Language learning: the shaky future of study (and work) abroad (Anne Marie Graham, The Guardian)

Unless the government develops a coherent languages strategy, student mobility is threatened, says Anne Marie Graham.

The study of modern languages in schools has been declining for more than a decade – so what’s the solution? Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian Sarah Lee/Guardian.

Another year, another fall (5%) in the number of language A-levels taken. The UK curriculum’s first choice foreign languages, French and German, have been declining in popularity for more than a decade. And although numbers studying other languages, including Spanish and Arabic, have increased, they’re not enough to buck the overall downward trend.