Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Table 1. The most widely taught foreign languages in secondary education 2001/2002Country English French German Spanish OtherAustria 98.6 12.8 – 2.0 5.6 (Italian)Belgium (Fr) 68.2 – 5.3 3.2 72.9 (Dutch)Belgium (Nl) 70.6 98.0 24.0 0.9 –Bulgaria 64.4 14.6 21.2 24.5 –Cyprus 99.8 78.2 1.1 – 0.8 (Italian)Czech Rep. 67.4 4.2 42.7 0.9Denmark 98.1 10.2 51.9 6.7Estonia 89.8 – 33.9 – 55.6 (Russian)Finland 99.0 13.3 28.3 – 92.2 (Swedish)France 96.0 – 20.4 39.9 4.6 (Italian)Germany 93.9 22.7 – 2.4 2.2 (Russian)Greece 97.6 44.1 17.0 – –Hungary 51.4 4.6 43.3 – 4.2 (unspecified)Iceland 82.4 8.2 21.6 – 65.6 (Danish)Ireland – 69.3 22.0 5.4 0.9 (Italian)Italy 84.3 31.3 5.7 1.7 –Latvia 92.6 1.4 27.5 – 40.8 (Russian)Lithuania 78.6 6.2 31.2 – 53.6 (Russian)Luxembourg 62.5 99.1 99.1 6.6 –Malta 96.8 40.3 6.5 – 56.8 (Italian)Netherlands 98.0 (1999) n.a n.a n.a n.aNorway 100.0 18.2 38.9 – 0.1 (unspecified)Poland 77.8 6.9 48.5 – 13.2 (Russian)Portugal 89.9 54.4 0.5 1.6 –Romania 86.4 87.0 11.4 – 6.5 (Russian)Slovakia 61.8 – 48.4 – 5.2 (Russian)Slovenia 85.0 2.8 36.5 – 2.9 (Italian)Spain 97.1 36.7 1.7 – 0.1 (Italian)Sweden 100.0 21.5 35.6 19.8 –UK – 51.4 20.6 8.0 2.1 (unspecified)Source: (European Commission 2005)The learning of English is also spreading rapidly into the primary schools ofcontinental Europe (European Commission, 2005). The proportion of primary pupilslearning English in the EU-25 rose from 38.5% in 1999 to 46% in 2002 (100% inNorway, 96.7% in Austria, 85.2% in Spain, 75.1% in Italy and 35.8% in France).Its nearest competitor in this domain, French, was being studied by a mere 5% in1999.294