84.1% of the students of the second cycle of Early Childhood Education (from 3 to 6 years old) of the 2017-2018 academic year had contact with a foreign language, which reflects an increase of 26.3 percentage points compared to the 2007-2008 academic year. The English language is still chosen by practically all students as the first foreign language.
This is clear from the Statistics of the non-university Teachings of the 2017-2018 academic year. Teaching foreign languages published by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and whose data confirm that the study of a foreign language is becoming generalized as of Primary Education.
The document also reveals a significant increase in the number of students studying a second foreign language in Primary Education, increasing from 5.7% in the 2012-2013 academic year to 20.1% in the analyzed course. These figures are close to those registered in the Baccalaureate, with 25.2% of the students who study a second foreign language.
In the case of students of Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO), the percentage reaches 42.9%, with French being the language chosen by the great majority in all educational stages.
Regarding the use of foreign languages as a language of instruction, more than 1,467,000 students of non-university general education courses participated in this type of educational experiences, the vast majority (82.8%), in integrated learning programs contents and foreign language.
By levels, students of Primary Education and ESO are the most involved in this type of experience, being 38.4% and 28.2%, respectively, compared to 8.8% of high school students.
Regarding the centers where these programs are offered, 42.2% of those who teach Primary Education, a total of 4,827, have some experience of using a foreign language as a teaching language. In the case of those who teach Compulsory Secondary Education, they reach 42.0%, with a total of 2,602 centers.
More than 395,000 students in the Official Schools of Languages
Regarding the teachings of the Official Schools of Languages, their students exceeded 395,000 in the academic year 2017-2018, 90.9% in the face-to-face mode. By levels, the largest number of students belongs to the basic level with more than 150,000 students and the intermediate level, with around 122,000 students.
The most studied language is English, with more than 263,000 students (66.6% of students), including distance learning, followed by French, with around 52,000 (13.3%), German, with more than 34,000 (8.8%) and Italian, with about 13,500 (3.4%).
Also, within these teachings are taught co-official languages (8,374 students of Basque, 2,348 of Valencian, 1,366 of Catalan and 695 of Galician) and Spanish for foreigners (8,329 students).