Language Trends 2025: British Academy responds

The British Council has today published its annual Language Trends report, which paints a worrying picture of the declining health of languages education in schools in England. Here is the British Academy's response:

Professor Charles Forsdick, Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy, said: “We’re at real risk of language education being accessible only to young people in the most affluent schools in England. This would be a disaster, shutting many young people out of essential education. I cannot overstate how much this country needs a broad range of language skills to tackle global challenges like diplomacy, cross-cultural dialogue, community cohesion and economic growth. Proposals to drop languages from EBacc at GCSE risk further accelerating the decline in already-struggling schools.

“We know there is a wealth of untapped linguistic potential in many of our most disadvantaged schools, which have rich cultures of multilingualism that include speakers of home, heritage and community languages. The ongoing Curriculum and Assessment Review is an opportunity for the government to recentre languages across the entire education system, from primary school right through to post-16. We want the government to make equal access to language learning a national priority, and to think holistically about languages in schools, colleges and universities as well as in teacher-training.”