Britiske synspunkter på fremmedsprogslæring

An outline of the different views on learning foreign languages in Britain

The topic covered by all three texts involves the British people learning foreign languages. According to ESOL Nexus, which is a free website from the British Council where the article “British worst at learning languages” was published, 62% of the British population speaks only their native language, English. The article has an objective attitude towards the subject. It merely informs the reader that it is common for British students to give up their study of foreign languages at the age of 14. Different statistics are described, and reasons as well as solutions are presented. Therefore, the case is portrayed neutrally and factually. Besides that, not all authors discuss the subject objectively. In the opinion article: “British business will need its foreign language speakers” the author, Michael Skapinker, has a critical view on the lack of British people studying foreign languages. He expresses an uncertainty of what is going to happen with companies that cannot run without their EU staff after Brexit. According to Mike Skapinker it is essential to have employees in an organization who can speak either French, German our, Spanish which are the languages most in demand. Hereby, the article has a negative focus on the topic. In contrast to this view David Thomas has taken a positive line on the matter. In the article “Why do the English need to speak a foreign language when foreigners all speak English?” he argues that it would be impossible to meet all demands and learn every spoken language. Furthermore, the English language is spoken by the majority of the European population and therefore it is a sensible option not to learn other languages.