Text for reading English -Official lingua franca?

1. GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

English - Official Lingua Franca?

Is English the world's Lingua Franca? A report from the British Council __________ yesterday estimated that by 2015 two billion people will start learning English around the world, and three billion people - __________ the planet - will be speaking it. However, report editor, David Graddoll, said that English will not become the Esperanto and __________ global language learning as Arabic, Chinese and Spanish are set to rise in importance. He said the __________ is towards "linguistic globalization" and multi-lingualism, not bilingualism, and definitely not monolingualism. French, on the other hand, once considered a lingua franca, will see its status as a world language continue to __________ .

Dominate trend announced slide half

Although English will escalate in __________ , English language teachers will likely be out of a __________ by 2050, when so many people will be able to speak English, that teaching it will become almost __________ . Demand for English teaching will drop by a whopping 75%, from two billion to 500 million. Instead English will be taught worldwide at elementary level, and many universities across the world will choose to teach in English. This suggests a wake-up call for traditionally __________ and monolingual Britons, who __________ to shun language learning because of their "everyone speaks English" mentality. Brits will be left behind in a future poly-lingual world.

Popularity tend redundant lazy job

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students mark the following statements as true or false:
(a) By 2015, half the planet will be able to speak English. T / F
(b) English will become the world's Esperanto. T/F
(c) Arabic, Chinese and Spanish are set to lessen in importance. T / F
(d) There is a trend towards bilingualism T / F
(e) There will be no need for English teachers in the future. T / F
(f) In the future many of the world's universities will teach in English. T / F
(g) British people are active language learners and keen linguists. T / F
(h) British people will be left behind in a future poly-lingual world T / F

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)

a report

Behind

(b)

estimated that

Job

(c)

half the

estimated that

(d)

set to

Planet

(e)

Rise

Rise

(f)

the trend

Level

(g)

out of a

in importance

(h)

Demand

Call

(i)

Elementary

towards …

(j)

wake up

by 2015 …

(k)

be left

will drop