Primary school children must learn a foreign language if the decline in the popularity of language learning is to be halted, a government-backed review concluded yesterday, according to the BBC.

The report by Lord Dearing, the former chairman of exam body the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, will say children should have to study a foreign language from the age of seven.

The proposal comes amid a slump in the number of pupils studying a modern languages at GSCE level after the government decided such subjects should no longer be compulsory.

Last year the number taking German dropped by 14.2 percent and there was a 13.2 percent fall in the entries for French.

Dearing was commissioned by Education Secretary Alan Johnson in October to examine what could be done to reverse the trend.

His interim report in December said changes needed to be made to the way languages were taught in schools as many pupils found the lessons boring and difficult.

However the BBC said Dearing would not recommend reversing the decision to make languages compulsory until GSCE level.