An education trust says schools need to give students more opportunities to learn languages.
A paper issued by the Royal Society of New Zealand calls for a national languages policy, which would take a unified approach to the way different languages are spoken, used and preserved.
It is not compulsory to take a foreign language at school, although the curriculum states that schools with students in Years 7 to 10 should be working towards giving them the opportunity to learn another language.
Comet Auckland chief executive Susan Warren said students should be encouraged to learn another language from an early age when the brain learns most efficiently.
