“I want to ensure that all young people have the opportunity to have a language as this will be one of the skills they will need for the new millennium” (David Blunkett in Nuffield, 2000, p.15)
In its 2000 report, the Nuffield Language Inquiry recommended that foreign languages should be made a key skill. This proposition was endorsed by the government at the time and in 2002, the Department for Education and Skills published its National Language Strategy, which emphasised the need for foreign language competency and intercultural understanding in today’s knowledge society (DfES, 2002) and the fact that the UK was unable to contribute fully in the global economy because of shortcomings in its language skills and cultural awareness. In 2004, it was the turn of the Department of Trade and Investment to underline the important role of languages in Britain’s economic performance in a White Paper which emphasised the importance of languages and cultural skills for UK trade and investment and for its relationship with its trade partners in Europe and elsewhere. Citing language skills as one of the key areas for development, the White Paper indicated that 20% of small-to-medium enterprises recognised that they had lost business because of a lack of such skills (DTI, 2004).