Fewer English Speakers in the Future
While it seems as if more and more people, around the world, are now speaking English, a British language expert thinks that will change in the future. David Graddol says the number of people who speak English as a native language is falling, and the idea that English will become the world’s main language “is past its sell-by date.”
More and more people speak more than one language, even in the U.S., where people often have trouble learning a second language. But immigration is changing this. Last year the Census Bureau reported that almost one in five Americans speak another language than English at home. Spanish is the most common second language, followed by Chinese.
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