Kayleigh Beardsley
A SURGE in popularity for the Spanish GCSE has led to an increase in entries of 11.3% on 2022’s figures.
The rise continues the steady upward trend of recent years, putting the option on track to overtake French as the most commonly taken language at GCSE.
In addition to Spanish, French also had a boost in entries, up 1.1% on last year, with the other modern languages also gaining more applicants.
Spanish saw the second-largest rise after business this year, with the latter gaining a whopping 14.8% more applicants.
One reason why students may seek out Spanish over other languages is because Spain is a major holiday destination for Britons.
Over 15 million of us took a trip to Spain last year.
There are a multitude of reasons for the increase, with Vicky Gough, a school advisor at the British Council, saying, “Spanish is the most popular language taken at A-level. It is also more prominent in popular culture—in music, films, and TV shows—so it is attractive to pupils.”
As an option, it may be easier than French or German for beginners.
According to Babbel.com, French and German are significantly more difficult than Spanish for beginners whose first language is English.
This is due to French and English being only 27% lexically similar.
Despite German and English being 60% similar, German grammar has more complicated rules that need to be mastered early on in comparison to Spanish.
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