Pre-listening - possible research questions based on the title of the talk:
Will English continue to be the international language in the future?
What language/s might replace English as a world language?
Summary
- The speaker (David Crystal) argues that people only learn languages to improve their work prospects, so in the future nobody knows whether we may all be learning Chinese. Spanish or Arabic - it depends which countries become more influential and prosperous.
- English around the world is spoken by non-native speakers. There are around 400 million English speakers in India alone. The brand of English spoken there may be different, but it is valid in its own context and may influence the language spoken in the future, just as American has influenced British English.
- It is not possible to predict whether English will continue to be the world language. Nobody could have predicted a thousand years ago that Latin would no longer be around, so we cannot assume that the same will not happen to English
Further research questions:
What obstacles do people face to learning English in different parts of the world?
Can technology help to break down barriers to language learning?
