Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)
The Languages website is the DCSF website dedicated to language teaching and learning. It was created in 2003 to support the National Languages Strategy.
The Teachernet pages on Modern Foreign Languages are currently being updated, but in the meantime you can access key documents and information about the strategy through the links at the bottom of this page.
The National Languages Strategy is set out in the document Languages for All: Languages for Life, a Strategy for England. This sets out the Government's vision for languages, the main objectives of the strategy, and the importance of languages in the knowledge-society of the 21st-century.
The main objectives of the National Languages Strategy are:
- to improve the teaching and learning of languages in schools(including an entitlement to languages for all pupils in Key Stage 2)
- to introduce a recognition system, now known as the Languages Ladder
- to increase the number of people studying languages beyond school
Since 2003 a great deal has been achieved. In particular the significant expansion of Primary Languages, which is well on course to the 2009/10 objective of full entitlement.
There has also been progress in the secondary sector. A national programme of CPD and networking is being funded and a number of pilot projects are taking place to support Key Stage 4.
Another success has been the development of a new recognition scheme — the Languages Ladder — and its associated accreditation system, Asset Languages.
To support these changes increased funding for languages was made available in 2005 and announced in the Boost for Languages.
Take-up of languages among post 14 remains a challenge. In response to this the Government has sought to strengthen the entitlement curriculum: first by setting benchmarks for take up; and more recently through the Languages Review, chaired by Lord Ron Dearing.
The Languages Review sets out a far-reaching programme of reform for languages which will further strengthen the strategy of languages for all languages for life.
Languages for All: Languages for Life, a Strategy for England (pdf, 0.5MB)
The Languages Ladder (pdf, 200k)
National advisory centre on early learning language (NACELL) (Primary Languages)
Boost for Languages (news report)
Last updated: 13 September 2007
