2025年英国语言趋势

Language teaching in primary, secondary and independentschools in England Survey report by Ian Collen and Jayne Duff www.britishcouncil.org Contents Introduction2Headline findings 20252Policy context and background3Research outline4Findings from primary schools6Transition from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 314Findings from state secondary schools19Findings from independent secondary schools30Conclusion37Reference Bibliography38 Introduction British Council is pleasedto present the results ofLanguage Trends England2025.British Council supportspeace and prosperity by buildingconnections, understanding andtrust between people in the UKand countries worldwide throughwork in arts and culture, educationand the English language. Language Trends Survey for England. On behalfof British Council and Queen’s University Belfast,we would like to thank teachers for participating inour research. Without teachers’ participation, ourresearch would not be possible. Headline findings 2025 The headline findings for 2025 are: •At Key Stage 2, French continues to be the mostwidely taught primary language, taught in 70 percent of responding schools. This is followed bySpanish, taught in over a quarter of respondingschools in Key Stage 2; British Council is committed to fostering globalconnections through collaboration and sharedopportunities. In the education sector, BritishCouncil encourages students to explore othercultures and languages by offering teachingresources to bring the world into the classroomand creating opportunities for international schoolpartnerships. •Forty-nine per cent of state primary schoolssurveyed have contact with a local statesecondary school in relation to language learning; •Approximately one fifth of state secondaryschools surveyed feel that Year 7 pupils arenow less prepared than pupils three years agofollowing their language learning experience atKey Stage 2; Language Trends is an annual survey of primaryand secondary schools in England. Since thefirst report in 2002, the survey has become anauthoritative overview of the language learninglandscape at school level. Language Trends isdesigned to gather information about the currentsituation for language teaching and learning. Thereport reflects on the impact of policy measuresin relation to language learning, and the strengthsand weaknesses based both on quantitativedata and qualitative comments expressed byresponding teachers. •Artificial Intelligence (AI) for language teachinghas not yet been widely adopted by primary andsecondary teachers; •French continues to be the most offered languageat Key Stage 3, while Spanish retains more pupilsat the age 14 and age 16 transition points; •International opportunities have bounced backsince the Covid-19 pandemic with 74 per centof state secondary schools offering trips abroad,though 49 per cent of teachers have neverheard of Turing funding; There are now surveys and Language Trendsreports for all four devolved nations of the UnitedKingdom (UK): in Wales since 2015, a biennialsurvey in Northern Ireland since 2019, and mostrecently Scotland since 2024/25. This series andsuite of reports shows longitudinal trends andgeneral shifts in data, providing a snapshot of thecurrent language education situation for teachers,school leaders, academics, inspectors, policymakers, school pupils and the public to consideraspects of language learning more deeply.1 •On average, responding secondary schoolteachers estimate 53 per cent of their Year 11pupils are currently learning a language for GCSE; •Recruitment challenges in over 60 per centof all state secondary schools and over half ofindependent schools surveyed; •Ample opportunities for pupils and/teachersto gain international engagement in theindependent sector (opportunities reported by60 out 63 independent schools surveyed), withgrowing opportunities in the state sector. British Council commissioned Queen’s UniversityBelfast to conduct the 2025 round of the Policy context and background Following 14 years of Conservative power, the 2024/25 school year in England began under a new Labourgovernment, which quickly announced a review of the National Curriculum and associated assessment; thefinal report is due to be published in autumn 2025. The current National Curriculum must be taught in all local authority-maintained schools in England and theNational Curriculum Framework stipulates that languages education is compulsory for all pupils aged 7 to 14: the spoken and written modalities. Any words onexamination papers outside of the prescribed listare glossed and explained. There are currently noplans to adopt this approach in languages or levelsother than GCSE French, German and Spanishin England, nor are there plans to align GCSEsin French, German and Spanish from AwardingOrganisations in Northern Ireland and Wales. In England, 81.9 per cent of state secondaryschools are academies or free schools, whichare currently not obligated to follow the National