THE Government paved the way for a return to the compulsory study of foreign languages at GCSE level yesterday when it commissioned a wholesale review of its policy.

In a move that could see all teenagers learning a modern foreign language as soon as 2008, Lord Dearing, a leading education reformer, was asked to investigate how talking to people around the world could be made more appealing to pupils.

Since abolishing the requirement for pupils to study a language at GCSE three years ago, language examination entries at GCSE have dropped by a third. Last summer the number of British students taking German GCSE dropped below 100,000 for the first time, putting it in danger of becoming a minority subject.

In what amounted to an embarrassing admission that the Government’s school languages policy had failed, Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, told the Commons that he shared the “deep disappointment” over the drop. He said: “That cannot be right. We have to do something about it.”

Mr Johnson told MPs: “Forcing 14 to 16-year-olds to learn a language I don’t think will achieve that objective. Exciting children about languages at an early age, finding new and more inspiring ways of teaching languages, will.”

However, he promised to abide by any decision to make language-learning compulsory at GCSE. “If Lord Dearing says to us this strategy is wrong and we should go into reverse, we will listen to that advice and we will do that,” he said.

Under the terms of the review, Lord Dearing will work closely with Lid King, the national director of languages at the Department for Education and Skills, and other interested parties.

Since 1996 the numbers studying French and German GCSE have dropped by 31 per cent. The number studying French at A level has almost halved to 14,650. The figure for German is just 6,204. However, the number of pupils taking other foreign languages has trebled to 29,188. This has been put down largely to immigration.

Lord Dearing told The Times that the policy change in 2002 had been a factor in the dramatic drop in numbers learning foreign languages.

Without ruling out the compulsory return of modern languages to the curriculum, he said that he wanted instead to determine how to make languages relevant to students who were less academic.

Lord Dearing said that languages needed to be given a meaningful context. “If you can contextualise it within a vocational framework, they will be prepared to do it,” he said.

The review will examine how to make a more flexible range of courses available to secondary schools, strengthen incentives for teenagers to learn languages using technology and accredited learning, and work with further education colleges and employers.

Last night sources close to the department suggested that they would welcome a decision by Lord Dearing to change policy on teaching foreign languages.

While research had predicted a small drop in those taking the subjects, more than double the expected number had stopped learning them.

The real concern was that a class divide was emerging, where only children from wealthy families could learn foreign languages, the department source said. Only independent schools and the top secondaries continue to teach languages and the remaining two-thirds of comprehensives “are not taking languages seriously”.

Susan Anderson, the director of human resources policy at the CBI, said that Britain needed to raise its game on languages in schools if the nation was to compete in an increasingly globalised economy.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said that it had been a great mistake to end the compulsion in learning foreign languages at 14.

Lord Dearing will deliver an interim report before Christmas, with his final report due by the end of February.

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