Last week, I read a recent column on English Today titled "Will Chinese take over from English as the world's most important language?" (Vol. 26, 2010, pp. 3-4.). Questions of this kind, like "Will China take over the role of the US to become the world's sole superpower?", tend more often to draw anxiety and resistance than discussion and negotiation. The author, David Graddol, gives a fresh discussion saying that the next future of English probably is a language of different regional patterns of English-knowing bilingualism, and no single language taking over the role of English as a global lingua franca.
Graddol, coincidentally, is visiting my university in the Department of English. Not long ago in early November, he gave a public lecture titled "The Future of English in Hong Kong", in which he discussed the strategic importance of English to Hong Kong’s future economy. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the lecture, which I think should be of great interest to us all in Hong Kong.
He aroused my interest to read further on this topic and I just scanned his English Next (London: British Council, 2006) at the time when I am writing this post and shall now turn to his latest English Next India: The future of English in India (London: British Council, 2010).
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