SWITZERLAND’S House of Representatives approved a new language law on June 21 that forces schools to teach a second national language before English.
There are four national languages in Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh. The Swiss can certainly be proud of their linguistic proficiency and many understand the other languages of their fellow countrymen. However, proficiency in the national languages is decreasing in favor of English.
The Social Democrat Christian Levrat, one of the initiators of the project, said it was time to send a clear signal to the cantons (states) before they cut a second national language out of the school curriculum.
Center-right Christian Democrat Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi warned it was necessary “to stop the invasion of English”.
The biggest discussions centered on which languages should be taught to schoolchildren first. The center-left Social Democrats said a second national language should have priority over English.
But part of the center-right Radicals and most the Christian Democrats felt that the legislation needed to be softened, stating only that a student should have some skills in another national language as well as a foreign one by the end of compulsory schooling.
The Conference of Cantonal Education Directors criticized parliament’s decision, saying it goes against a previous agreement. The agreement allows cantons to decide alone how languages are taught.
Not surprisingly, English has acquired a special place in school timetables in most European countries. Steadily, across Europe, English has become the first foreign language in education systems. The regular Eurobarometer surveys indicate that the numbers of people claiming to be able to speak English have been rising in the last five years in most European countries.
