| 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 |
