6.2 A GLOBAL LANGUAGE? LEARN TO DESCRIBE TRENDS

Look at the graph. What does it tell you about which languages will be important in the future?

The graph shows that Chinese, Arabic and Russian in particular, are likely to be more important in the future as their rate as growth is very high.

Can you make any predictions based on the evidence provided?

Possible predictions are: in the future, perhaps English will not be the most dominant language. Chinese, Arabic, Russian and Spanish may become more important than English.

Read the first part of a report about languages on the internet.

Answer the questions.

Which languages does the writer think may become the dominant internet language of the future? Why?

Chinese, because there is a huge increase in demand as the number of Chinese internet users increase.

Which other languages do you think are important to mention in the report? Why?

Arabic, Russian and perhaps Portuguese are also important to mention because of their huge growth rates.

Read the guidelines for writing a formal report. Which guidelines 1-6 are followed in the report in Exercises 9 B?

Points 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 are all exemplified.

What would you expect to find in the remaining part of the report?

You would expect to find point 4 in the remaining part.

Look at sentences 1-6.

Which alternatives is not possible according to the graph in Exercise 9 A? Cross out the incorrect alternative.

The importance of Chinese as a global language has increased dramatically/risen sharply/dropped alarmingly.

The importance of Chinese as a global language has increased dramatically/risen sharply.

There has been a surge/a drop/an increase in the use of Chinese on the internet.

There has been a surge/an increase in the use of Chinese on the internet.

Numbers of people using Arabic on the internet have plummeted/soared/grown in recent years.

Numbers of people using Arabic on the internet have soared/grown in recent years.

There has been a relative surge/decline/drop in the percentage of people using English online,

There has been a relative decline/drop in the percentage of people using English online,

as numbers of people using languages such as Chinese, Russian and Arabic have declined/increased/grown.

as numbers of people using languages such as Chinese, Russian and Arabic have increased/grown.

Numbers of Chinese speakers with access to the internet have rocketed/exploded/collapsed.

Numbers of Chinese speakers with access to the internet have rocketed/exploded.

There has been a steady/sharp/gradual increase in the use of Spanish online.

There has been a steady/gradual increase in the use of Spanish online.

Use the prompts to write sentences describing trends in education.

Use the present perfect tense.

explosion / demand for / mobile technology / language learning

There has been an explosion in (the) demand for mobile technology in language learning.

number / people / communicating regularly / social networks / increase / dramatically

The number of people communicating regularly using social networks has increased dramatically.

number / students / attend / private language schools / study English /plummet

The number of students attending private language schools to study English has plummeted.

sharp increase / ability / learners /access / learning materials / internet

There has been a sharp increase in the ability of learners to access learning materials on the internet.

gradual decline / appeal / traditional teaching methods

There has been a gradual decline in the appeal of traditional teaching methods.