The Languages Company

The provisional results for 2010 were published today. The overall figure for languages shows a small decline, but with some significant variations between languages.

In England there were 31685 awards in total (compared to 32547 in 2009 – a difference of 856) Underlying these figures however there is a continuing (but lower) drop in German (- 195) and French (-372) and a further rise in Spanish (+298). Contrary to expectations, however, the numbers achieving a grade in  “Other Languages” which have increased steadily in recent years – last year for example they were up by 554 or 7.7% - have fallen sharply (by 7.6%)  Particularly striking has been a fall in the numbers taking Chinese, down  from 3151 to 2349 (UK figures).  The reasons for this turnaround are not yet clear and it remains to be seen whether there is any compensating increase in other qualifications such as Asset languages which are not recorded here.  

The picture at AS remains relatively stable with a fall of just over 100 (out of over 40,000). French and German numbers fell while Spanish and in this case also Other Languages grew.

Performance at A level continues to improve overall. In French for example 39.1% of candidates were awarded A* or A (compared with 38.6% gaining A last year when A* was not available.