CRI听力:More Children in UK to Learn Mandarin

British Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the plan to bring in compulsory languages in Primary schools in an overhaul of the country's national curriculum.

As well as learning a language from the age of seven, other changes will include a new focus on spelling and grammar and reciting poetry by heart.
 
But for languages, schools could see lessons in Mandarin offered as well as French, Spanish and German.

Caroline Davies is a primary school teacher in the UK, she says learning a language from an early age will give children a competitive advantage.

"At the moment we are falling down because we don't have a second language, or a lot of people don't have a second language already, or if perhaps they do perhaps they only have one, where a lot of other countries have two or three different languages, so obviously we're not going to get pipped over those people. It gives children a passion and enjoyment for those languages as well, being exposed to it at a younger age and then they've got an interest in it from an earlier age to travel the world and to work abroad."

Jovan Trkulja is an executive member in the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. He is also a modern languages teacher.

Trkulja, who supports the move to introduce compulsory languages, says Mandarin in particular would be a good language to learn from a young age, but sees some issues along the way.

"It would also give those children a chance to speak Mandarin very competently by the time they leave school. The only pitfall I see is that there possibly won't be enough people to teach Mandarin and I have a feeling what will inevitably happen is that the European languages will become prevalent because there will be people who have some French, some Spanish or some German in their schools, but I would certainly be very happy to Mandarin flourishing as a result of the compulsory language changes. "

Trkulja highlights one way around the issue of providing enough Mandarin teachers, is to focus on building up relations with China.

"And I think that the government needs to think about how to improve links with China itself in providing those kinds of language learning skills, because eventually it is economically beneficial for both countries to have people who can speak both English and Mandarin."

The plans for compulsory languages in British primary schools are expected to bring them in line with many other countries such as China, who already offer compulsory languages at primary level.

For CRI, I'm Rebecca Hume.