Brexit: Foreign Language Teaching and Public Service Interpreting

Lord Thurlow Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Thurlow (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, for securing this debate. It is a great pleasure to follow her impressive and convincing speech. I will put a slightly different spin on the debate and hope that I do not overlap too much with what we have heard. This debate goes right to the heart of our education process, as well. We need to improve the teaching of languages and need foreign nationals to teach them, but why do foreign language skills matter?

It is easy for us to be lazy—and we are criticised for this—when others often speak English. I read in the excellent Library briefing that under the Erasmus programme, twice as many students choose to come to the UK to study than to go to Germany or France, which are the next two preferred destinations. Our MFL learning is consistently poor compared with other countries, as we have heard, and there are regular calls from industry and educational bodies to raise attainment levels. Both for soft reasons of intellectual development and for hard reasons of commercial heft, we should not allow our schoolchildren to miss out on foreign languages.

Looking at the softer side, an organisation called Bilingualism Matters is based in Edinburgh and forms part of Edinburgh University. It provides research-based study on the benefits of language learning. I have read some of its work and spoken to one of its directors. Both indicated that research confirms the great benefits of language teaching. It gives students much more than an additional language. It is beneficial for children’s development more generally: they become aware of other cultures and other points of view. They also become better at multitasking and focusing their attention. Many become precocious readers. These are all powerful learning benefits, which put them at an advantage to their peers. It certainly gives them much more than two languages.

The harder aspects are visible in the professional and commercial worlds. I add to the comments of the previous speaker. Having worked in the global property market for 30 or 40 years, I understand the important role that languages play in business. The wheels of commerce benefit from these skills. Yes, English is considered the language of international business and banking and, yes, the majority of the deals we see done occur in our language. But we must take into account the rise of Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic in the business arena and the importance of being able to speak another’s tongue when it comes to developing co-operation and trust—the grounds on which good business is done. In the Brexit context, as we consider potential trade deals and reassess our place in the global economy, we must equip our young to make the most of the business opportunities that we will make available to them when we get through this confusion.

To support my views on commerce, I refer to an article I saw in the Times yesterday. It said that Highlands and Islands Enterprise in Scotland is encouraging the learning of Mandarin for the hospitality industry there. I could not believe it but it is even organising China-ready workshops, while expecting an influx of Chinese visitors following the introduction of a direct Beijing-Edinburgh flight. It is not a joke; it is really doing it.

I understand that a combined universities report of May 2016 on the value of modern languages said that business is lost to UK companies due to the lack of language skills. The UK’s soft power and effectiveness in conflict and matters of national security are limited by the shortage of strategically important languages. The UK is under-represented at internationally important institutions such as the EU’s civil service and the United Nations’ translation services.

Considering the importance of foreign language skills across intellectual development and in the professional and commercial world, it should go without saying that we need good-quality foreign language teaching staff. As an interesting indicator of the need for foreign language teachers, in Scotland two languages have been taught at primary level since 2014; this will be extended to all schools in two years’ time. It does not take one long to find evidence of language teacher shortages, as we have heard, across British schools. TES, the online hub for the teaching community, tells us that there is a shortage of some 31% in MFL teaching. While we may agree on the importance of promoting language learning, we cannot meet demand in language teaching, let alone hope to increase that demand.

The answer must be to attract foreign nationals as teachers and classroom assistants. Currently, an estimated one-third of foreign language teachers are European nationals. I believe that legislation is being put in place to secure their jobs here in the UK, but we need to do more. We need to positively attract more foreign teaching staff. The Migration Advisory Committee has recommended that the shortage occupation list of professions, which we have heard about, be fully reviewed. While Mandarin is on the list, as we have heard, that is not nearly enough. Let us not forget that these foreign teachers earn much less than the £30,000 visa threshold. Furthermore, they will put most of they earn back into the economy.

As an outward-looking global nation in which we pride ourselves on educational excellence, and as a nation looking at possibly a decade’s worth of re-establishing our global trade position, we must support language learning through ensuring that post-Brexit immigration policy encourages the recruitment of foreign nationals. My request to the Minister is to convince her colleagues to offer special treatment to these teachers from the EU in the related immigration Bill. The UK will be better off as a result.