english baccalaureatte - non core subjects

[Tsippy]

JagLover said:

MiniMan64 said:

JagLover said:

I don't agree that a foreign language should be one of the core 5. To my mind a language is just a bonus not essential.

I respectively disagree, kids in schools are bad enough at English, I'm glad that langauges will be encouraged more by this.

Bear in mind as well a lot of kids choose not to persue these "hard" core subjects any further and the million and one other random GCSE's people can do are carried on as much easier subjects to a higher level.

The point of having a 'core' curriculum is that it covers essential skills. Learning a foreign language is not likely to be an essential skill for most. Even if your job involves foreign travel etc, it will still probably be to a country whose language you didn't learn. Given that most educated people abroad speak English it is a luxury to learn a foreign language here.

It may sound silly, but I found that teaching myself a foreign language allowed me to better understand my own language. The teaching of English is so poor (as demonstrated by the many grammatical and spelling errors seen on a daily basis) that perhaps a foreign language study is required to help students better understand how their own language works?

Personally I think we should just give up on throwing money at the education system and allow kids the easy way out with fish & chip shop studies.

[ninja-lewis]

Tsippy said:

JagLover said:

MiniMan64 said:

JagLover said:

I don't agree that a foreign language should be one of the core 5. To my mind a language is just a bonus not essential.

I respectively disagree, kids in schools are bad enough at English, I'm glad that langauges will be encouraged more by this.

Bear in mind as well a lot of kids choose not to persue these "hard" core subjects any further and the million and one other random GCSE's people can do are carried on as much easier subjects to a higher level.

The point of having a 'core' curriculum is that it covers essential skills. Learning a foreign language is not likely to be an essential skill for most. Even if your job involves foreign travel etc, it will still probably be to a country whose language you didn't learn. Given that most educated people abroad speak English it is a luxury to learn a foreign language here.

It may sound silly, but I found that teaching myself a foreign language allowed me to better understand my own language. The teaching of English is so poor (as demonstrated by the many grammatical and spelling errors seen on a daily basis) that perhaps a foreign language study is required to help students better understand how their own language works?

Personally I think we should just give up on throwing money at the education system and allow kids the easy way out with fish & chip shop studies.

Correct, learning another language - especially those with stricter grammar rules - aids your understanding of English. Relying on others to speak English is just lazy; if anything we should be doing more to teach languages earlier.

A language at GCSE will also become more important in the future for university entry: for instance, Edinburgh have had a GCSE MFL requirement for several years while UCL are making it a condition for 2012 entry.

[Lost_BMW]

Tsippy said:

JagLover said:

MiniMan64 said:

JagLover said:

I don't agree that a foreign language should be one of the core 5. To my mind a language is just a bonus not essential.

I respectively disagree, kids in schools are bad enough at English, I'm glad that langauges will be encouraged more by this.

Bear in mind as well a lot of kids choose not to persue these "hard" core subjects any further and the million and one other random GCSE's people can do are carried on as much easier subjects to a higher level.

The point of having a 'core' curriculum is that it covers essential skills. Learning a foreign language is not likely to be an essential skill for most. Even if your job involves foreign travel etc, it will still probably be to a country whose language you didn't learn. Given that most educated people abroad speak English it is a luxury to learn a foreign language here.

It may sound silly, but I found that teaching myself a foreign language allowed me to better understand my own language. The teaching of English is so poor (as demonstrated by the many grammatical and spelling errors seen on a daily basis) that perhaps a foreign language study is required to help students better understand how their own language works?

Personally I think we should just give up on throwing money at the education system and allow kids the easy way out with fish & chip shop studies.

In order to improve standards in written and spoken English, schools would benefit their students more by teaching English - well! - and Latin.

[wiffmaster]

Having seen that list, I think the core subjects need some revision to bring them more into line with the modern day.

Maths - Essential

English - Essential

Science - Useful

Foreign Language - Increasingly irrelevant. Unless it's something like Mandarin Chinese. I did both French and Spanish at GCSE (around seven years ago) and both have proved to be of absolutely no use. I'd be annoyed if I was a current baccalaureatte/GCSE student and made to choose between the usual French/Spanish/German options whilst the (potentially) most useful language of the future (Mandarin) was not an option.

History/Geography - Why on earth are these considered 'core' subjects? I can think of at least three subjects which have greater real world utility. Economics, Politics and even Economics Light (Business Studies) would all seem to be better 'compulsory' options? Yes History and Geography are fascinating to know about, but they're by no means essential for the vast majority of people?

[JagLover]

ninja-lewis said:

Relying on others to speak English is just lazy; if anything we should be doing more to teach languages earlier.

Even if they have learnt a 'language' there are many to choose from and if you have international business in Moscow say, or Beijing the fact that you have learnt French will be of no use to you and you will still have to rely on the 'lazy' option of their speaking English.

[MiniMan64]

ninja-lewis said:

Tsippy said:

JagLover said:

MiniMan64 said:

JagLover said:

I don't agree that a foreign language should be one of the core 5. To my mind a language is just a bonus not essential.

I respectively disagree, kids in schools are bad enough at English, I'm glad that langauges will be encouraged more by this.

Bear in mind as well a lot of kids choose not to persue these "hard" core subjects any further and the million and one other random GCSE's people can do are carried on as much easier subjects to a higher level.

The point of having a 'core' curriculum is that it covers essential skills. Learning a foreign language is not likely to be an essential skill for most. Even if your job involves foreign travel etc, it will still probably be to a country whose language you didn't learn. Given that most educated people abroad speak English it is a luxury to learn a foreign language here.

It may sound silly, but I found that teaching myself a foreign language allowed me to better understand my own language. The teaching of English is so poor (as demonstrated by the many grammatical and spelling errors seen on a daily basis) that perhaps a foreign language study is required to help students better understand how their own language works?

Personally I think we should just give up on throwing money at the education system and allow kids the easy way out with fish & chip shop studies.

Correct, learning another language - especially those with stricter grammar rules - aids your understanding of English. Relying on others to speak English is just lazy; if anything we should be doing more to teach languages earlier.

A language at GCSE will also become more important in the future for university entry: for instance, Edinburgh have had a GCSE MFL requirement for several years while UCL are making it a condition for 2012 entry.

Indeed.

I think language is a sorely underestimated requirement, not only from the skills involved but giving kids a wider sense of the world out there. And this is coming from a science teacher.

Now if they were trying to include something like Citizenship, then I'd be with you....