish is largely limited to France and Luxembourg, although it is tending to increase elsewhere from a very small base. Where other languages are taught they are chosen only by marginal percentages of the school population. (Sources: Eurydice)

Membership of the European Union has undoubtedly acted as a spur. When they joined in 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden decided to diversify their strongly English-oriented language teaching. In Sweden the proposition of the school population learning French rose from 3% to 20% and German from 20% to 40%. Spain, which was the last European Union country to teach only one foreign language, decided to introduce a second language as from 1997, at least outside the autonomous communities, which have more than one official language. The applicant countries have also expanded their range of languages.

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Widespread introduction of English, longer courses	\|	English as a teaching language

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