Michael Gove, Education Secretary, has told a national newspaper, ahead of his speech at the Conservative Party Conference this week, that he would like to see foreign languages being taught in primary schools from the age of five.

"There is a slam-dunk case” he told The Guardian, “for extending foreign language teaching to children aged five.”

"Just as some people have taken a perverse pride in not understanding mathematics”, he continued, “so we have taken a perverse pride in the fact that we do not speak foreign languages, and we just need to speak louder in English. It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning."

"If we pull all the levers, change teacher training, help training schools to support others to go down this path, get schools that have language potential to take over under-performing schools, and we move the curriculum review in the right direction, then we can move towards the goal.”

“The number of pupils sitting a language GCSE plummeted from 444,700 in the summer of 1998 to 273,000 in 2010. Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children."

NUT general secretary Christine Blower pointed out that "Many schools of course are already providing a language learning experience for children at primary level,” and that, "there is a need to ensure this teaching is provided by qualified teachers and is well integrated into the whole primary curriculum."