The popularity of languages is continuing to decline in state schools, according to new research.
A survey carried out by Cilt, the National Centre for Languages, revealed that some youngsters only learn a language during their first two years of secondary school.
The most popular foreign language is French, although Spanish and German are also widely offered, the BBC reports.
The proportion of state schools where over 50 per cent of students study a language in year 11 has fallen from 43 per cent to 38 per cent over the last academic year.
Furthermore, it was found that children in independent schools have more access to non-mainstream languages, which could improve their prospects in the future.
"Pupils attending independent schools are more likely to have opportunities to study Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Russian than those in the maintained sector," the report said.
Speaking last year, the organisation said it will be more important than ever for people to have a second language in the future.
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