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Future of English as Global Language

The document discusses how English is becoming the global lingua franca and the dominant language worldwide. It predicts that by 2010, a third of the world's population will speak English as a second language. As more people learn English, it will continue gaining prominence in fields like education, business, and media. Eventually, English may become the primary language for most countries, with native English speakers becoming the minority that speaks only one language. The growing use of English could influence how the language evolves and is represented in dictionaries.

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82 views2 pages

Future of English as Global Language

The document discusses how English is becoming the global lingua franca and the dominant language worldwide. It predicts that by 2010, a third of the world's population will speak English as a second language. As more people learn English, it will continue gaining prominence in fields like education, business, and media. Eventually, English may become the primary language for most countries, with native English speakers becoming the minority that speaks only one language. The growing use of English could influence how the language evolves and is represented in dictionaries.

Uploaded by

nguyenvandong152k3
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

LearnEnglish Professionals

FUTURE OF ENGLISH

For many years now we have been referring to English as a…………1………, as


the language of communication and technology. Everybody seems to be learning
English and it isn’t ………2………..to see English being used as a means of
communication between, let’s see, a German scientist and an Italian politician.
These days, if you don’t know English, you are in danger of being excluded from
what’s going on - in education, at work and especially in the world of …………
3…………..

Very soon English will be the ……4………. language of all the people in the
world. This is happening while I am speaking to you. We can’t be certain of how
long the process will take but there is ……5…………… that it will happen and
my bet is that it will happen sooner rather than later.

First of all English will be an obligatory subject on every school curriculum


throughout the world. …………6………. 2010 around two billion people that’s
about a third of the World’s population will speak English as their second
language. This isn’t my prediction by the way. This is what the ………7………
say.
We can see evidence of these changes all the time. Let’s take the Eurovision Song
Contest as an example. Whatever we might think of the contest itself, one thing
that has …………8……… recently is that now countries can opt to sing in
English. In the last festival fourteen of the twenty-five competing countries asked
for the rules to be changed to allow them to sing in English. They argued that
singing in their ……………9……. would put them at a disadvantage. I suspect
that in a few years time all ……10……… countries will be singing in English.

And what exactly does all of this mean for native speakers of English? Well, we
are already in a..................11......... If the calculations are correct, then in ten years
time, majority speakers - that is non-native English speakers - will outnumber
native English speakers by four to one. The two most ……12..……… Englishes
won’t be British English and American English. They’ll be Native English and
Majority English. So native English speakers will be handicapped. We will be the
only people in the …………13……. who speak just one language. Because, let’s
…………14….. it, there won’t be much of a reason for native English speakers to
learn a second language. We, and not the majority English speakers, will be the
disadvantaged.
As more and more people speak English, it makes sense that they will become
more competent. They will start to control more of the English resources
……………15…… and to have a say in what should or shouldn’t be included in
dictionaries and language books. This might seem far fetched but it is already
starting to ………16…….. Let’s use Sweden as an example. Their music exports -
predominantly English - account for more than thirty per cent of their export
income. This exported English is bound to have an ……17……….. on English in
general. And this is just one small ……18………

So all of you native English speakers out there, get ready to throw away your
phrase books. Whether you’re planning to visit ………19………… Europe or
the Himalayas, one thing you won’t have to ………20……….. about is the
language!

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