ABSTRACT
The justification for and position of modern foreign languages in the school curriculum has reflected different understandings of the aims and purposes of education at different times. There are many good historical accounts of the development of modern foreign languages in the school curriculum (see e.g. Hawkins, 1987 or Rowlinson, 1994) which provide a useful background to the current status of languages in schools. The introduction of the National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages 1991, was a landmark in language teaching in that for the first time curriculum content, approaches to teaching and the assessment of learning were all carefully prescribed for the whole compulsory secondary age range. The national curriculum identified the educational purposes of teaching a modern foreign languages as being, among several other things:
To develop the ability to use the language effectively for purposes of practical communication and to form a sound base of the skills, language and attitudes required for further study, work and leisure.
