Latin can inspire a love of languages

The popularity of Latin in primary and secondary schools can be built on to combat the language-learning crisis
Latin lesson
'When students have the chance to learn Latin, they often leap at it.' Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian Graham Turner/Guardian

There are problems with language learning in schools and universities – but these need not be as terminal or wretched as is made out. Latin and Greek have long had to struggle in the education system, and many lessons could be learned from the efforts classicists have put in to maintaining the subject in the secondary and tertiary education system.

It may be true that only 25% of primary schools presently have modern language provision, but a far higher proportion of schools have some kind of Latin on offer, mainly in the form of after-school clubs. The Primary Latin Project is in contact with over 1,700 primary schools and their textbook, Minimus, has sold over 100,000 copies. I am in contact with over 100 primary and prep schools and am involved in a range of projects, including collaboration with the Iris Project, which runs taster courses of Latin in Oxford and London schools.

A French teacher in a state primary watched a group of year 3-6 children with whom I worked perform a Latin play in front of an audience of invited adults. My star performer was a year 6 boy with no previous experience in Latin who had become able to ad lib where needed, and the teacher exclaimed afterwards that he never spoke in French lessons. The problem clearly didn't lie with a lack of interest in languages per se; perhaps the national curriculum just isn't working. When students have the chance to learn Latin, they often leap at it.

At secondary level a similar story is true. The Latin Teaching Scheme in Oxford saw 20 students from eight local state schools sit the Latin GCSE this summer. They willingly gave up their Saturday mornings for two years in order to learn it. This does not sound like a generation uninterested in languages. A new cohort started in February 2010 and will sit the GCSE in 2012. I could have filled the places three times over. The students have commented that it was harder than they expected, but they express a sense of pride at their achievement. They were not all gifted and talented, and the results were mixed. But they rose to the challenge and enjoyed taking something that stretched them.

Perhaps in some ways we are not asking enough of our young people, feeding them a sterile curriculum, which fails to excite them intellectually. Not everyone will end up reading Caesar fluently, but, I suggest, some exposure to Latin could interest and benefit almost all students. At tertiary level, students flock to take up Latin, as successful university beginners' courses testify.

It does not matter if it is "just" the effect of Harry Potter, Gladiator or Rome: Total War. For whatever reason, many students want to learn Latin. If they do, and we can use this to inspire in them a love of language as a thinking tool as well as a means of communication, then all language learning will benefit.

An integrated curriculum, linking Latin and Greek with modern languages, could be the way ahead. We need not return to the direct method for Latin and force students to pretend it can be used in the same way as other languages, but shutting Latin out with the claim that it is elitist is the most certain way to keep it so and deny the richness it can offer students.

I regularly work with groups to improve their linguistic awareness, challenging them with tasks involving a range of Indo-European languages. Teaching them to respect and use languages, to engage their brains in the puzzle of their decipherment, is always appreciated. Students respond that they never realised how interconnected languages were, and some schools have reported a more generally positive attitude towards languages as a result.

As pointed out by Professor Christopher Pelling and Dr Llewelyn Morgan in their recent Politeia report, Latin is not classified as a language by the curriculum, and should be. Students in primary and secondary schools would learn it if they could, and would benefit from it in many ways.

In an education market focused on vocations, the idea of learning being good for you in and of itself has been lost. Latin can excite students because it is intrinsically interesting, and it engages them in a subject world they want to study. At the same time, students learn such transferable skills as logical thought and pattern spotting, ability to learn data, enhanced communication skills and critical thinking.

We need good teachers, but I see no reason why Latin cannot be used to enhance our education system on a range of levels, providing a fun, multicultural way to capitalise on linguistic aptitude, improve literacy and enhance a range of other skills.