The two bar charts compare the percentages of 14- to 16-year-old students studying a foreign language in an English-speaking country and show the three most popular languages studied in 1984 and 2007.
Overall, girls were consistently more likely than boys to study a foreign language in both years. French remained the most popular language despite a marked decline in popularity, while Spanish became more common over the period. In general, the proportion of students learning a foreign language fell between 1984 and 2007.
In 1984, just under half of girls studied a foreign language, compared with 30% of boys. By 2007, these figures had fallen to around 40% and 25%, respectively, although girls continued to outnumber boys by a considerable margin.
French was by far the most widely studied language in 1984, accounting for 50% of students. However, its popularity halved to approximately 25% in 2007. German also became less popular, declining from 20% to around 15%. In contrast, the proportion of students studying Spanish doubled from about 5% to 10%, although it remained the least popular of the three languages.