Welcome

If you surfed in from outside the United Kingdom, you might be wondering what we mean by 'GCSE' and 'A Level'. For detailed information about exams visit the QCA, for general background on language learning in the UK read Languages: the next generation from the Nuffield Foundation, for a quick overview, of modern language studies in the UK read on ...

GCSE

Scotland has its own exam system but, in the in the rest of the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), about 80% of state school pupils study at least one foreign language until they are sixteen. They then take an exam called the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). Most pupils take between 5 and 8 subjects and are awarded a separate grade for each.

Less academic pupils can take a GCSE at "Foundation level" only -- which means that they opt out of some of the tests. A top level mark at Foundation level is equivalent to a pass at the Higher Level. In 2000, just under 50% of sixteen year olds obtained a Higher Level pass in five or more subjects.

Several different boards are accredited to set examinations and schools are generally free to choose the exam which their pupils will sit. The curricula vary and the word lists we have put onto the site are a composite.

The GCSE French exam has separate written tests for French to English and English to French as well as a listening comprehension and an oral (a conversation with an examiner). Exam topics are geared to teenagers but some exam boards offer courses which are at the same standard but more appropriate for adult learners.

In 2000, about 573,000 GCSEs were taken in modern and classical languages (about 8,000 more than in 1999).  Of these, 60% were in French, 23% in German, 9% in Spanish, 1.5% in Latin and 1.5% in Welsh (as a second language) with all the others accounting for 5% between them. Other than a 1% swing from German to Spanish, the proportions were unchanged from 1999.

A Level

Only about 10% of pupils continue to study foreign languages after age sixteen. These will spend two years preparing for an "Advanced Level" (A Level) exam -- usually in conjunction with two or three other subjects.  Word lists are not specified for A Level French so ours are just based around the recommended topics.

An intermediate level (AS Level) between GCSE and A Level has just been introduced in attempt to broaden the range of subjects studied between sixteen and eighteen.

The total number of modern languages A Levels taken in 2000 was about 37,000 (5,000 down on 1999) of which 48% were in French, 23% in German and 15% in Spanish with all others accounting for about 14% between them. Compared with 1999, French was 2% down and Spanish and German were each up by 1%.  By 2002 there had been significant further falls for French (15,614 candidates) and German (7,013 candidates) while Spanish was relatively unchanged with 5,572. In 2003, slight falls in in French (to 15,531) and German (to 6,950) were outweighed by an increase in the number of Spanish candidates (to 5,781) so that the total number of candidates in these three languages registered an increase with respect to the previous year.

Students wishing to study French, German or Spanish at university are usually expected to have an A Level in the subject while other languages are often taught from beginners level.

Adult Education

No reliable data on adult language learning is collected in the UK. However, a 1999 survey in which 4,000 adults were interviewed by NIACE indicated that about 1.5% were currently studying French, 1% Spanish, 0.5% German and 0.3% Italian. Unfortunately, most of the numbers presented in this report are so small (only 15 learners of Italian in the entire UK sample) that their accuracy is open to question. 

www.wordprof.com   This page was last updated on 21/01/06

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