The survey was carried out during the autumn term of 2011 by CfBT Education Trust with support from the Association for Language Learning and the Independent Schools’ Modern Language Association.

It is based on responses to a questionnaire sent to a representative sample of 2,000 secondary schools in England (1,500 maintained schools and 500 independent schools).

The survey has been carried out annually since 2002 to track developments in language provision and take-up in secondary schools. (Please use the left-hand menu to access earlier surveys with secondary schools.)

The findings are based on a response rate of 43% from 856 schools.

Key findings

• The downward trend in numbers of students taking a GCSE in a language continued in 2011. The decline over the last decade has been from 78% in 2001 to 40% in summer 2011.
• The greatest decline is in the two most commonly taught languages, French and German, with a decline of 56% over the decade 2001 – 2011. The number of pupils taking a GCSE in Spanish has increased in the same period by 29%.
• There is a notable increase in the take up of languages in the current Year 10 following the publication of the Education White Paper (DfE 2010) and changes to the Performances Tables from 2010 to include the English Baccalaureate. 40% of maintained schools report changes to their language provision following the announcement of the EBacc and another 14% plan to introduce changes over the next year or two.
• Schools are dropping the offer of alternative accreditation in spite of dissatisfaction with GCSE. In the last year this has dropped from 45% to 33%.
• The languages on offer in secondary schools are still largely French, Spanish and German. Pupils in independent schools have more opportunities to learn a wider range of languages, including Latin and Ancient Greek. For example, Mandarin is offered in 36% of independent schools and only 14% of maintained schools.
• Teachers in both the maintained and independent sectors remain gravely concerned about the nature of the GCSE and the way it is assessed as well as the distribution of time within the curriculum for languages study.
• Post 16 there is a decline in take up for languages across both maintained and independent sectors. One reason given is dissatisfaction with assessment at GCSE and A level. The decline in German is particularly notable.
• The considerable disparity between take up in languages at A level remains between the independent and maintained sectors.
• The introduction of language learning in primary schools has not yet raised secondary teachers’ expectations of what pupils will be able to achieve by the time they are 16. There are a number of factors including an inconsistency in the quality of languages teaching in primary schools and uncertainty about the status of languages in KS2.
• While 4 out of 5 schools make regular use of ICT for language teaching, there is little class use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and relatively few schools use electronic links with schools abroad in class time.

Click here to download the full report and the presentation slides from launch of the research findings.