The charts illustrate the proportion of 14 – 16 year-old students learning a modern foreign language in an English-speaking country, and the three most popular foreign languages.
Overall, boys are more likely to learn foreign languages compared to girls and the percentage of students who choose to learn foreign languages decreased over the period. The percentage for the French plummeted while that for the Spanish experienced a rise.
In 1984, the percentage for boys was around 50 percent, approximately 1.5 times larger compared to the figure for girls. The same dynamic was present in 2007 but both figures decreased slightly to around 40% and over 20% for boys and girls respectively.
French was the most learned foreign language in both years, despite the significant decline. In 1984, the figure for French was around 50%, but it decreased to over 20%, almost half of the initial figure. In contrast, the percentage for Spanish increased, from around 5% in 1984 to approximately 10% in 2007.