One topic is rarely mentioned in all the talk of improving standards in our schools: the almost complete failure of foreign-language teaching. As a French graduate who has taught for more than twenty-five years, I believe I have some idea of why the failure is so total.In addition to the faults already found out in the education system as a whoie-such as child-centred learning, the “discovery”method, and the low expectations by teachers of pupils-there have been several serious errors which have a direct effect on language teaching.
The first is the removal from the curriculum（课程）of the thorough teaching of English
grammar. Pupils now do not know a verb from a noun, the subject of a sentence from its object, or the difference between the past, present, or future.
Another important error is mixed-ability teaching, or teaching in ability groups so wide that the most able pupils are help back and are bored while the least able are lost and equally Bored. Strangely enough, few head teachers seem to be in favour of mixed-ability school football teams.
Progress depends on memory, and pupils start to forget immediately they stop having regular lessons. This is why many people who attended French lessons at school, even those who got good grades, have forgotten it a few years later.Because they never need it, they do not practice it.
Most American schools have accepted what is inevitable and withdrawn modem languages, even Spanish, from the curriculum. Perhaps it is time for Britaio to do the same, and stop wasting resources on a subject which few pupils want or need.

当我们的学校在谈论各种需要改善的教学水准时，外语教学几乎是完
全失败的话题已经很少有人会提起了。作为一名已授课25年多的法语
大学毕业生，我相信对为何会失败得如此彻底这个问题我有我自己的见解。除了教育体系中已发现如以孩子为中心的学习方法、“发掘人才”的方式、老师对学生的低期望值等这些弊端外，还有几种严重的失误对语言教学产生了直接的影响。
其一：将所有英语语法的教学完全取消。现在的学生不知道动词和名词的区别，不知道句子中主语和宾语的区别，也不知道现在时、过去时和将来时的不同之处。
另一个严重失误就是对学生智力水平参差不齐所采用的教学方法，或者说对学生群体教学方法的非专业化，以致造成学习好的受学习差的所累而感到厌烦，学习差的又因学不懂而同样感到厌烦。可奇怪得很，很少有校长会认同一个队员水平参差不齐的学校足球队。
进步来源于记忆。学生们已出现对正常学过的课文马上就忘记的现象。这就是为什么那些在学校学过法语而且分数还挺高的学生过不了几年就将法语忘个精光。因为他们不需要法语，他们也不会用到法语。
大多数美国学校已经接受并认为从课程中取消现代语言课程，包括西班牙语课程是不可避免的。或许对英国来说，此时正是取消外语课程，不要再将资源浪费在学生不喜欢或不需要的课程上之最好时机。