Number of People Learning English to Double — English to Come Close to Universal Language

David Graddol with the UK’s British Council recently published a report on the status of English, reporting that the number of people worldwide learning English will double to almost two billion over the next decade as English becomes more pervasive throughout the world.

English is already the closest thing to a universal language, with an estimated 25 percent of the world’s population speaking English to some level of competence. And the number of people learning English is about to rise dramatically.

According to Graddol’s report, about 1 billion people today are learning English throughout the world, and that number will grow to 2 billion over the next decade. By 2020, half the world could speak English.

By the end of the century, English will likely vie with Chinese, Spanish and Arabic for dominance as a near-universal language.

Of course this could, ironically, leave native English speakers out in the cold since so few native English speakers learn other languages. In a press release announcing the release of his study, Graddol said,

The fact that the world is learning English is not particularly good news for native speakers who cannot also speak anther language. The world is rapidly becoming multi-lingual and English is only one of the languages people in other countries are learning.

The biggest loser in the linguistics war is apparently French, which is losing ground to English and German in areas that used to be heavily French-speaking.

Frankly, I’m waiting for the big Latin resurgence to sweep the world. Now there’s a language.

Sources:

English ‘world language’ forecast. The BBC, Sean Coughlan, December 9, 2004.

Two billion people to learn English. British Council, Press Release, December 9, 2004.

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