The graphs depict the percentage of foreign language learners aged from 14 to 16 in an English-speaking nation and the three most popular languages studied in a period of 23 years.
Overall, it is notable that the majority of language students were female. Besides, French was the most widely learned language. Additionally, the proportion of learners choosing Spanish followed an upward trend, while the opposite is true with that of the remains.
To begin with, in 1984, female students stood at nearly 50%, which was significantly higher than the percentage of boys. Over the next 23 years, there was a considerable decrease of around 10% in the proportion of girls learning languages. Similarly, that figure for male learners substantially dropped to approximately 27%.
In addition, initially, French took the lead with 50% of learners opting for this language. Meanwhile, German started at a significantly lower level, occupying 20%, followed by Spanish with roughly 5%. In 2007, the ratio of students studying Frend experienced a dramatic fall by a half to 25%. At the same time, there was a slight decrease to around 15% in the proportion of students choosing German. In contrast, despite witnessing a remarkable rise to 10%, Spanish remained the least popular language after 23 years.