David Laws, the party’s children secretary, said: “We have always been regarded as one of the most incompetent nations in our ability to speak other languages. These figures suggest that our counterparts abroad have seen nothing yet.” John Cridland, the deputy director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said: “At present too few young people are entering work with language skills.” Alan Smithers, the professor of education at Buckingham University, said children had been “spoiled” by the growth of English. Continuing his views he also said “English being a world language brings many benefits, but we are put at the severe disadvantage of not having an incentive to engage in another language.” The schools minister, Jim Knight, said: “Whilst we were encouraged by the increase in the number of pupils taking Spanish, we have been concerned for some time about the decline in language learning.”

Read: telegraph.co.uk

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