Das Unterrichten moderner Sprachen in den neuen EU-Mitgliedstaaten

Das Eurydice-Netzwerk hat vor kurzem seine erste, von der Kommission finanzierte, Studie über den Fremdsprachenunterricht in 30 europäischen Ländern (in den 25 EU-Mitglieder, Bulgarien, Rumänien Norwegen, Island und Liechtenstein) veröffentlicht. Verwendet wurden Zahlen aus den Jahren 2001-2002. DREE Revue Elargissement berichtet mit Schwerpunkt auf die neuen EU-Mitgliedstaaten.

In the enlarged Europe, the results may be summarised as follows: 

In the secondary educational system, teaching a foreign language is compulsory everywhere (except in Ireland and Scotland) and this continues until the end of compulsory schooling (except in Italy and Wales).

In the general educational system, 98% of the pupils learn one or more of the following five languages: English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. English is learned by 90% of secondary school pupils as the first, second, or even third foreign language learned. French and German are the next most popular languages (French: 27.4% at level ISCED 2* and 25.7% at level ISCED 3; German: 19.6 % and 26.4% respectively). Spanish (7.1% and 15% respectively) and Russian (3.1% and 3.8%) trail far behind.

Giving children training in a foreign language at primary school is becoming widespread: in 2002, 50% of primary schoolchildren were learning at least one foreign language. English has a quasi monopoly and is the language most widely taught at primary school level (except in Belgium and Luxembourg) i.e. to 88 % of these 50%. 

The New Member States, in which pupils learn on average more foreign languages than in the EU25, can be classified into four groups: 

The Baltic States are distinguished by the strong presence of English – above the average of EU25 – (except for Lithuania at level ISCED3). Russian ranks second as a taught foreign language, followed by German. French lies far behind (between 0.7% and 6.8% of pupils according to the level and country). 

In the Central European countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) plus Slovenia, English also holds first position (between 45.9% and 98.2%), but with several specificities: at ISCED 2 level, the share of English is on average definitely lower than in the EU 25 and a “low” of 45.9% is noted for Hungary. At ISCED 3 level, the English language is rising again. It stands at around EU 25 average level in Poland (90.6%) and higher in Slovenia (98.2%), Slovakia (96%) and the Czech Republic (98.9%). It remains much lower in Hungary (57.1%). Between 36.8% and 83.0% (according to the level and the country) of secondary school pupils learn German. French comes third in all these countries, except in Poland where this rank is held by Russian. 

Malta and Cyprus show particular characteristics: English is compulsory in these countries (this is why the figure is 100% in the table). French is also compulsory in Cyprus at ISCED 2 level. French is popular (46%) in Malta in this cycle of schooling. 

Bulgaria and Romania (not reported in the table) present a contrasting scene: in Romania, English has now caught up French. More than 85% of secondary school pupils learn both these languages. In Bulgaria (ISCED 3), English is at the top (63% of the pupils); German (39%) and Russian (28.8%) precede French (18.7%). 

To read the full report complete with tables, visit the MINEFI-DREE website.