Friday December 10, 2004
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Is English the world’s Lingua Franca? A report from the British Council announced yesterday estimated that by 2015 two billion people will start learning English around the world, and three billion people – half the planet – will be speaking it. However, report editor, David Graddoll, said that English will not become the Esperanto and dominate global language learning as Arabic, Chinese and Spanish are set to rise in importance. He said the trend is towards “linguistic globalization” and multi-lingualism, not bilingualism, and definitely not monolingualism. French, on the other hand, once considered a lingua franca, will see its status as a world language continue to slide.

Although English will escalate in popularity, English language teachers will likely be out of a job by 2050, when so many people will be able to speak English, that teaching it will become almost redundant. Demand for English teaching will drop by a whopping 75%, from two billion to 500 million. Instead English will be taught worldwide at elementary level, and many universities across the world will choose to teach in English. This suggests a wake-up call for traditionally lazy and monolingual Britons, who tend to shun language learning because of their “everyone speaks English” mentality. Brits will be left behind in a future poly-lingual world.

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about English, lingua franca & world language, Esperanto, being bilingual / multilingual, British people and English / dying languages …
To make things more fun, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. MY ENGLISH: Students recount their histories of learning English, from what age, teachers, books, media, feelings etc.

3. ADJECTIVE BRAINSTORM: Ask students for adjectives describing their opinion / feelings regarding the English language. In pairs students talk about the adjectives.

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
(a)  English is the lingua franca. vs. It depends on where you are in the world.
(b)  English will be the most important language in the world. vs Chinese will be.
(c)  Half of elementary school education should be in English. vs. The child’s native language is more important.
(d)  English should be recognized as a national language in many countries. vs. A national language needs strong and long cultural roots.
(e)  English should be recognized as the official world language. vs. But in the future other languages will overtake English.
(f)  The world should learn either British or American English. vs. The world should learn international English.

5. MY LANGUAGE: Students tell each other about their language and their feelings for it.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the word ‘English’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  By 2015, half the planet will be able to speak English.  T / F
(b)  English will become the world’s Esperanto. T / F
(c)  Arabic, Chinese and Spanish are set to lessen in importance.  T / F
(d)  There is a trend towards bilingualism  T / F
(e)  There will be no need for English teachers in the future. T / F
(f)  In the future many of the world’s universities will teach in English.  T / F
(g)  British people are active language learners and keen linguists. T / F
(h)  British people will be left behind in a future poly-lingual world T / F

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	a report	behind
(b)	estimated that	job
(c)	half the	estimated that
(d)	set to	planet
(e)	rise	rise
(f)	the trend	level
(g)	out of a	in importance
(h)	demand	call
(i)	elementary	towards …
(j)	wake up	by 2015 …
(k)	be left	will drop

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

English – Official Lingua Franca?

Is English the world’s Lingua Franca? A report from the British Council __________ yesterday estimated that by 2015 two billion people will start learning English around the world, and three billion people – __________  the planet – will be speaking it. However, report editor, David Graddoll, said that English will not become the Esperanto and __________  global language learning as Arabic, Chinese and Spanish are set to rise in importance. He said the __________  is towards “linguistic globalization” and multi-lingualism, not bilingualism, and definitely not monolingualism. French, on the other hand, once considered a lingua franca, will see its status as a world language continue to __________ .		dominate trend announced slide half
Although English will escalate in __________ , English language teachers will likely be out of a __________  by 2050, when so many people will be able to speak English, that teaching it will become almost __________ . Demand for English teaching will drop by a whopping 75%, from two billion to 500 million. Instead English will be taught worldwide at elementary level, and many universities across the world will choose to teach in English. This suggests a wake-up call for traditionally __________ and monolingual Britons, who __________  to shun language learning because of their “everyone speaks English” mentality. Brits will be left behind in a future poly-lingual world.		popularity tend redundant lazy job

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the word match exercise.

4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

5. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

6. ‘INTERESTING’:  Students underline anything they thought was interesting

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article / English as a lingua franca. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘INTERESTING’:  Students talk about the things they underlined as interesting.

6. DISCUSSION: Students ask each other the following questions:
(a)  Are you happy about English being a lingua franca?
(b)  Are you happy with your level of English?
(c)  Are you happy about the number of English words in your own language?
(d)  Shouldn’t we all learn a neutral language, like Esperanto?
(e)  Should English be made the official world language by the United Nations?
(f)  Should English replace French at the Olympics?
(g)  Would you like to learn Arabic, Chinese or Spanish?
(h)  If you were to become poly-lingual, which other languages would you like to learn?
(i)  Is the spread of English a positive or a dangerous thing?
(j)  Should subjects be taught in English in elementary schools (in addition to the native language)?
(k)  What do you think of lazy British (and American, Australian…) people who don’t bother learning other languages?
(l)  All in all, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, in a nutshell, what does English mean to you?

7. MONO-BI-TRI-POLY-MULTI: Students check their dictionaries for more words using these prefixes. Ask each other questions using them.

8. ‘ENGLISH’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Homo floresiensis. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. MY LANGUAGE: Make a poster selling why your language should be elevated in status.

4. MY ENGLISH: Find as many words as you can from your own language that are now widely used in English.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:
(a)  By 2015, half the planet will be able to speak English.  T
(b)  English will become the world’s Esperanto.  F
(c)  Arabic, Chinese and Spanish are set to lessen in importance.  F
(d)  There is a trend towards bilingualism  F
(e)  There will be no need for English teachers in the future. F
(f)  In the future many of the world’s universities will teach in English.  T
(g)  British people are active language learners and keen linguists. F
(h)  British people will be left behind in a future poly-lingual world T

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	a report	estimated that
(b)	estimated that	by 2015 …
(c)	half the	planet
(d)	set to	rise
(e)	rise	in importance
(f)	the trend	towards …
(g)	out of a	job
(h)	demand	will drop
(i)	elementary	level
(j)	wake up	call
(k)	be left	behind