Language Trends 2009 Secondary schools in England

20/01/2010

Organisation
CILT, the National Centre for languages, with support from Association for Language Learning and the Independent Schools’ Modern Language Association

Timescale
September - December 2009

Research Aim
The survey has been carried out annually since 2002 to track developments in language provision and take-up in secondary schools.

Research Questions
The core questions explore secondary school languages provision in the following areas, some of these were new questions in this years survey (noted as NEW below):

• The range of languages offered in schools at KS3, KS4, post-16 and outside curriculum time.
• The proportion of pupils currently studying a language in Year 10 and Year 11 in the responding schools
• Whether languages are optional or compulsory for pupils at KS4 in the school.
• Whether schools have set a benchmark for languages following the Dearing review recommendations.
• Current school trends in pupil take-up across the different languages offered at KS4 and overall.
• Current school trends in pupil take-up across the different languages offered at post-16 and overall. NEW
• Whether the school has pupils studying more than 1 language in KS4.
• Changes to languages provision at KS3.
• School involvement in measures to increase take up and their impact.
• Other accreditation offered for languages, apart from GCSE, and views of these alternatives.
• Other accreditation offered for languages, apart from A level and AS, and views of these alternatives. NEW
• School involvement in delivering Diplomas and whether this involves a language.
• School awareness of the Diploma in Languages and International Communication and their interest in the Diploma. NEW
• Current international links that schools have. NEW
• Whether the school has pupils taking languages GCSE early on a fast track.
• Extent of involvement in externally-provided CPD.
• Impact of the new secondary curriculum on languages.

Research Design

Invitation to the online questionnaire was sent out to a representative random sample of 2,000 secondary schools in England, stratified by LEA, selected from the National Foundation for Educational Research database. 1500 maintained schools and 500 independent schools were included in proportion with the respective school populations in England. The sample excluded middle schools deemed secondary and special schools.

A total of 574 maintained schools and 94 independent schools responded by 18 December 2009. The response rate was lower than in 2008. It was affected by a combination of factors, including heavy workload at school, a series of postal strikes and other surveys on secondary languages carried out locally and nationally near the time of this survey.

However, some key variables were supplied with the sample file allowing us to get an accurate picture of our responding schools. Comparisons of our achieved sample with the national population of schools have been carried out and the results show that our sample has a very similar profile to that of the whole population of schools in England. Analysis was carried out on school type, region and educational and social indicators of the school. The tables of these analyses are located in Appendix B.

Outputs
Final report and the full statistical report.

Completed?
Yes.

Key Findings
Please read the final report.