Foreign tongues still add up to bad language for insular British

Some won't travel without packing a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup and enough tea bags to see them through a sweltering fortnight in the Med and others aren't happy until they've located the nearest place to the pool which serves a fried breakfast.

Faced with having to order anything other than two beers in a foreign tongue, the favourite technique is to speak slowly and loudly. If that fails, most find that pointing usually gets them what they want.

There are exceptions, but it's a stereotype which has foundations and one which has earned us all a reputation for ignorance.

Education experts hoped the trend could be reversed by changing the way schools teach foreign languages, but sadly the good intentions don't seem to be working.

While many parents admit they regret dropping languages at school, too few encourage their own children to take French and German at GCSE. Part of the problem it seems is embarrassment, with many worried their own gaping gaps of knowledge will be exposed when it comes to helping with homework.

"It's understandable that many parents struggle with homework help," says Teresa Tinsley, spokeswoman for CILT, the National Centre for Languages. "But it's impossible to be an expert at everything and being able to speak a second language will open up a world of opportunities for young people.

"We'd like to see parents put away their anxieties and think about the benefits of their children taking a language at GCSE level – to ensure they don't look back with regret."

According to a recent CILT study, the desire to learn modern languages remains. Nearly half of those surveyed who only spoke one language envied their bilingual friends and one in five thought those who spoke a second language appeared more intelligent.

However, for many the recognition of the importance of languages comes too late. The number of pupils choosing to take a language at 14 is falling – and has been since 2002, when it stopped being compulsory to take a foreign language at GCSE level.

The proportion of schools where more than half of pupils study a language at GCSE has dropped from 45 per cent in 2008-9 to 40 per cent in the present school year.

The decline may yet be stemmed. From next year it will be compulsory for primary school children to learn a language from the age of seven and linguists hope the introduction of languages at such a young age could encourage more to carry on their studies to GCSE and beyond.

"Reservations about learning a language seem to kick in about the age of 13 or 14," says Lid King, national director for languages at CILT. "But when you go into primary schools, enthusiasm for languages is normal – children don't feel worried about learning them

at all.

"It's certainly the intention that having to learn a language in primary school will encourage more pupils to do them at GCSE level.

"The reality is many companies want multi-lingual employees, but it's more important in other ways as well – for people's personal satisfaction.

"We're living in a global society, and to have access through languages to so many other cultures is extremely important."

French, Spanish and German are still the most commonly taught languages, but King says it's very difficult to predict which languages people will need.

"I think the most important thing is that people should learn any language well by the time they're 16, and that gives you the basis for

learning other languages if you need to, or at least bits of other languages."

In addition, schools are also being encouraged to give parents guidance on how to help their children with languages, through simple things like language learning opportunities on holidays or through contacts, or just by testing their vocabulary.

"Lots of parents wish they'd done a language, and they support the idea of their children learning a language, but they feel a bit nervous about what they can do to help," says King, who speaks French well, plus some Italian, Greek and Japanese.

"I think there's a bit of fear that parents have – they remember bad experiences when they felt nervous about learning a language.

"There's quite a bit of work going on now aimed at parents to encourage them to see languages not only as very beneficial for their children, but as something normal."