CLARE St George, Hannah Hayward and Maddie Lewis Hughes were last month crowned Oxfordshire champions of this year's Youth Speaks competition run by Rotary International.

Judges in the public speaking contest were impressed by the three pupils from King Alfred's Academy in Wantage, whose persuasive talk Brits and the Global Village explored why the British are so reticent to learn other languages.

Here, the scintillating speakers give us a flavour of the speech which won them the county crown.

BUENAS tardes todos, voy a discutir un tema que me preocupa desde hace algún tiempo. Las idiomas y su uso en nuestra sociedad.

For those of you who feeling confused, I just said that I would be discussing attitudes to modern foreign languages in our society.

This issue was bought to my attention when I came across an alarming statistic that only five per cent of people in the UK are bilingual, compared to 56 per cent of people globally, according to a study conducted by the European Commission.

This led me to question:

•Are British people less inclined to learn a second language?

•Why do we assume that when we’re in other countries people will converse in English with us?

•What can I do as a language student to encourage others to take up a language?

Now I'm sure that some parents, teachers and Rotarians will shudder at the memory of their onerous French lessons endured throughout school.

Unfortunately, it seems this experience of languages for most British adults has resulted in a culture of disregarding the value of modern foreign languages.

When abroad, we expect hotel staff and taxi drivers to all speak English despite the fact this would not be expected of their British equivalents.

The only attempt we make is usually limited to ordering a drink or asking for the bill.

I’m slightly embarrassed that my own father's biggest linguistic achievement is ordering a beer in five languages.

But in the 21st century, can our current attitude to languages be sustained?

In 1964 Marshall McLuhan, a media and communication theorist, coined the term ‘global village’ which describes how the globe has contracted into a metaphorical ‘village’ as a result of innovations in technology and the instantaneous transfer of information.

I question whether the UK can be valuable within this global village while 95 per cent of us are monolingual.

I worry that if very few Brits speak another language we will see ourselves disadvantaged and potentially sidelined.

But why would learning a language benefit you on a personal level?

Research shows the advantages are enormous: it helps us feel connected to people from other countries which lessens the ‘us and them’ divide which is unmistakably a problem given the current political climate.

The Telegraph recently reported studies showing that people who speak two or more languages have better cognitive process meaning their brains function more effectively.

There is also scientific research to suggest that learning foreign vocabulary uses a part of the brain that wouldn’t otherwise be exercised.

This is proven to help prevent or at least delay the symptoms of dementia.

As well as believing that schools should offer students a broader range of languages I hope I have been persuasive enough to at least inspire you to consider learning a language. Even if currently British people are less inclined to learn a language, we are no less capable of doing so.

I hope that schools continue to inspire and produce great linguists and that, as a society, we embrace the collective benefit of taking up a language.

Muchas gracias por escucharme y disfrutar el resto de los discursos.