Britain's pupils turning backs on languages, Economy worried.

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Despite the recent increase of the number of British A-level students taking exams the portion of teenagers showing interest in modern languages declines, timesonline reports.

Referring to  a total rise by 473 studying languages -- including Spanish, Italian, Mandarin and Russian -- students are choosing different courses, the British Government maintains. A growing interest is also reported for religious studies, where A-level numbers have more than doubled since 1992 to 16,859.

In 1992 over 30,000 students were registered in French A-Level courses, and close to 9000 taking German. Recently 14,484 pupils taking French and 5,901 German classes were reported -- marking a decline by two-thirds and one-third respectively. For Spanish 'the Beckham-effect', a growing interest in Spain registered since the British Soccer (European Football) star player was hired by the Spanish Club Real Madrid, does not wear off: Spanish overtook German as second mostly studied languages with over 6,000 entries in A-Level. A growing interest in Mandarin can be reported, too - over 2000 entries were registered.

Nonetheless, compared to a decade before the number of students taking modern language classes is dramatically low. Business leaders express their concerns that trade would be harmed unless the decline were reversed, as Britain would be increasingly unable to win deals abroad. Neil Bentley from the British business association CBI, acknowledged the modest rise but maintained that the generally low interest is worrying and remarked "it underlines a move away from speaking foreign languages, back to a British arrogance where English is the only language of use. But in reality just talking English doesn't cut the mustard."

International diplomats, too, expressed their concerns. German Ambassador to London, Thomas Matussek emphasised the importance of languages in inter-cultural communication: "I do fear that young people who don't know enough about Germany, for instance, could become xenophobic . . . which in turn leads to distorted pictures and severe misunderstandings. This is how wars are born and was the sad story of France and Germany for centuries."

Recently, the director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Sir Digby Jones also reminded the British public of the importance of language skills.

"The strength and future success of the UK economy relies on the education system producing students of a high calibre in disciplines like science and languages," Sir Digby had been cited by epolitix.com, "to meet the onslaught from countries like China and India. China alone produces almost 300,000 high quality science and engineering graduates each year."

Efforts to promote foreign language learning are also underway in other countries, like the U.S. and Germany. Only after the staggering results of PISA German education ministers have changed regulations to promote foreign language learning from first grade (age 6) onwards.

Sources: Times Online, Britain's economy fears for language gaps, U.S. needs to learn languages