Increasing the Number of Pupils Studying MFL in Wales using a Student Mentoring

ProjectProfessor Claire Gorrara Professor of French, Cardiff University

Academic Lead for MFL Student Mentoring Project Wales and Languages Horizons South Yorkshire

@Gorrara67

Lucy Jenkins, Cardiff University

National Coordinator for MFL Student Mentoring Project Wales and Project Manager for Languages Horizons South Yorkshire

@2210 Lucy

Lecture Structure

• UK and Welsh Contexts

• Project Phase 1 – Face-to-Face Mentoring

• Evaluation

• Project Phase 2 – Digi-Languages

• Impact

• Conclusions and Next Steps

• Significant decline in MFL uptake since 2002: proportion of students studying MFL at Key Stage 4 dropped from 76% in 2002 to 47% in 2017

• Diminishing pipeline of students resulting in HE departments downsizing or closing: between 2007-2017 at least 10 closures

• Greatest decline at all levels of study in European languages, particularly German

• Regional disparity in terms of MFL provision and uptake across the UK

• Despite this, uptake for modern languages at university have increased on Institution Wide Language Provision (IWLP) across the sector: 2012-13: 49,637 enrolments; 2016-17: 62,455 enrolments

Current situation in the UK

• GCSE: 2017 18% of all state maintained schools pupils took MFL at GCSE

• A-level: MFL uptake has decreased by 32% since 2014; only 5% of GCSE entrants continue on to complete an A-level

• Socio-economic disadvantage: low levels for MFL uptake correlate to regional depression and decline

• Welsh Government response: Global Futures strategy (2015-20)

• New Curriculum for Wales: Literacy, Languages and Communication (AoLE); Pledge one million Welsh speakers by 2050

Current situation in Wales

“Breaking down traditional subject boundaries and empowering teachers to be more innovative, we will be introducing Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs) that cover the Humanities; Health and Wellbeing; Science and Technology; Languages, Literacy and Communications; Expressive Arts; and Maths.”

“We want all our learners to be citizens of both Wales and the world and that means ensuring that all young people from all backgrounds have an opportunity to develop their language skills – whether that’s in Welsh, English or international languages.”

Kirsty Williams, Cabinet Secretary for Education (2018)

The new curriculum and international languages – hope?

Case Study – MFL Student Mentoring

• Funding: Welsh Government as part of the Global Futures strategy

• Pan-Wales: 4 Welsh Universities working with 4 education consortia

• Objective: increase MFL uptake at GCSE targeting Year 9 pupils with a mentoring programme that brings UG students into schools

• Ethos: interdisciplinary, skills-based learning to address notions of monolingualism in a bilingual context

• Going digital: Digi-Languages, blended learning platform

• Going European: partnership with Valladolid, Spain

MFL Student MentoringFace-to-face

• Began 2015: worked thus far with 103/200 secondary schools and over 2000 pupils mentored

• Mentors: UG and PG language students

• Mentees: Year 8 and 9 pupils

• Programme: two 6 week cycles to coincide with option choices

• Benefits: Mentors, professional development; Mentees, inter-cultural communication; Teachers, MFL community

MFL Student MentoringEvaluation

Year 1 (2015/16)

• 13 of 21 schools reported an

increase in GCSE take up.

• In one school, a GCSE class in

MFL ran for the first time in

several years.

• In total, 57% of pupils mentored

through the project opted for a

language at KS4.

Year 2 (2016/17)

• Demand increased substantially

as 47 schools partnered with the

project and a further 18 schools

requested project engagement.

• 4 schools who had had no GCSE

group running for several years

after the project.

• 50% of pupils mentored chose to

take MFL in KS4.

• Year 3 (2017/18)

• The project worked with 71(out

of 201) schools across Wales

• Two days of workshops in Cardiff

and a residential stay at Oxford

University

• Developed an online version

‘Digi-languages. Assessed as

effective, if not more effective

than face-to-face mentoring’

MFL Student MentoringDigi-Languages

• Objective: to reach disadvantaged areas of Wales that are distant from the partner universities

• Method: Blended face-to-face and online mentoring experience

• Benefits: linking with the new Welsh curriculum and improving digital competency

• Ethos: inter-disciplinary, curiosity-driven, skills-based learning. Journey to explore: ‘who do your think you are and where do you come from?’

What can we learn from Wales?

• Significant benefits of partnership working and scaling up endeavours: Routes into Languages Cymru: http://routesintolanguagescymru.co.uk/home/

• Need to engage with government and policy makers: co-working; opening up avenues for mutual benefit https://www.tes.com/news/we-are-struggling-hugely-languages-decline-dfe-admits

• Making the case repeatedly for LANGUAGES. Do we need to differentiate between community, home, international? https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/arts-blog/modern-foreign-languages-time-rename

Any Questions?

Claire GorraraEmail: Gorrara@cardiff.ac.ukTwitter: @gorrara67

Lucy JenkinsEmail: JenkinsL27@cardiff.ac.ukTwitter: @2210Lucy