Universities may have to provide catch up classes for students who cannot speak foreign languages
Universities may have to provide catch up classes for students who cannot speak foreign languages if oral GCSE exams are axed next summer, it has emerged.
Experts have warned that removing the oral component of the exam leaves pupils with the impression that their ability to actually speak the language is irrelevant.
Pupils will be able to get a GCSE in French, German or Spanish next year without being formally tested on their spoken language skills, under plans to slim down courses after students missed months of school during lockdown.
The oral component of modern foreign languages exams – which makes up 25 per cent of the grade – could be scrapped in 2021 and pupils will instead receive a “teacher endorsement”.
Ofqual, the exam watchdog, explained in its consultation document that it “heard from teachers that the recording takes time to arrange and manage.”
Rather than pupils being formally examined on verbal skills, a teacher would informally assess them. This would be “more comfortable” for students, the regulator added.
Dr Mary Richardson, an associate professor of education assessment at University College London, said it is an “extraordinary” move for Ofqual to allow foreign language GCSEs to take place with no oral.
“If you take away a fundamental element of the exam, you are effectively downgrading its importance,” she said. “It seems to be extraordinary not to examine people in how they speak the language. It can be done informally by a teacher, but what that signals to the candidate is that it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Dr Richardson pointed out that any changes made to GCSEs will have an impact on pupils’ ability to study those subjects at either A-level or degree level.
“If you are missing out an important element, it will need to be caught up during the sixth form or at university, or you decide that your standard will need to be lowered,” she said.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said that plans to remove language orals are “worrying”.
“Ultimately what is the point about learning another language? It is so you can converse with a native speaker in that language,” he said.
“The jump from GCSE to A-level has often felt quite big anyway and this will make it feel even bigger. Universities may have to do some catch-up, they have become quite skilled at this as school language learning has declined.”
Removing the oral component from language exams is just one of the sweeping changes proposed for next year’s GCSEs, under Ofqual’s proposals.
Other proposed amendments include stopping science experiments, cancelling geography field trips and axing parts of the history course.
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, said: “The range of measures proposed by Ofqual, including the possible short delay to the exam timetable and subject-specific changes to reduce pressure on teaching time, will further ensure those young people taking exams next year have the same opportunities to progress as the students before them.”
