For linguists, educators & language teachers
The Language
Curriculum Guide
Why do modern curricula sometimes fail language learners? We explore the deep structure of European and classical languages, and compare what Cambridge, Pearson and the IB actually teach — and what they leave out.
German
DeutschCases, verb government, and the inflectional heritage of Proto-Germanic — explored through comparison with Latin and Indo-European roots.
English
EnglishThe most analytic Germanic language — word order as grammar, aspect over tense, and vocabulary spanning Germanic, Romance and Greek layers.
French
FrançaisThe Romance evolution from Latin — how French shed inflection and built a richly analytic structure, from nasal vowels to subjunctive mood.
Spanish
EspañolVerb-rich, melodic, shaped by Arabic influence — retaining a subjunctive that French is steadily losing, and a grammar that rewards structural thinking.
Ancient Greek
ἙλληνικήThe language of philosophy, mathematics and medicine — Ancient Greek's five-case system and rich aspectual verb system sit between Sanskrit's complexity and Latin's codification, making it the ideal intellectual bridge between the ancient and modern worlds.
Modern Greek
Νέα ΕλληνικάA living language that dramatically simplified Ancient Greek's morphology — four cases, reduced verb paradigms — while retaining its lexical depth and revealing how analytic drift happens across two millennia in a single language family.
Sanskrit
संस्कृतम्The most morphologically complete of all attested Indo-European languages — eight cases, three numbers including the dual, and a verb system centred on aspect rather than tense.
Hindi
हिन्दीThe modern heir of Sanskrit through Prakrits and Apabhramsha — an Indo-Aryan language that traded morphological complexity for postpositions and aspect-driven verbs.
From the Blog
Why the curriculum often gets it wrong
German · Curriculum Critique
Why teaching German without Latin first is setting students up to fail
The four-case system in German is not arbitrary — it is a reduced inheritance from Proto-Indo-European, mediated through Latin. When students arrive at accusative and dative without any functional case training, they memorise rather than understand. This article argues for a structural prerequisite before German case grammar is taught at GCSE level.
Greek · Classical
Ancient Greek as the missing link between Latin and modern European languages
Greek's five cases, rich aspect system, and philosophical vocabulary make it the ideal structural bridge that most language programmes ignore.
IB vs Cambridge
IB Language B vs A-Level: which genuinely develops linguistic competence?
A comparison of what Cambridge A-Level and IB Diploma actually require students to understand — and what both programmes consistently fail to address.
Sanskrit · Classical
What Panini knew about grammar that Cambridge still hasn't caught up with
The Ashtadhyayi described Sanskrit's grammar with a precision and generativity that modern linguistic theory only rediscovered in the 20th century.
Curriculum Analysis
Cambridge · Pearson · IB
What are they actually teaching?
A structured comparison of how three major examining bodies approach modern European language education — what each emphasises, what each omits, and where the IB diverges most from traditional grammar-led approaches.
| Area | Cambridge A-Level | Pearson / Edexcel | IB Diploma (HL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grammar Depth | Explicit case grammar, subordinate clauses, modal particles. Grammar tested in paper. | Grammar integrated into tasks; less explicit testing of structure. | Grammar implicit — assessed through written tasks and oral. No dedicated grammar paper. |
| Case System (German) | All four cases taught explicitly; genitive included. | Cases covered functionally; genitive marginalised. | Cases expected but not explicitly assessed; genitive rarely appears in mark schemes. |
| Cultural & Literary Content | Set texts (literary/film); historical & cultural themes required. | Themes-based; literary texts optional at A-Level. | Texts and works central to HL; strong cultural & intercultural focus throughout. |
| Oral Assessment | Individual oral on set text/film; discussion of themes. | Conversation and discussion-based oral tasks. | Individual oral tied to a literary/non-literary text; assessed on language AND ideas. |
| Writing | Translation into target language; essay; creative writing. | Essay + structured writing tasks; translation optional. | Written tasks in multiple genres; reflective commentary required at HL. |
| Translation | Prose translation both directions; high weighting. | Translation present but lower weighting than Cambridge. | No formal translation assessment — focus on communicative output. |
| Historical Linguistics | Not assessed; minimal in specification. | Not assessed. | Not assessed. Language history absent from all three. |
| Structural / Typological Awareness | Implicit through grammar teaching; not named as a concept. | Absent. | Intercultural competence replaces structural awareness. |
| Best suited for | Students aiming for linguistics, philology, or language degrees. | Students seeking communicative competence; less analytical focus. | Globally mobile students; strong on culture and ideas, weaker on structural grammar. |
The Core Argument
Grammar is not a rule to memorise. It is a system to understand.
Sanskrit preserves the full eight-case Indo-European system. Ancient Greek holds five. Latin reduced to six. German kept four. French and Spanish shed them almost entirely. Modern curricula teach the end-point without the journey — producing students who can communicate, but cannot explain why the language works the way it does.
Read the full argument →| Language | Cases | Numbers | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sanskrit | 8 | Sg · Du · Pl | Ancient |
| Ancient Greek | 5 | Sg · Du · Pl | Bridge |
| Latin | 6–7 | Sg · Pl | Ancient |
| German | 4 | Sg · Pl | Modern |
| Modern Greek | 4 | Sg · Pl | Bridge |
| Hindi | 2 | Sg · Pl | Classical heir |
| French / Spanish | — | Sg · Pl | Modern |