The given bar charts illustrate the percentage of boys and girls of 14-16 year age group studying foreign languages, and the top three foreign languages opted by those children of an English speaking country.
In 1984 only 50% of girls and 30% of boys studied foreign languages. This number fell between both genders and in 2007, 40% of girls and approximately 25% of boys were studying foreign languages.
In 1984, French was the most popular language with 50% of students learning it. The percentage of students learning French has almost halved to about 25% by 2007. The German language also lost popularity as the proportion of students learning German dropped from 20% to 15% during the given period. Spanish has been the least popular language over the given two years, but surprisingly it is the only language that has grown in popularity over time. In 1984, 5% of students studied Spanish, but 10% chose Spanish in 2007.
Overall, it is clear that more girls studied foreign languages than boys. In addition, while the number of students choosing French and German decreased, those studying Spanish increased in the given tenure.
