What Global Language?

English isn't managing to sweep all else before it - and if it ever does become the universal
language, many of those who speak it won't understand one another.

Paragraph 1 Is English becoming a global language? When asked this question, most people,
regardless of first language, would answer that of course it is.  Many point out that
wherever in the world you travel, you will find someone who speaks English, or use the
example of the Internet as evidence of the worldwide spread of English. There is some truth
in this; according to UNESCO (2014) 45% of all web pages are written in English. However, I
would argue that the idea of English as a global language doesn't mean what most people
think it does; the reality is far more complex than the expectation that at some point in the
future, everyone will speak English.

Paragraph 2 English has inarguably achieved some sort of global status. Whenever we turn
on the news to find out what's happening in East Asia, or the Balkans, or Africa, or South
America, or practically anyplace, local people are being interviewed and telling us about it in
English. This past April the journalist Ted Anthony, in one of two articles about global English
that he wrote for the Associated Press, observed, ‘When Pope John Paul II arrived in the
Middle East last month to retrace Christ's footsteps and addressed Christians, Muslims and
Jews, the pontiff spoke not Latin, not Arabic, not Hebrew, not his native Polish. He spoke in
English.’

Paragraph 3 Indeed, by now lists of facts about the amazing reach of our language may
have begun to sound awfully familiar. Have we heard these particular facts before, or only
others like them? English is the working language of the Asian trade group ASEAN. It is the
de facto working language of 98 percent of German research physicists and 83 percent of
German research chemists. It is the official language of the European Central Bank, even
though the bank is in Frankfurt and neither Britain nor any other predominantly English-
speaking country is a member of the European Monetary Union. It is the language in which
black parents in South Africa overwhelmingly wish their children to be educated. This little
list of facts comes from British sources: a report, and a follow-up newsletter that David
Graddol, a language researcher at The Open University, and his consulting firm, The English
Company U.K., wrote in 1997 and 1998 for the British Council, whose mission is to promote
British culture worldwide; and a book by David Crystal, who is a professor at the University
of Wales. The source of these facts should not be overlooked.

Paragraph 4 The truth is, however, that English is not sweeping all before it, not even in the
United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, ten years ago about one in seven
people in the country spoke a language other than English at home -- and since then the
proportion of immigrants in the population has grown and grown. Ever-increasing parts of
Florida, California, and the Southwest are heavily Spanish-speaking. Hispanic people make
up 30 percent of the population of New York City, and a television station there that is
affiliated with a Spanish-language network has been known to draw a larger daily audience
than at least one of the city's major English-language network affiliates. Even the remote
Sioux City, Iowa, now has a Spanish-language newspaper. According to the census, from
1980 to 1990 the number of Spanish-speakers in the United States grew by 50 percent.

Paragraph 5 Over the same decade the number of speakers of Chinese in the United States
grew by 98 percent. Today approximately 2.4 million Chinese-speakers live in America, and
more than four out of five of them prefer to speak Chinese at home. The rate of growth of
certain other languages in the United States has been higher still. From 1980 to 1990 the
number of speakers of Korean increased by 127 percent and speakers of Vietnamese by 150
percent. Small American towns from Huntsville, Alabama, to Meriden, Connecticut, to
Wausau, Wisconsin, to El Cenizo, Texas - all sites of linguistic controversy in recent years --
have been alarmed to find that many new arrivals do not speak English well and some may
not even see the point of going to the trouble of learning it.

Paragraph 6 How can all of this, simultaneously, be true? How can it be that English is
conquering the globe through technology, business and the media, if it can't even hold its
own in parts of our traditionally English-speaking country?

Paragraph 7 One explanation may come down to numbers. It is undeniable that English-
speakers now have lower birth rates, on average, than speakers of Hindi and Urdu and
Arabic and Spanish. And the countries where these other languages are spoken are,
generally, less well developed than native-English-speaking countries. In 1996, according to
United Nations statistics, 21 percent of males and 38 percent of females in ‘less developed
regions’ were illiterate in every language, as were 41 and 62 percent in the ‘least developed
countries.’ Nonetheless, the gains that everyone expects English to make must come
because it is adopted as a second language or a foreign language by most of the people who
speak it. According to ‘The Decline of the Native Speaker,’ a paper David Graddol published
last year in the AILA Review, the proportion of native English-speakers in the world
population can be expected to shrink over the century 1950-2050 from more than eight to
less than five percent.

Paragraph 8 It appears then that there are two trends in tandem; the English language is
spreading, but also changing.  As this happens, the globalization of English will never deliver
the tantalizing result we English speakers might hope for: that is, we monolingual English-
speakers are able to communicate fluently with everyone everywhere. If we want to
exchange anything beyond rudimentary messages with many of our future fellow English-
speakers, we may well need help from something other than English.

Paragraph 9 Much of what will happen to English we can only speculate about. But let's
pursue an idea that language researchers regard as fairly well grounded: native speakers of
English are already outnumbered by second-language and foreign-language speakers, and
will be more heavily outnumbered as time goes on.

Paragraph 10 One obvious implication is that some proportion of the people using English
for business or professional purposes around the world aren't and needn't be fluent in it.
Recently I talked with Michael Henry Heim, a professor of Slavic literatures at the University
of California at Los Angeles and a professional translator. By his count, he speaks ‘ten or so’
languages. He told me flatly, ‘English is much easier to learn poorly and to communicate in
poorly than any other language. I'm sure that if Hungary were the leader of the world,
Hungarian would not be the world language. To communicate on a day-to-day basis -- to
order a meal, to book a room -- there's no language as simple as English.’

Paragraph 11 We cannot predict the future, however. This century could see new political
alliances, a possible backlash against the values of powerful English-speaking nations, the
rise of regional trading blocs in such places as Asia, or world-changing technological
innovations arise out of nations where English is little spoken. These are all eventualities
that could transform the world language picture.

Source
Adapted from:
Wallraff, B. (2000) ‘What Global Language’ The Atlantic Magazine [Online] Available at:
www.theatlantic.com [Last Accessed 15.09.15]

Text 4 Questions

1. Which one of the following is true, according to the article subheading?

a) English is already a global language.

b) English speakers don’t understand each other.
c) English is not becoming a global language.
d) People don’t want English to become a global language.

2. In paragraph 1, what two examples do people reportedly give as evidence of the spread
of English?

a) ___________________________________________________________________
b) ____________________________________________________________________
3. Circle the correct word in bold and complete the sentence:

In paragraph 1, the author agrees / disagrees with the common view of English as a
global language because…
________________________________________________________

4. What two reasons are given for the language the Pope used on his visit to the Middle
East being significant?

a) _________________________________________________________________
b) _________________________________________________________________

5. Which one of the following is correct, according to the text?

a) English is used by all Asian traders.

b) English is used by some European scientists.
c) The UK is part of the European Monetary Union.
d) An education in English is undesirable in parts of Africa.

6. Paragraph 3 attributes the facts to three sources. Why is the authorship of these
sources significant?
____________________________________________________________________

7. Use no more than five words from the text in each gap to complete the paraphrase of
paragraph 4.

A surge in (a)_______________________ in the US in the last decade has resulted in a

rise in the number speakers of languages other than English. Whereas 10 years ago, it
was estimated that approximately 14% of the population spoke b)
_______________________ in the home, today c) __________________________
constitute 30% of the populous of New York City. The change in population
demographic has affected the media provision, with the creation of a non-English
(d)________________________ and newspapers.
8. Find the word or phrase in the indicated paragraphs which means the following:

population count (paragraph 4) a)

officially connected to an organisation (paragraph 4) b)

dispute or debate (paragraph 5) c)

alongside each other (paragraph 8) d)

simple / basic (paragraph 8) e)

guess (paragraph 9) f)

9. Paragraphs 4 and 5 contain a number of statistics. Complete the table below.

Statistic Relevance

30% a)

50% b)

2.4 million c)

150% d)

10. According to paragraph 5, what two factors have ‘alarmed’ the residents of small
American towns?

a) _____________________________________________________________
b) ____________________________________________________________

11. Which of the following is not stated in paragraph 7?

a) The birth rate of Hindi speakers is higher than of English speakers.

b) Arabic and Spanish speaking countries are often less developed than English-
speaking nations.
c) The literacy rates in English-speaking countries are high.
 d) 62% of females in the ‘least developed countries’ are unable to read or write.

12. Complete the gaps in the summary of paragraph 8 with words from the box. Some
words are not needed.

less unlikely likely native

non-native change more reduce

The number of (a) _____________________ speakers of English is causing the language to

(b) _______________________. Many people will use (c)____________________ complex
English. The dream of speaking fluent English with anyone, anywhere seems (d)
_____________________.

14.  Why does Heim state that Hungarian would not be a global language?

a) ________________________________________________________________
b) _________________________________________________________________

15. Which is the best summary of the concluding paragraph?

a) It is likely that new political unions will affect the global language.
b) The global language could be affected by a number of world changes.
c) The global language of the future is likely to be an Asian language.
d) We are unable to predict the future.