English Language Case Study

Investigate the causes of a possible decline in popularity of English on the world stage

English is known as a World Language with 359 million people speaking it as a first language (L1) and anything from 470 million to 1 billion as a second language (L2), the number varies depending on how literacy and mastery is defined and measured (Exploredia, 2011). The English language is not so much known as a global language due to its qualities or even its structure, but more to do with the politics of the world. The British Empire had expanded to almost a quarter of the world’s surface by the early twentieth century, resulting in the English language reaching all corners of the globe (A World of Languages, 2014). English may have been the dominant

A reason for the decline in the English language and rise in Mandarin is due to global business, one of the key players is now China, with countries such as Brazil, Singapore, Germany, France, Korea and Canada all doing business in Chinas national currency renminbi, not the US dollar, this means there is less of a need to use the English language (BBC, 2012). However, many business’ in China still look for managers that can speak both Mandarin and English, this shows that even though Mandarin is growing in importance in the business world English is still sort

This leads to a domino affect across the globe with other countries wanting to keep up with the largest economy in the world – America.

English is still a dominant language, with millions of people learning it as an L2 language, through TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language), University and other outlooks. However, there has been a decline in English as an L1 language, in 1950 nearly 9 per cent of the world spoke English as an L1 language, and it is estimated that by 2050, less than 5 per cent will speak it as an L1 language, this supports the decline in English globally. By 2050 it is thought that English, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic will be equally ranked as languages (English in Decline as First Language,