He offers several reasons, starting with spending in Britain on language teaching in schools, which is proportionately lower than in France or Switzerland, say.

ECONOMIST: The economic consequences of the rise of English

Peers are calling for "urgent action" from the government to improve language teaching in schools and universities.

BBC: News | Education | 'End the language barrier'

Language teaching will now start in primary schools, when pupils are seven years old.

ECONOMIST: Education

That is why it took Switzerland more than 20 years to introduce teaching in a second national language (German or French) at the age of 11-plus instead of 14.

ECONOMIST: Do you speak English? Jaa, es bitzli

"Bully" is a teaching tool, and the language in question turns on words routinely heard or used by the very kids who should be seeing it, both for enlightenment and solace.

WSJ: Bully | The Island President | Wrath of the Titans | Cruel Kids, Weakling Schools, Hard-Hitting 'Bully' | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern

The working language of the course was English, while some selected teaching materials and guidelines used in the course were translated into Urdu or Pushto for the participants of the Project for better understanding and implementation.

UNESCO: CULTURE

Just as the bilingual school-teaching which California did away with in 1997 obscured more fundamental problems over achieving literacy in any language, affirmative action channelled good motives down a false path.

ECONOMIST: Affirmative action in California