Band 6+: The two bar charts below show the proportion of 14-to 16-year-old students studying a foreign language in an English speaking country, and the top three foreign languages. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. You should write at least 150 words.

The illustrations depict data on the percentages of learners in an English native-speaking country whose ages are between 14 and 16, and studying other languages (French, German, Spanish) in 1984 and 2007.

Overall, the percentage of female students compared to male students was higher in both mentioned years, additionally, French language was the most studied language among the three other languages throughout the whole period.

In 1984, the female student’s percentage was just below 50%, while the males’ percentage was only 30%. In 2007, the girls’ share decreased to 40%, moreover, boys’ percentage declined to approximately 25%.

In 1984, French was the most studied language noting 50%, followed by German at 20% sharply, then, Spanish came last at around 5%. However, in 2007, although the ranking remained the same for the three languages, and especially, the French language which continued to occupy the first place among the other languages, its proportion dramatically lowered to around 35%. On the other hand, the German language ratio rose to just beneath 25%. Also, the Spanish ratio was increased to 10%.