ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history of efforts to drive language teaching and learning in particular directions through advocacy, lobbying and policymaking in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It largely concentrates on the case of England. An important feature of British languages education advocacy and policy is the prominence of charitable foundations, in particular the Nuffield Foundation and the National Foundation for Educational Research. The National Languages Strategy was intended "to change perceptions and raise awareness amongst young people and the wider public of language competence as a key contemporary life skill". A proliferation of rationales is useful when collecting ammunition to make the case for modern languages. It is less useful for policy planning, when a decision needs to made about which of the many competing rationales should take priority in curriculum planning and teacher training, a concern noted by Richard M. Johnstone with regard to the future of primary languages.
