Foreign languages in Swedish school: A proposal to motivate students to learn more languages

“To learn more languages is worthwhile” said Swedish Minister for Education Jan Björklund.

In primary school, pupils should be encouraged to learn a modern language other than English: Especially German, French or Spanish. Over 60% of the students only learn one of these languages until the end of ninth grade. In order to motivate more students to choose to learn a modern language and also continue until the end of high school, the Government proposes a change in selection rules for high school: Grade of Modern Languages will be counted as one seventeenth topic, in addition to the 16 substances that are standard.

"The world is shrinking with the globalisation. Sweden will not be competitive at an international level since young people learn fewer languages than their parents did" says Jan Björklund, Minister for Education. The proposal is now out for consultation and the plan is that this will apply to the pupils who start grade 6 this fall.