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Girls are more than twice as likely to take modern foreign languages A levels as boys, .

The research from indicates that girls are significantly more likely than boys to pursue a modern foreign language (MFL) A level regardless of their level of disadvantage, and also that there are clear differences in the volume of entries among students from different ethnic backgrounds.

Analysing entries from more than 563,000 students who completed key stage 5 exams in 2024, FFT found that 3.0 per cent of female students in the cohort studied A-level MFL, compared with just 1.3 per cent of males.

Varying gender gaps

FFT also analysed the gender gaps in entries between students from different ethnic backgrounds and found that while female students were more likely to enter a MFL A level across all ethnicities and qualifications, this was most pronounced for students from an “other white” background.

Researchers found that “other white” female students were nearly four times as likely as their male peers to study a language at A level, with the gender gap smallest for Bangladeshi and Pakistani students.

FFT also analysed the likelihood of disadvantaged students taking MFL and compared the differences between different ethnic backgrounds.

The researchers found that students eligible for free school meals (FSM) are “particularly unlikely” to enter MFL A levels compared with other subjects.

In 2025, the British Council found similar trends in the take-up of GCSEs, with significantly more students entering MFL qualifications in more affluent state schools.

The reasons behind the low uptake of languages among many groups have been causing concern for some time, and there are fears that efforts to drive interest in secondary schools are too little, too late.

Writing for 91���� in 2025, John Claughton, former chief master of King Edward’s School in Birmingham and co-founder of WoLLoW (World of Languages, Languages of the World), argued that “there is too little time or space or regard given to the teaching of languages” in primary schools.

Disadvantage gap in languages

FFT analysts indicate that just 1 per cent of students eligible for FSM at the end of KS4 took a foreign language A level, compared with 2.6 per cent of their peers, meaning students who were not disadvantaged were nearly three times as likely to enter language qualifications.

Meanwhile, 23.5 per cent of disadvantaged students entered any A level, compared with 48.4 per cent of their more affluent peers. This means non‑FSM students were 2.1 times more likely to take an A level overall.

FFT researchers also found a “very consistent” gender difference between entries to languages, whether or not students were disadvantaged. Analysing all students, FFT found that girls were around 2.2 times more likely to take an MFL A level than boys.

When the researchers accounted for gender, ethnicity and disadvantage, they were able to discern which students were most and least likely to progress to study MFL A levels.

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Previous on proposed changes to the Attainment 8 performance measure found that more students were likely to enter language qualifications as a result of the reforms. However, languages were not predicted to see as big a boost as creative subjects.

David Blow, a fellow at the Association for Language Learning (ALL), told 91����: “ALL has long been concerned about the decline in entries for A-level French and German - a decline far greater than the rise in entries for A-level Spanish.”

He said that ALL had highlighted “underlying causes” behind the decline, including “the severe grading of GCSE modern languages and the decoupling of AS from A2, which led to a sharp fall in AS entries - and, therefore, in A-level entries - as AS modern languages had previously been a popular fourth subject choice”.