Chapter 1 Questions for Review

Why is English so widely used as a second language?

English acts a neutral language in many different countries and helps to erase any ethnic jealousies that may arise. Several textbooks are available in English and not in a country's native language.

About how many people speak English as a native language?

English is spoken by more than 380 million people worldwide.

Which language of the world has the largest number of speakers?

Chinese is the language with the most speakers, with 1.3 billion speaking it within it's own country

For a speaker of another language learning English, what are three assets of the language?

English's cosmopolitan vocabulary, inflectional simplicity, and natural gender are the three main assets of the language. Cosmopolitan vocabulary refers to the large size of the English vocabulary. It has a similar structure to German, Dutch, Flemish, and Danish, which all have derivatives from Latin. English borrows vocabulary from other languages. Inflectional simplicity refers to how English does not change greatly when a word is plural. Most things can be made plural by adding an "s" or "es". Natural gender is similar as it means English does not change the word when it is masculine or feminine, like in Spanish.

What are the official languages of the United Nations?

English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic are the official languages of the United Nations.

Which languages are likely to grow most rapidly in the foreseeable future? Why?

German will grow because in Eastern Europe it is a language of commerce. The population of Latin America is growing which will cause Spanish and Portuguese to grow. English will grow because of it's use as a second language. Pidgin and creole varieties will grow as well.

Upon what does the importance of a language depend?

Language is not something that acquires importance, it instead already has value in it's nation. However, the language of a powerful country may become more important in a country when it reflects their strength in the military, economy, and politics.

What difficulties does the non-native speaker of English encounter?

Something that would make it hard for a non-native speaker to learn English would be the inflectional simplicity. Idioms are also used in the English language, which are phrases with a meaning not specifically stated. There is also an issue with spelling and pronunciation. How something is written in English is not always consistent with how it is said. For example, "shoe" and "sugar" are both pronounced with a "sh" but are spelled in different ways. However, "Sue" is not pronounced with a "sh". Some English words have silent vowels, such as the "e" in have" which can make it confusing for someone trying to learn the language.

What are the six largest European languages after English?

Spanish comes next after English with 330 million, Portuguese following with 180 million, then Russian with 175 million, and German with 110 million, French with 80 million, and finally Italian with 65 million.