What factors affect whether a student chooses to take a GCSE in a language?

 Every so often I receive a digest from the Oasis collection of research summaries. If you are unaware of Oasis, they are based at the University of York and they invite researchers to summarise academic papers ina format accesible to teachers and those unable to access academic journals. It's a great idea. If you subscribe to their service (free), you can also choose which type of research areas interest you.

This week a couple of recent papers caught my eye, the first about skill acquisition (which I may return to) and the second a study what factors influence pupils in their decision to take, or not take, a GCSE in MFL. The study was based on 971 pupils from 20 secondary schools in Northern Ireland - a reasonably sized sample, I would have thought..

If you just want to read the Oasis summary it is here. The original paper is Caruthers, J. & Henderson, L.’Language learning trajectories: pupils’ perspectives, structural factors and demographics at GCSE.’ Journal of Language, Identity & Education,

Let me pick out some key points and add a comment or two. Here are their findings:

• The factors discussed with students and their teachers during the consultation stage played a key role in understanding why students choose to continue studying languages.

• At Key Stage 3 (KS3), enjoyment was the strongest predictor of whether students continued with languages. This was followed by attending a grammar school and believing that languages are useful for future careers.

• Most KS3 students thought languages were harder than other subjects, and this belief significantly reduced the likelihood of continuing. However, learning two languages at KS3 increased the chances of continuing.

• At Key Stage 4 (KS4), the most important predictor of continuation was grammar school attendance, followed by gender and seeing languages as useful for careers.

• Many KS4 students believed that language subjects are graded more harshly than others. Interestingly, this belief was linked to a higher chance of continuing, suggesting that students may persist despite concerns about difficulty.

• Socio-demographic factors—such as the type of school, eligibility for free school meals (FSME), and gender—strongly influence language continuation. The study highlights a double disadvantage for FSME students in non-grammar schools.

My own observations would be as follows:

It is unsurprising that there is a correlation between socio-economic class and take-up. This has been noted previously and has led many to consider that language learning has become a pursuit of the middle classes. I wonder how much of a change this is over the last few decades. Before the end of the selective system in England, modern languages were mainly the preserve of grammar schools who would have been populated to a large extent by middle-class students. Not entirely of course - I am an example of a student who thrived from a working class background. Languages (essentially French) were studied in secondary school, but relatively few took an O-level and not all did a CSE (the 'watered down' version of O-level from 1965 to 1987 - the year when GCSEs were set up).

The finding on gender imbalance is another common finding when it comes to GCSE uptake. It's not unique to the UK of course, and I won't go into that issue here.

Clearly a key finding is the perception that languages are harder than other subjects. This is no doubt tied up with the factor of enjoyment. It would seem that if we want more students to do GCSE we need to make the subject easier and more enjoyable. I have explored one way of doing this here. 

A curious, and possibly surprising, finding is that, although many students were aware that MFL is harshly graded at GCSE compared to other languages (confimed yet again by the FFT and reported in Schoolsweek), this was not a factor in their subject choice. One possibility is that, at this stage, unlike at A-level, pupils may not feel that individual grades are crucial as far as their future education and career is concerned. At A-level, on the other hand, missing out on an A* grade could make the difference in accessing a chosen university.

Back to the Oasis study, they suggest the following points to consider:

• Socio-demographic factors can have a stronger impact than other influences, and should therefore be regularly taken into account in both research and education policy. These factors shape students’ views on the cultural value of learning languages.
• Targeted initiatives from the government or schools—such as mentoring programmes—can play a meaningful role in boosting students’ experiences, confidence, and future ambitions. These kinds of support may help turn students’ enjoyment of languages at KS3 and the belief that they are useful for careers into a higher rate of continuation, especially among more diverse student groups.
• To encourage more students to continue with languages, there is a need to openly address concerns about subject difficulty and grading fairness—especially since many pupils perceive languages as harder (at KS3) and more harshly graded (at KS4) compared to other subjects.

In sum, I would add that since we know that in motivation, success breeds success, then the biggest focus needs to be on creating conditions whereby more pupils, especially those from lower socio-economic groups, build self-efficacy when language learning. The assessment regime can play a major role in this. The current regime of (1) a (for many) difficult GCSE + (2) school accountability requirements + (3) Ofqual statistical requirements and 'comparable outcomes' (guaranteeing that there will be many low grades) is patently at odds with any initiative aiming to build pupils' self-efficacy and motivation to continue with languages. I would also argue that, for most students, a grammar-heavy course from 11 to 14 will almost certainly fail. In the likely absence of any fundamental change to GCSEs, then the big focus must be on teachers taking the initiative in building pupils' sense of competence at Key Stage 3. If students feel more successful they are more likely to continue with a language.