The bar charts give information about the percentages of 14-16-year-old students engaging in language learning by gender and the most preferred foreign languages in an English-speaking nation in 1984 and 2007.
Overall, it is discernible that girls enrolled in language courses more than their male counterparts, and French was the most popular choice in both years. Notably, participation rates in both genders experienced a significant decline.
Looking first at the figure for male and female students, in 1984, nearly half of the female students participated in learning languages, 20% higher than their male counterparts. In 2007, both groups experienced a similar decrease of 5% to 8% in participation, with a smaller difference between the two genders.
Regarding the top three languages, initially, Spanish only registered at about 5%, surpassed by a four-fold gap by German and a ten-fold disparity by French. Afterward, a remarkable drop was recorded in the percentage of French and German, with the former standing at about 25% and the latter exhibiting a lower rate of approximately 13%. In contrast, Spanish still remained the least-favored foreign language, at 10%, despite its considerable growth from 5% to 10% in 2007.