Future Of English.pdf

LearnEnglish Professionals

FUTURE OF ENGLISH AUDIOSCRIPT

Listen to the controversial Linguistics expert Professor McKenzie talking about the future of the English

language.

Optional exercise

Decide whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE according to Professor McKenzie.

1. If you do not know English you can be at a disadvantage.

2. English will soon be spoken by everybody in the World.

3. By 2010 half the World’s population will speak English.

4. Competitors at the Eurovision Song Contest will never be unanimous in choosing to sing in English.

5. Native English and Majority English will become the two predominant types of English.

(Answers below)

For many years now we have been referring to English as a global language, as the language of communication

and technology. Everybody seems to be learning English and it isn’t uncommon 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 technological advances.

Very soon English will be the second 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 no doubt 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. By the year

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 experts 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 changed recently is that now countries can opt

to sing in English. In the last festival fourteen of the twentyfive competing countries asked for the rules to be

changed to allow them to sing in English. They argued that singing in their own language would put them at a

disadvantage. I suspect that in a few years time all twentyfive 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 minority. If the

calculations are correct, then in ten years time, majority speakers that is nonnative English speakers will

outnumber native English speakers by four to one. The two most important 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 world who speak just one language. Because, let’s face 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 being produced 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 happen.

Let’s use Sweden as an example. Their music exports predominantly English account formore than thirty per

cent of their export income. This exported English is bound to have an effect on English in general. And this is

just one small example.

So all of you native English speakers out there, get ready to throw away your phrase books. Whether you’re

planning to visit Eastern Europe or the Himalayas, one thing you won’t have to worry about is the language!

Answers:

1. True, 2. True, 3. False, 4. False, 5. True

www.britishcouncil.org/professionals.htm

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

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