Has English become the global language of communication and education? The question might seem obvious, but the answer is not so simple. Yes, English is the international language of commerce and science. And its utility has spread because up to now it has also been the prime moving language of the Internet. But this is beginning to change, and very fast.
【A1】 ________ Languages like German, Russian and Spanish are spreading at exponential speed on the Web, Mr. Montviloff said.
Because the Internet makes it possible, other languages are also starting to challenge the hegemony of English in distance education. The Internet is helping to revive minority languages and cultures by bringing together widely scattered linguistic communities.
【A2】________ .
Global Reach Inc., a market research company, estimates that English is now the mother tongue of less than half of all Internet users, and the proportion is falling all the time.
David Graddol, a language researcher and lecturer at the Open University in Britain, said that, on the one hand, English is becoming a language of everyday usage in some countries in Northern Europe. 【A3】________ . “In other countries, however, English is more truly a foreign language,” said Mr. Graddol, “In some countries, like China, there is not very much English in the environment and people may be learning it from teachers who may not speak English very well themselves.”
In a third group of countries, like India and Nigeria where English has been used a long time, distinct local varieties of the language are emerging, complete with their own dictionaries, textbooks, and literature. This means that different centers of authority are starting to emerge. 【A4】________ .
“Thus, the very reason for the rise of English—its guarantee of mutual intelligibility among people of different cultures—could dissolve if the language continues to fragment into a variety of ‘Englishes’”.
Bertrand Menciassi, of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages in Europe, said the use of a world language both helps and hinders linguistic diversity. People can use English for their outside contacts, while cultivating their own tongue or dialect for use at home. On the other hand, he added, English is tending to push European national languages like Dutch or Danish into a corner.
【A5】________ The Commission argues that the ability to speak two or three tongues will give the Europeans economic and technical advantages over their monolingual American rivals in world of diversity, and is about to kick off “The European Year of Languages” in an attempt to promote multilingualism.
A. “Something like 70 percent of the Dutch population claim now that they can hold a conversation in English quite comfortably. In countries like the Netherlands, Sweden or Denmark you need English to complete your education,” said Mr. Graddol.
B. In England, people like Spencer and Shakespeare went on an inventive spree of creating new words and usages and made the language suitable for literature.
C. “We are observing that more and more other languages are taking over the Internet,” said Victor Montviloff, who is responsible for information policy in the communication and information sector at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization here.
D. English, like Latin before it, has become a language that is no longer the property of its native speakers, and like Latin, it too may give way to variety of vernacular tongues.
E. Researches note a sudden surge of interest in endangered languages, such as those spoken by indigenous groups in North America.
F. That could be extremely dangerous, because the university is the brain of the country and this proposal raised the question whether Dutch continues to be an all-purpose language.
G. Maintaining linguistic diversity is an important aim of the European Commission, which is concerned that the increasing acceptance of English as the European lingua franca should not detract from the vitality of other languages.