The future of English

Question 1

what could happen to english’s status?

Answer 1

English could lose its status as the most prestigious language

Question 2

what could happen to different types of English?

Answer 2

varieties of English could merge into one

Question 3

what could happen to minority languages?

Answer 3

English will continue to wipe out minority langauges

Question 4

what could happen to englishes place?

Answer 4

English could lose its place as the world’s primary lingua franca to another language like Mandarin.

Question 5

what are the key factors influencing the development of World English?

Answer 5

Movement of people/immigation
Develop of internet (in English, in Mandarin?)
Economics – growth of China and therefore growth of Mardarin – a rival to English as a world lingua franca?
Negative attitudes to Britain and America (think Trump) – English not universally
46

popular, arrogant/colonial….
Technology – continued media exposure to English (TV/film…)
English easier to learn than some other languages? (Mardarin?)
Non-native speakers’ nationalism – desire to preserve local identities – English is negatively seen as a killer language that eats up smaller ones.

Question 6

Is control of English shifting away from British and American native speakers? What does David Crystal think?

Answer 6

Yes, it is. He suggests there are 400 million native English speakers around world, but 1.5 billion 2nd/foreign speakers (so 1:3 ratio) – power is statistically with non-native speakers. Change in language is driven by accommodation – so the weight of influence is with non-native – non-native forms will ‘infiltrate’ native – eg non-countable nouns taking plurals (‘furnitures’, ‘informations’, ‘researchs’) – interestingly these may have in the past been native speaker versions, but not currently. Internet will drive such changes – interaction is often anonymous, so English becomes this big mix where we lose track of what is native/non-native anyway.