Different countries, different pedagogies: Student teacher exchanges for primary language learning

In UK primary schools, language learning will become an ‘entitlement’ for children aged 7 to 11 by 2010, through the National Languages Strategy (DfES, 2007b). To prepare for this, from 2001 the Training and Development Agency began funding five Initial Training Institutions to run a primary course with a specialism in foreign languages. By 2007/8 41 institutions offered this course in French, Spanish, German and Italian to 945 students in the UK (NACELL, 2007). The recent Languages Review (DfES 2007b) recommends making primary languages a compulsory subject, which calls for further developments. The government offers an annual budget of £50m to support the development of language learning (BBC, 2007), and some of this will be spent on training