EU residents are becoming increasingly better at languages.

 Residents of the European Union (EU) are becoming increasingly better at languages. Almost 50 percent of the EU population reckon they can speak at least one foreign language very well, with that figure rising to nearly 80 percent for students. To celebrate its linguistic diversity and bilingual, trilingual or multilingual capabilities, a special day is set aside in the EU. September 26 is the European Day of Languages. The day’s website cites a Slovak proverb that says: “The number of languages you speak is the number of times you are human”. This aims to encourage all Europeans to brush up on and advance their language skills. The website predicts that Europe’s young generation “will fully contribute to enriching Europe’s multilingual society”.

The results of the “Eurobarometer” survey put Luxembourgers at the top of the language ability list. A staggering 99 percent of the Luxembourgish population is at least bilingual. Those with the poorest language skills are the Hungarians (29 percent) and British (30 percent). The survey also shows that English is the most widely spoken foreign language, used by more than a third of the population. It is followed by German (12 percent), which has for the first time usurped French (11 percent) for the second spot. European enlargement to incorporate former communist countries has elevated Russian to fourth place – tied with Spanish. The EU spends $36 million a year on language programs.

1. MULTILINGUAL: Talk with your partner(s) about which of the following languages you would really like to learn / know and why? Would you like to be fluent, have a working knowledge or know enough to survive? Would you also like to be able to read and write in these languages?

  • German
  • French
  • Russian
  • Arabic
  • Japanese
  • Chinese
.

4. ENGLISH: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the English language. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. WEAK POINTS: In pairs / groups, talk about your weak points in English. How do these weak points make you feel? What have you done to make these points less weak? How long have you focused on improving the weak points? Do they affect your ability to communicate, listen or read?

6. LANGUAGE OPINIONS: How far do you agree with these opinions on language? Talk about them with your partner(s).

  1. The number of languages you speak is the number of times you are human.
  2. If the whole world learned English, there’d be fewer communication problems.
  3. To be successful in the world, it’s now better to learn Chinese.
  4. English should become the official world language.
  5. The English language is a form of imperialism. It erodes other cultures.
  6. It’s a sin for any nation not to make its citizens at least bilingual.
  7. There should be just one world language in the future.
  8. My mother tongue is too beautiful to die.
SYNONYM MATCH:


a.

reckon

reveals

b.

set aside

improving

c.

cites

overtaken

d.

brush up

allocated

e.

enriching

whopping

f.

staggering

forks out

g.

shows

improve

h.

usurped

bumped up

i.

elevated

quotes

j.

spends

figure


DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS 

  1. What were your initial thoughts on this headline?
  2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
  3. Do you like reading articles about language?
  4. How would you describe your linguistic abilities?
  5. What other languages would you like to learn?
  6. Do you agree with the Slovak proverb that says: “The number of languages you speak is the number of times you are human”?
  7. What are your feelings toward your own language?
  8. What are your feelings toward English?
  9. How necessary is English for you?
  10. What do you like most about English?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS  

  1. Did you like reading this article?
  2. What do you think about what you read?
  3. Are you surprised at anything you read in the article?
  4. Do you think British people are disadvantaged by not being bilingual?
  5. How did English come to be the most widely spoken foreign language in Europe?
  6. Do you think Chinese will one day become the world’s most important foreign language to study?
  7. Do you think everyone in the world should study English?
  8. What other world languages are important and why?
  9. Do you think the world should learn your language?
  10. Did you like this discussion?


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