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The texts in this booklet can be used to help you answer your group essay question.

Essay Question
Why do so many people learn English and what are the effects of this trend?

Global English Texts
Source

Page

Colls, 2009 – The Death of language?

3

IBJ, 2014 – China Makes Unprecedented English
Language Push

5

British Council, 2013 – The English Effect

6

Mufwene 2010 – Globalization and the Spread of English

8

Pike, 2013 - 5 Reasons Why You Should Learn English

10

Shumann, E. (n.d.) – Effects of English Hegemony on
Education

12

Reference List & Further Reading

14

Page |2

Adapted from
Colls, T. (2009, October 19) The Death of Language? Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm The Death of Language?
An estimated 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world. However, that number is expected to shrink rapidly in the coming decades. What is lost when a language dies? In 1992 a prominent US linguist stunned the academic world by predicting that by the year 2100, 90% of the world 's languages would have ceased to exist.
Far from inspiring the world to act, the issue is still on the margins, according to prominent French linguist Claude Hagege. "Most people are not at all interested in the death of languages," he says. "If we are not cautious about the way English is progressing it may eventually kill most other languages." According to Ethnologue, a US organisation owned by SIL International that compiles a global database of languages, 473 languages are currently classified as endangered.
Among the ranks are the two known speakers of Lipan Apache alive in the US, four speakers of
Totoro in Colombia and the single Bikya speaker in Cameroon. "It is difficult to provide an accurate count," says Ethnologue editor Paul Lewis. "But we are at a tipping point. From


References: Blommaert, J. 2010. A Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: University Press. Crystal, D. 2000. Language Death. Cambridge: University Press. Crystal, D. 2004. The Language Revolution. Cambridge: Polity Press. Mufwene, S. S. 2008. Language Evolution: Contact, Competition and Change. London: Continuum Press. Pike, C. (2013, April 8). 5 Reasons Why You Should Learn English. Retrieved from http://www.bridgeenglish.com/5-reasons-why-you-should-learn-english/
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