Knowledge of foreign languages lasts a lifetime.
Knowledge of French lasts a lifetime
A new study conducted by the University of York has shown that people tested on foreign languages 50 years after they last sat an exam perform just as well as recent students.
The research saw 500 participants who had studied GCSE French or A-level from the 1970s until 2020 and tested their vocabulary and grammar.
The results revealed that there was no change in language proficiency over time.
Professor Monika Schmid, head of the university's Department of Language and Linguistics, said: "The knowledge of language is astonishingly stable over long periods of time, compared to other subjects such as maths, history or sciences.
"This is likely because of the way language is stored in memory.
"Vocabulary is memorised in the same way that facts, dates and names are, for example, and whilst this memory is vulnerable to erosion, grammar is learned in a similar way to riding a bike - a kind of muscle memory, which is much more stable."