TALKBACK

From Professor R.C. Speirs

Madam: Lesley Gerard (20 March) neglected to consider the great popularity of courses in which two or more languages are studied. The proportion of applicants to admissions in this faculty in October 1994 was: French- German, 23:1, French-Spanish 16:1, French-Italian 15:1.

Applications to single honours courses in languages naturally suffer as a result of this trend towards double language courses. It does not mean that languages are becoming an unpopular subject of study.

Moreover, in those combined subject courses where a language is combined with a non-linguistic subject, the language component enhances the attractiveness of those other subjects.

R.C. SPEIRS

Admissions Dean

Faculty of Arts

University of Birmingham