How do secondary schools in England talk about modern languages? A corpus‐assisted discourse analysis of school websites

Abstract Situating the study within an ecological perspective on language education, this article examines how secondary schools in England present Modern Languages (MLs) on official school websites. Focusing on 44 schools in Local Authorities with the lowest percentage average entry for the Languages pillar of the EBacc, we built a text database comprising 10,535 words and analysed it within the framework of corpus‐assisted discourse analysis. Four themes emerge from schools' presentation of MLs: (1) MLs as a conventional school subject to be learned within formal education, (2) languages as decontextualised linguistic knowledge, (3) MLs as transferable skills and (4) MLs as a pathway for students to succeed in the global arena. Through a critical lens, we show that these themes draw on two ideological assumptions: MLs equip students with an instrument for achieving other life objectives, and their value lies primarily in developing students' skills to compete in the future global market. These assumptions reduce MLs education to simplistic cost–benefit analysis and undervalue students' intercultural and holistic growth that can be fostered through language learning. We argue that school websites constitute important sites of declared language policy where such ideological assumptions are reproduced, materialised and circulated. The study advances theoretical understandings of how institutional discourse shapes the ecology of language education in England and identifies directions for future research into the role of schools in constructing the contemporary value of MLs.