Research by School of SSESW academic Ian Collen surveyed over 50 per cent of post-primaries, 10.5 per cent of primary schools and over 1,150 Year 9 pupils to learn more about language provision in Northern Ireland.

The resulting Language Trends Northern Ireland report is the third report for the British Council on this topic and follows on from research in 2021, which found that language lessons were ‘hardest hit’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. The report highlighted findings including:

• Decline in language learning has plateaued at post-primary – with Spanish now the most popular language at both A-level and GCSE;  

• Irish has replaced French as the second most popular language at A-level; 

• Language teaching in primary schools is recovering following the Covid-19 pandemic; 

• Most pupils do not see languages being part of their future career, with just 14.2 per cent of those surveyed expressing any likelihood of using languages in the future;  

• Motivation for language learning in Year 9 is still high with most young people (74%) enjoying languages at Key Stage 3; 

• The gap in language uptake continues to widen between grammar schools and secondary schools;  

• Almost one in five (19%) of Year 9 pupils would like to learn Italian at school.  

Ian Collen said: “Following years of decline, language learning in Northern Ireland has stabilised. Whilst other UK jurisdictions and Ireland are investing in language learning, there is an urgent need to start similar endeavours in Northern Ireland to ensure we have a multilingual workforce ready to grow our economy. It would be timely to overhaul curriculum content and assessment of languages to better reflect the lives of young people today, and offer appropriate vocational qualifications in languages through progression pathways for all learners.”   

Outside the ‘big four’ languages, schools offer several languages as part of extra-curricular or enrichment subjects at Key Stage 4, including Polish, Portuguese, Arabic and Mandarin, with a growing number of schools offering newcomer pupils the opportunity to take exams in their home or community languages. Despite this, there has been a sharp decline in the uptake of these languages at GCSE. 

The main reasons for ceasing to teach primary languages were lack of funding, lack of expertise within the school and lack of external support and/or teaching resources. 

When asked if languages should be statutory at Key Stage 3, 84 per cent of responding schools agreed, with Northern Ireland remaining the only part of the UK and Ireland where pupils at primary school do not have an entitlement to learn a language as part of the curriculum. 

Jonathan Stewart, British Council Northern Ireland, said: “Our increasingly multicultural society makes it more important than ever to promote languages in our schools, equipping young people with the skills they need to thrive in future careers. Strong language skills enhance communication and interpersonal skills, expand career opportunities, and develop intercultural awareness.”  

See Language Trends Northern Ireland for the full report.