Women tend to dominate modern foreign language departments in the UK, but what effect can employing male language assistants have on schools and their pupils? The British Council’s Charlotte Ogilvie finds out.
In Victorian times, language learning was an exercise in gaining prestige for young women. To speak languages fluently was to be cultured, and well educated — both desirable traits within the social realm. Might this explain why female-dominated language departments have come to be the norm over the years? In 2014/15, some seven in ten language students at UK universities were female.
In that same year, two male language assistants joined the modern foreign languages department at Reddish Vale High School in Stockport. Up until then, the department had been 100 per cent female. The result? The number of boys taking up languages in that year doubled. After observing the positive effect, the school broke with precedent by specifically requesting more male assistants in 2014.
Suzanne Marsh, Head of Languages at Sir Thomas Wharton Community College, Doncaster, noted a similar effect: ‘It was nice to have a male role model in the faculty to encourage the boys to enjoy French and not see it as an alien subject’.
This alien feeling refers to the common perception in secondary schools that languages are a ‘female subject’, suggests Judith Goad, Head of German at Park View School in Chester-Le-Street, County Durham.
While recognising that having a male presence in the classroom is ‘good for the profile of modern languages in general’ and that a recent male probationary teacher had been a ‘real hit’, Catherine McKenzie, curriculum leader of modern languages at Currie Community High School in Edinburgh, does not see a male teaching presence in language classes as essential to the success of male pupils. She acknowledges that more than 80 per cent of modern languages teachers are female, and that the statistics in her senior classes are similar.
However, she emphasises that ‘in terms of assistants, both genders attract interest from the pupils’ and sees the value of modern language assistants stemming from the fact that they are young, enthusiastic ambassadors of their native languages and cultures. Unlike full-time staff, they have ample free time to use creatively, for example by setting up film or sports clubs in the target language. They bring the language alive, and their presence shows students the possibilities open to them, of travelling, studying and working abroad.
‘Honestly, we could not do our jobs without language assistants,’ says Sonya Henderson, Head of Modern Languages at Omagh Academy, County Tyrone. ‘They bring a breath of fresh air to the study of languages. They contribute a lot to the atmosphere in the language department and make our language learners love the language even more.’
A common feeling among teachers is that it is better to think in terms of individuals than genders. What attracts students to foreign language assistants is their youth, authenticity and up-to-date cultural knowledge, rather than their gender. One teacher commented that their language assistant ‘allowed the pupils to travel without even leaving their desks.’
Updated: UK schools, find out how you can apply for a Language Assistant who is a native speaker of French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian, Russian or Irish. Applications are still open.
If you would like to become a teaching assistant at a UK school in the languages above, please see this list of institutions you can contact.