汉语成“英国高考”热门科目.docxVIP

汉语成“英国高考”热门科目 “Our research shows that Mandarin will be one of the most important languages for the UK’s future prosperity and global standing—but we mustn’t neglect Spanish， French and German which will still be vital post-Brexit.” Nick Gibb， the schools minister， said： “It has never been more important for young people to learn a foreign language than now.” “An outward looking global nation needs a new generation of young people comfortable with the language and culture of our overseas trading partners.” In 20XX Chinese A-level （General Certificate of Education Advanced Level） has overtaken German for the first time， as it becomes the UK’s third most popular language. This year 3，334 students took Chinese A-level， compared to 3，058 taking German. While entries for Chinese have increased by 8.6 percent since 20XX， German entries have declined by 16.5 percent. Derek Richardson， the senior responsible officer at Pearson， said Chinese has “bucked the trend” of the fall in popularity of modern languages. “In languages we are seeing some significant decreases in entries for the main modern languages： French， German and Spanish，” he said. “But what we are also seeing is an increase in entries across some of the other languages that people study.” “What this means is Chinese is now more popular than German. So maybe young people are beginning to think about what languages will be useful to them in the future.” French remains the most popular modern language A-level followed by Spanish， but both have seen a fall in entries compared to 20XX by eight and four percent respectively. Russian has also increased in popularity since 20XX by 3.4 percent， from 1，122 to 1，160. Arabic， however， has declined by 5.4 percent， from 782 entries in 20XX to 740 in 20XX. Suzanne O’Farrell， curriculum and assessment specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders （ASCL）， said： “We’re seeing German just moving into extinction really.