Pupils in Northern Ireland are required to learn languages less than those in any other country in Europe.
But Spanish and Irish have overtaken French as the most popular languages taken at A-level.
Those are two of the findings from the British Council's Language Trends 2023 report for Northern Ireland.
It looks at how French, German, Irish, Spanish and other languages are taught in primary and post-primary schools.
Its findings are based on responses from 82 primary school principals and more than 1,100 Year Nine post-primary pupils.
About half of the heads (97) of language departments in post-primary schools also contributed to the study.
Learning a second language is not compulsory for pupils in primary schools in Northern Ireland.
It is the only part of the UK where there is no requirement to teach primary pupils an additional language.
