The bar charts compare the proportion of 14-16 year-old male and female students studying a foreign language in an English-speaking country and the three languages studied most by students from 1984 to 2007. Overall, there was a downward trend in the percentage of students learning a foreign language, with the rate of female students being more dominant than that of their male counterparts. The top three languages studied by students also decreased, apart from Spanish.
Upon closer inspection, in 1984, the percentage of girls aged 14 to 16 studying a foreign language peaked at nearly 49%, which was higher than that of boys at 30%. Likewise, despite the slump in the rate of 14-16 year-old students studying a foreign language in 2007, there was still a similar pattern compared to 1984. In particular, 40% of girls was significantly higher than the figure for boys, at approximately 25%.
In terms of the remaining chart, the majority of students showed a big interest in French, reaching nearly 50%, after which this language slumped to about 25% in 2007. Parallel to this, German was the second most popular language learned by students, peaking at 20% in 1984 and subsequently witnessing a 5% decrease in 2007. Conversely, although Spanish was ranked lowest in the top three popular foreign languages, its figure saw a double growth throughout the observed years, particularly from 5% to 10%