The launch of The Future of English: Global Perspectives last year was accompanied by an interactive travelling exhibition. The aim of the exhibition was to share key findings from the book and provide an opportunity to hear perspectives from key stakeholders in language learning and assessment from around the world. You can learn more about the exhibition here.
The exhibition has now been to Brazil, Viet Nam, Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa and the UK. In each location we asked visitors to complete a short online survey to answer some of the key questions related to the future of English. We’ve gathered responses from nearly 1,800 people from 92 countries. So, what have they said about the future of English so far?
While there are more people in the world that speak other languages such as Mandarin, English is the language with the widest spread of speakers both geographically and as an additional language. It’s the language most commonly used in international business and trade, it’s the most used language in relation to technology, and it’s the most common language used across social media.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, our results show that 60% of respondents believe English will definitely remain the most widely spoken language. A further 33% answered ‘Probably’. Only 3% said ‘No’, English would not remain the most widely spoken language, and 4% were ‘Not sure’. It’s evident from this data that the majority of people surveyed believe English will continue to be one of the most widely spoken languages, and conversations with participants highlighted the influence of factors such as social media and AI.
When the data is broken down geographically, the UK is the only region where the highest proportion of respondents answered with ‘Probably’ (56%) rather than ‘Definitely’ (34%). The majority of participants from all other regions responded ‘Definitely’. This could indicate that those in primarily English-speaking countries do not feel English is as dominant.
We wanted to know what people thought about the implications of only speaking one language, particularly English. While many countries globally have multiple official languages, countries such as the UK only use and recognise English as their official language. But could this be a disadvantage in future as the world becomes increasingly connected and multilingual?
Participants had a range of reactions to this question at the exhibition. Some immediately turned to us and said ‘Yes!’, others took a bit more time to consider their answer or debated with colleagues and friends. Overall, the majority of respondents said nations that only speak English will not be disadvantaged (35%). However, this is closely followed by 31% of respondents who answered ‘Probably’ and a further 19% who answered ‘Definitely’. 14% were ‘Not sure’. It’s worth noting this split in the responses. Whilst the biggest single answer is ‘No’, the number of responses for ‘Probably’ and ‘Definitely’ combined amount to 50% of the overall responses. Therefore, more respondents think it is likely to cause disadvantage.
Regionally, the results were mixed. The majority of respondents in Europe (50%), Asia (35%) and South America (39%) believe nations that only speak English probably will be disadvantaged in future, while most participants in Africa (40%) and North America (42%) disagree, answering ‘No’.
When looking at the data by job role, we’ve found that the majority of business leaders (46%) and government officials (38%) answered ‘Probably’, while 40% of teachers answered ‘No’.
As one of the key themes in The Future of English: Global Perspectives and with the ever-growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI), we wanted to understand the impact people felt this could have on English language teaching. There was a lot of debate surrounding this question, which we encouraged through the exhibition itself, giving people the option to add their vote to our question panel.
Most participants answered 'No' (46%), followed by 34% answering ‘Yes, partially’. Only 6% believe AI will fully replace English language teachers and 14% were ‘Not sure’.
Looking specifically at the data submitted by teachers, a large majority of them (51%) answered ‘No’. In discussions at the exhibition, many of them jokingly answered ‘I hope not!’ while others argued for the importance of human connection for successful learning. Some teachers (26%) answered ‘Yes, partially’ and some were ‘Not sure’ (16%). Few believe AI will fully replace English language teachers (7%).
Our final question was aimed at understanding what learners are being taught and whether this is useful. Of course, there is an element of debate about what the ‘right’ things might be. This question is not necessarily about the quality of the English language teaching, but how it will be used in future, particularly for work.
Our results show that most people feel learners are partially being taught the right things for their future (44%). Quite a high number answered ‘Yes, fully’ (29%), while only a few answered ‘No’ (15%) and ‘Not sure’ (11%).
The majority of participants from most regions believe learners are partially being taught the right things for their future. However, results from North America were closer, with 39% answering ‘Yes, fully’ and 37% answering ‘Yes, partially’.
These results show a level of positivity about the things being taught to English language learners. While some believe there’s room for improvement, there’s an overall feeling of satisfaction with the content and ways in which learners are being taught globally.
We will continue to ask questions as we engage with stakeholders globally and publish research across the key themes of the Future of English programme. There are several research initiatives already underway as we continue exploring the future of the English language. Four research projects are being conducted by UK universities that were awarded Future of English Research Grants in 2023. Be the first to hear about the findings of these and other projects within the Future of English research programme by subscribing to our Future of English blog.
What do you think the future of the English language will be? Take the Future of English survey to join the conversation and have your say.