填空题 The image of the Briton abroad, speaking English slowly and loudly in the expectation that eventually the natives will get the idea, is a stereotype with a good deal of truth behind it. According to a survey by the European Commission last year, just 30% of Britons can converse in a language other than their own (only Hungarians did worse). Bad as these figures are, they are flattered by the one in ten residents of Britain who speak a language other than English at home.
The next generation is unlikely to do even this well. (1) . Around four in five of all English state schools allow their students to abandon languages at 14 and some private schools are starting to follow suit. In 2006 only half of all students took a foreign-language GCSE exam——the standard test for 16-year-olds.
(2) .
Whatever the recommendations, the place of languages in the secondary-school curriculum may no longer be the government's to decide. Young people hoping to do a degree at a prestigious university may find themselves having to study a foreign language until at least the age of 16.
(3) .
Other universities are also concerned. On December 3rd a letter calling for the government to restore the compulsory status of language teaching after 14 was published in The Observer, a Sunday newspaper. The 50 signers of the letter represented many of the country's top universities, some of which may follow UCL's lead, if they don't like what Lord Dearing has to say.
(4) . And this year English was added to the curriculum studied by Mexican primary-school children, who are learning the language along with 200,000 teachers. According to David Graddol of the British Council, a cultural organization, "within a decade nearly a third of the world's population will all be trying to learn English at the same time."
(5) . Competent bilinguals? Many of whom have traveled in the course of acquiring English, can offer everything that native speakers of English (and just English) can as well as an extra language and an international perspective.
Even Britons, however, are willing to learn a language if they can see the benefit of doing so. Nic Byrne, who runs the language Centre at the London School of Economics, surveyed university language centers around Britain. He discovered that tens of thousands of students are studying a language in their own time, or as a small part of their degree. Many are hoping to spend a year studying abroad, and recognize that a language and a life-changing experience will get them better jobs.
A. Enthusiasm for English is spreading all over the world. More than a fifth of Japanese five-year-olds now attend classes in English conversation. Countries like Chile and Mongolia have declared their intention to become bilingual in English over the next decade or two.
B. More subtly, as British native English speakers are increasingly outnumbered by people who speak English as a second language, the future of their own language is passing from their hands.
C. At first sight this means that things are about to get even more comfortable for native English speakers; they needn't lift a finger to learn other people's subjunctives. But the problem is that they will lose the competitive advantage that once came with being among the relatively few to speak the world's most useful language.
D. Fewer young people are studying languages in school, a trend that has accelerated since 2004, when the government allowed English schools to make foreign languages optional for students aged 14 and over. Even those who are keen on languages often drop them at this stage now, as schools offer a narrower choice of languages and schedule them against other subjects.
E. Native English speakers often complain that they would study a foreign language, if only they, like the rest of the world, knew which to choose. But the freedom to choose a second tongue is really more a blessing than a curse.
F. Worried by the rush to the exit, in October the education secretary, Alan Johnson, asked Lord (Ron) Dearing, a former boss of the Post Office, to look at the state of language teaching in English schools.
G. On December 12th the committee on admissions policy at University College London (UCL) voted to phase in a requirement for all applicants to have a GCSE or equivalent in a modern foreign language. Michael Worton, the committee's chairman, says the idea is to persuade young people—and schools— that studying a language is necessary and worthwhile.