Two billion people to learn English
Two billion people - a third of the entire human race - could be learning English by 2010-2015, according to a new report commissioned by the British Council. This will mean that as many as three billion people or half the world's population could be...
Two billion people - a third of the entire human race - could be learning English by 2010-2015, according to a new report commissioned by the British Council. This will mean that as many as three billion people or half the world's population could be speaking the language.
The main findings from the research, The Future of English, by language researcher David Graddol, were launched last week at the British Council Going Global Conference on International Education in Edinburgh.
The findings must come as good news for institutions which teach English as a foreign language, already a thriving industry in Malta.
Mr Graddol has developed a new computer model to estimate the demand for global English language teaching, and concludes that the world is about to be hit by a tidal wave of English.
"The fact that the world is learning English is not particularly good news for native speakers who cannot also speak another language. The world is rapidly becoming multilingual and English is only one of the languages people in other countries are learning. There is a rush towards Chinese in some parts of the world and Arabic and Spanish are both key languages of the future, said Mr Graddol.
French as an international language may be a major casualty in this wave of linguistic globalisation, while German is becoming more popular again as a foreign language in parts of Asia.
In 50 years, however, the boom will be over. By 2050, the number of English learners will be down from two billion to a mere 500 million as the English language teaching industry becomes a victim of its own success.
Children all over the world are already learning English as a basic skill at the same time as they learn to read and write and English is becoming the most favoured language for the delivery of university courses in many countries.
The British Council, which has a branch in Malta, is the United Kingdom's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Its purpose is to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries, and to increase appreciation of the UK's creative ideas and achievements. It operates independently from the UK government.