How to turn interest in languages into a lifelong passion

Recent Pearson research revealed that the majority (65 per cent) of secondary students believe languages are important, while only 23 per cent are happy knowing just one language. As a language teacher and lover of languages, this was no surprise to me. Buthow do we turn this interest into achievement?

Some students might have already travelled to another country and learned how to adapt. Many belong to mixed-heritage families. The contexts in which our students are growing up vary, but one thing remains: they will all one day at some point be exposed to a situation where it would benefit them to know another language besides English.

I believe it is our duty as educators to provide learners with the linguistic skills and knowledge to prepare them for that future: a future in which three-quarters of learners believe languages will have a positive impact.

Despite students’ desires to communicate and develop their language skills, we are still facing a decline in the number taking language GCSEs. The latest House of Commons Library Briefing showed that just 47 per cent of pupils were studying GCSE languages. There’s still some way to go to meet the government’s 2025 target of 90 per cent – but there are ways to turn this around.

Languages are widely perceived as difficult to study. As teachers, we all recognise that choosing GCSEs, A levels or university studies can be stressful. The fear of failing is real and valid; it also stifles progress.

At Regent High School, we’ve encouraged more of a risk-taking mindset to help tackle this issue. Lessons are about building confidence: continually expressing the importance of mistakes to learn and grow; never singling someone out for an error; building learners’ resilience and esteem as they try, perhaps fail, try again, and progress.

To support this, we reduced class sizes for languages, thereby increasing the amount of individual feedback we could offer. This had a very positive impact on student confidence in their abilities, minimising anxiety.

These steps help explain the increase we’ve seen in language uptake

This may not be possible for all schools, but thankfully creativity in productive tasks achieves a similar goal without stretching precious resources. By making space for students to showcase their interests in lessons, making the subject feel more relevant to them, the language classroom becomes far more inclusive and less alienating for all learners.

These approaches extend to homework. We’ve worked to increase motivation for students to study independently, celebrating the leaps that they are making as a result – not least the increases in their completion rate.

In Pearson’s research, 39 per cent of young people said they would be motivated to continue their language learning journey if they were taught about different cultures and lifestyles. That resonates with what we have done to open up our focus in languages – spotlighting the people and places behind the words and the exciting opportunities languages bring.

Music is just one great way to highlight this. We’ve played songs from francophone and hispanophone countries for the students’ enjoyment, and have seen this interest expand as favourites are shared with peers outside class. This has spread through the cohort, strengthening their sense of connection to other cultures.

Altogether, these steps help explain the increase we’ve seen in language uptake at our school generally, in contrast to national trends. In fact, in September 2023 we started an extra class for French and Spanish at GCSE because of the growing number of students choosing languages.

Even more encouragingly, our students are staying engaged in languages past exams too. Thanks to their experiences in class, a number have been inspired to visit French and Spanish-speaking countries.

Many are in France post-GCSE this year, for example, putting the skills they learned into practice and experiencing cultural immersion. This is an initiative they are taking with friends and families and a sign that their passion for languages is already expanding their future.

We are turning language enthusiasts into language lovers. And isn’t that every subject teacher’s ultimate goal?