The British Council, the UK’s official cultural promoter overseas, reports that a third of English schools
show a drop in interest in studying foreign languages following the Brexit vote.
The figures come form a survey of nearly 1,500 primary and secondary schools and show a decline
in the study of languages over the past five years, 2013-18.
While there was no explicit reference to Brexit in the questionnaire, the exit referendum and
the associated public campaigning was in 2016, right in the middle of data collection for the survey.
It’s reasonable to assume that leaving the EU was on the minds of the pupils because of family talk and media coverage.