A recent position statement by the British Academy highlights the fact that Britain is becoming more and more mono-linguistic, and questions whether its lack of foreign language skills puts its competitiveness at risk both commercially and academically. But isn’t English the language of business, of technology, and the second language of most non-English speakers?
Perhaps, the paper argues, we should not rest so heavily on our laurels! It argues that 75% of the world’s population do not speak English and that within 20 years most pages on the internet will be in Chinese.
The proportion of internet usage conducted in English is already on the decline, falling from 51 to 29 per cent between 2000 and 2009.
Recently highlighted in the national press, and also pointed out in the position statement, there has been a staggering growth in research papers by Asian researchers, in particular the Chinese.
If China and India continue to rise as hot-beds for science and technology, and grow to become internationally renowned for their Universities and research, will English be usurped as the language of business and technology? Why not!?
Already the 2010 CBI Education and Skills Survey found that 71 per cent of employers are not satisfied with the foreign language skills of young people. Companies undertaking international business are already feeling the need for more language skills.
So how do we prepare ourselves for this possibility? The British Academy suggests re-establishing languages as core subjects within primary and secondary curriculum, but also that Universities in challenging times, need to continue to provide language provision.
They suggest all students should be encouraged to add an element of language acquisition into their qualifications, and ideally some time spent abroad. Perhaps the OU should insist that all science, technology, engineering, maths and business students should study at least one language module, perhaps Mandarin, or offer a new course in Hindi?
As an urgent precaution to bolster Britain’s research achievements, the report suggests the provision of intensive language courses for Masters and Doctoral students. This will foster stronger collaboration between British and the very best researchers from overseas.
But will learning Mandarin and Hindi, simply weaken the case for English to remain as the international language? Can Britain afford to take that risk? Or is the reality of the future that there will not be one international language?
Useful links:
- British Academy Position Paper - Language Matters More and More
- Beginner’s Chinese
- Beginner’s German
- Beginner’s Spanish
