【正文】 ting to view the story of English as a triumph for its native speakers in North America, the British Isles and Australasia – but that would be a mistake. Global English has entered a more plex phase, changing in ways that the older Englishspeaking countries cannot control and might not like.《英語走向何方》的作者大衛(wèi)數(shù)百萬人學習英語的原因非常簡單：英語是國際商業(yè)語言，因此也是走向繁榮的關(guān)鍵。 it is the language in which Chinese speak to Brazilians and Germans to Indonesians.拉丁語曾在一片廣袤的地區(qū)上充當共同語言，但這僅限于歐洲和北非。他估計，15億人（約占全球人口的四分之一）可以用英語很好地進行交流。s leading experts on the language and author of more than 100 books on the subject, estimates that people – around onequarter of the world39。該協(xié)會去年發(fā)布了一份報告《英語走向何方》(English Next)，預測英語學習者數(shù)量可能在10年至15年內(nèi)達到約20億的峰值水平。No one is certain how many people are learning English. Ten years ago, the British Council thought it was around 1bn. A report, English Next, published by the council last year, forecast that the number of English learners would probably peak at around 2bn in 1015 years.沒人可以確定有多少人在學英語。s biggest provider of private education, with more than 1m students over the past financial year, the overwhelming majority learning English. In Chile, the government has said it wants its population to be bilingual in English and Spanish within a generation.在中國，俞敏洪已將創(chuàng)建的公司新東方(New Oriental)打造成中國最大的私人教育提供商，過去一個財年，該校擁有逾100萬學生，其中絕大多數(shù)是學英語的。據(jù)《韓國時報》(Korea Times)報道，鄭東泳稱，韓國需要“解決英語學習造成家庭分開的問題”。英語是誰的語言？Whose language?英語是誰的語言？By Michael Skapinker Wednesday, January 16, 2008 Chung Dongyoung, a former television anchorman and candidate to be president of South Korea, may be behind in the opinion polls but one of his campaign mitments is eyecatching. If elected, he promises a vast increase in English teaching so that young Koreans do not have to go abroad to learn the language. The country needed to “solve the problem of families separated for English learning”, the Korea Times reported him saying.前電視節(jié)目主持人、韓國總統(tǒng)候選人鄭東泳(Chung Dongyoung)在民意調(diào)查中選票或許落后，但他的一項競選承諾卻非常引人注目。當時，鄭東泳承諾如果當選，要大幅增加英語教育，讓韓國年輕人不必出國去學英語。In China, Yu Minhong has turned New Oriental, the pany he founded, into the country39。在智利，政府已表示希望在未來二三十年內(nèi)其人民能同時掌握英語和西班牙語。10年前，英國文化協(xié)會(British Council)認為這個數(shù)字大概在10億。How many people already speak English? David Crystal, one of the world39。s population – can municate reasonably well in English.有多少人會說英語？全球知名英語專家戴維?克里斯特爾(David Crystal)已就該主題撰寫了逾100本著作。Latin was once the shared language over a vast area, but that was only in Europe and North Africa. Never in recorded history has a language been as widely spoken as English is today. The reason millions are learning it is simple: it is the language of international business and therefore the key to prosperity. It is not just that Microsoft, Google and Vodafone conduct their business in English。歷史上從未有哪種語言像今天的英語那樣得到廣泛的使用。英語不僅是微軟(Microsoft)、谷歌(Google)和沃達豐(Vodafone)做生意時使用的語言；它也是中國人與巴西人、德國人同印尼人交流的語言。葛拉多爾(David Graddol)表示，人們很容易將這看作是北美、不列顛群島及澳大拉西亞等地以英語為母語的人士的勝利——但這是錯誤的。Commentators on global English ask three principal questions. First, is English likely to be challenged by other fast growing languages such as Mandarin, Spanish or Arabic? Second, a