School
Learning a foreign language is not a popular option at school in Britain. In UK schools it is common for
children to start studying a foreign language at the age of 11 and many students give up languages
completely at 14. So why don’t young people continue with languages at school? Research suggests that
students think that it is more difficult to get good grades in languages than in other subjects such as
science or history. The British government is now looking at different ways to improve language learning at
school. One idea is to start much younger; there are plans to introduce foreign languages from the age of
5.