The bar charts compare the percentages of 14-16 year-old students learning a modern foreign language in an English-speaking country across two different years, 1984 and 2007, and also highlight the popularity of the top three languages studied.
Overall, the general trends indicate a decline in the proportion of students studying foreign languages. There has also been a notable shift in language preferences, with Spanish becoming more common while French and German fell in popularity.
In 1984, there was a marked gender disparity in language study, with approximately 50% of girls learning a modern foreign language compared to only about 30% of boys engaging in this pursuit. The popularity of this activity appeared to have dropped over time for both genders, as the figures for male and female students dropped moderately to 40% and 25% respectively in 2007.
With regard to the most prevalent languages learned, French dominated as the language of choice among students in both years, with a remarkable decrease from 50% in 1984 to 25% in 2007. In the same period, German experienced a minor decline from 20% to 15%, remaining the second most popular language in 2007. Conversely, Spanish registered an increase in popularity, as it was studied by 10% of students in 2007, doubling its initial figure in 1984.