Spread of English threatens UK

[fluffyhamster]

Study says global spread of English threatens UK

By Chris Johnson

LONDON (Reuters) - The dominance of English as the world's top language -- until recently an advantage to both Britain and the United States -- is now beginning to undermine the competitiveness of both nations, according to a major research report.

The report commissioned by the British Council says monolingual English graduates "face a bleak economic future" as multilingual competitors flood into the workforce from all corners of the globe.

A massive increase in the number of people learning English is under way and likely to peak at around 2 billion in the next decade, according to the report entitled "English Next".

More than half of all primary school children in China now learn English and the number of English speakers in India and China -- 500 million -- now exceeds the total number of mother-tongue English speakers elsewhere in the world.

These new polyglots, and the companies that employ them, have significant competitive advantages over their monoglot rivals, including a vital understanding of different cultures, in a world faced with rapid globalisation.

"The competitive advantage of speaking English is ebbing away," said the author of the report, linguistic consultant David Graddol. "Once everyone speaks English, advantage can only be maintained by having something else -- other skills, such as speaking several languages.

"At a corporate level, the UK and U.S. economies have been enjoying a huge benefit from having so many English speakers elsewhere in the world," he told Reuters on Tuesday.

"They can outsource overseas to India, for example, allowing them to cut costs and boost growth."

But Graddol said there were mounting disadvantages for U.S. and British companies if they stayed monolingual.

Companies from other countries could use exactly the same methods to cut costs. And those foreign competitors could also trade and take orders in other languages.

FOREIGN CALLS

"We know from trade associations that small and medium-sized British firms are losing a lot of business because they can't even answer calls from abroad on the switchboard," he said.

"Calls don't get to the right people because the telephone operators don't have the languages needed."

Around 30 percent of the British population speaks a language other than English, but about half of these people have that other language as a mother tongue, Graddol said.

In the United States, 22 percent of the population speaks a language other than English, mainly Spanish, and many of these people have Spanish as their first language, figures from the U.S. Modern Language Association show.

British higher education may already be suffering from being monolingual, Graddol suggests.

The number of foreign, particularly Chinese, students entering UK universities was falling as colleges in other parts of the world offered courses in English at lower cost, he said.

English-language teaching now earns Britain up to 1.3 billion pounds directly and other education-related exports bring in a further 10 billion pounds a year, the report said.

(from msn.co.uk)

[joshua2004]

That is an interesting article, thanks for posting it.

I suppose the next logical question is "how does this affect us?"

Greater teaching of English and other languages provides job security. Perhaps it means better pay since companies in countries other than the US, Canada, and UK will be growing; thereby providing more revenue to spend on language lessons. Sounds ok to me.

[lolwhites]

It may well be the case that as English becomes more internationalised and divorced from its countries of origin, the need for native speaker teachers may well wane. More and more business in conducted in English between non-native speakers so why pay top dollar to learn US or British English when a local can teach enough language to do the job at half the price?

As far as monoglot Brits goes, the UK Government has only helped make the situation worse by making languages optional in schools after age 14 (so all but the least lazy teenagers drop them) and cutting subsidies to all but the most basic adult education, making it more expensive for those who want to learn languages later in life. University and college language departments are struggling to survive and heaven only knows where the next generation of teachers is going to come from.

[tigertiger]

That is an interesting article, thanks for posting it.

I suppose the next logical question is "how does this affect us?"

I recently read something on 'World Englishes' by Kachru and Nelson
For ESL (not EFL) the need for native spaekers will become less.
A second language speaker is argued to make a better second language teacher. First they know the issues, of learning. Second the usage may be diffrent (e.g. Nigerian English). Third, when English is a second language there are other cultural issues (culture as identity) that the outsider cannot understand. So the 'native speaker' (US/UK/Oz, etc) is not best equiped tomeet the needs of students.

As countries move from having English to FL to ESL they love for expats will also diminish.

[tigertiger]

That is an interesting article, thanks for posting it.

I suppose the next logical question is "how does this affect us?"

.

I recently read something on 'World Englishes' by Kachru and Nelson
For ESL (not EFL) the need for native spaekers will become less.
A second language speaker is argued to make a better second language teacher. First they know the issues, of learning. Second the usage may be diffrent (e.g. Nigerian English). Third, when English is a second language there are other cultural issues (culture as identity) that the outsider cannot understand. So the 'native speaker' (US/UK/Oz, etc) is not best equiped tomeet the needs of students.

As countries move from having English to FL to ESL they love for expats will also diminish.

[tigertiger]

That is an interesting article, thanks for posting it.

.

This is the second time I have looked at this subject in a coupe of weeks. It is an important issue.
This monolingualism will be a limiting factor for many of the 'Old world English' countries.

[joshua2004]

I tend to agree that a second language learner can be a better teacher than a monolingual one, just as I believe students can learn a lot from each other. I also agree it is important to understand the culture where one is teaching especially for classroom management issues.

[womblingfree]

The report commissioned by the British Council says monolingual English graduates "face a bleak economic future" as multilingual competitors flood into the workforce from all corners of the globe.

Well then the only thing is for the lazy Americans and English to start learning other languages too.

Not being able to rely on your own language because of the complacency that everyone around the world should be speaking it has caused English speaking countries to become remedial in terms of multi-lingual ability.

Monolingual language teachers?

EDIT: Actually fluffy do you have the exact reference for that article or the British Council report?