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Abstract

Languages are not considered necessary in England. This research project will examine policy changes in England with regards to foreign language education and analyse how these changes have affected the general public’s opinions of languages. These language policies are compared with policies in France to highlight what could be done to improve public opinion. This project provides this analysis through the examination of academic journal articles, governmental documents, and survey reports. This project looks into the lack of compulsory language class post-14 in England by analysing why this decision was made and how it compares to France’s policies on the same subject. Secondly, this project looks into the extensive elitism in languages in England through lack of access to minority languages, changes to the difficulty of the exams and inequality in access to languages in the public and private sectors. Finally, this project tries to answer the question of whether society or politics has the biggest influence on public opinion towards languages by looking into governmental speeches and the existence of casual xenophobia. This research project concludes that the English government has helped encourage this negative attitude towards language through insufficient policies making languages a difficult and controversial subject.

Course: Applied Languages - BA (Hons) - C0392

Date Deposited: 2020-09-23

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13559.html