Modern languages — a BEC soft option?

The publication of major reports by the British Overseas Trade Board and the Royal Society of Arts last year represents a flurry of official activity at the long dormant interface between teachers of modern languages and industrialists. Furthermore, nobody who was present at the joint RSA/BOTB/CBI conference on 31 October was left in any doubt that British industry needs trained linguists in order to export more successfully, or that teachers of languages in this country are increasingly gearing themselves up to produce the right kind of linguist to satisfy this demand.