Britons aren’t xenophobic about language learning – and we should stop saying we are
What does Brexit have to do with language learning – if anything? Ursula Lanvers (University of York) analysed the claim that Britons’ reluctance to learn foreign languages is fundamentally xenophobic, and found no evidence for it. Rather, people thinking ‘English is enough’ is a more likely explanation for our poor language learning record. Journalism that talks down Britons’ capacity for language learning can be harmful, she argues.Like all linguists I know, my immediate reaction to the Brexit referendum was a mixture of outrage and despondency. Once semi-emerged (never fully) from this, I was struck by one observation in particular: newspapers and online media had started to speculate that language learning would further decline in a post-Brexit UK. Some argued that our unwillingness to learn languages, and Leave voting, all came from the same ideological corner – that of xenophobia. Others still claim that now we finally have a reason to learn languages: post-Brexit, we can’t rely on our trading partners being super-proficient in English, right?
Source: Britons aren’t xenophobic about language learning – and we should stop saying we are | LSE BREXIT
