The provided bar charts illustrate the percentage of 14–16-year-old students studying a modern foreign language in an English-speaking country and the popularity of the top three foreign languages over a span of 23 years.
Overall, the data reflects a higher inclination of female students towards learning a foreign language as compared to their male counterparts in both years. The top three foreign languages, led by French, maintained their popularity rankings over the 23-year period.
In 1984, female students aged 14 to 16 constituted nearly 50% of language learners, while male students comprised about 30%. By 2007, this gap had narrowed to approximately 5%, with female students decreasing to 40% and male students to around 25%.
Across the same timeframe, while the top three foreign languages retained their positions, there was a notable decrease in their popularity, with French dropping by half from 50% in 1984 to under 20% in 2007. Similarly, German witnessed a decline from 20% to about 15%. In contrast, Spanish experienced a significant surge in popularity, doubling from 5% in 1984 to 10% in 2007.