ABSTRACT
Why should a book on teaching and learning foreign languages begin by identifying the field as being in any way political? How is the teaching and learning of FLs political and why? How is this issue important to teachers? These questions have both current and historical aspects to them. The value placed on FLs within the education system at any given time, both in schools and higher education (HE) is a reflection of how we understand what education means. In recent times, attitudes to knowledge have become more functional, and the aims and purposes of education have become closely linked to the perceived needs of society and the economy. What is more, the social aspects of schooling seem to some policymakers to be more important than traditional subject disciplines, and the school curriculum has become infused with ‘cross-curricular themes’ that have influenced our understanding of the subject knowledge field. In this shifting climate, the place of FLs in the school curriculum, and their value in relation to other subjects, have become more vulnerable to intervention by government. We discuss this issue in more detail in Chapters 4 and 7. Moreover, the decline in interest over a number of years, in England at least, in FLs as an area of academic study at undergraduate level, during a period when FLs were compulsory in the school curriculum up to the age of 16, has increased this vulnerability. The National Languages Strategy (DfES, 2002) has introduced quite sweeping changes regarding when and how FLs are taught in schools, which are
light. This chapter will consider some of the features of present-day policy on FLs and their implications. We will discuss differing views of what it means to know a FL, and consider its importance in a world where English has become the dominant world language.
