The English language has been at the forefront of globalization. English is celebrated as the language of global corporate management, the Internet, youth culture and science. At the same time, there appears to be a crisis in foreign language learning amongst native English speakers - it seems that there is no need any more to learn foreign languages if everyone now speaks English.

But such thinking is outdated. The need for English speakers to learn other languages is now greater than at any time in history, and the benefits to learners, to their employers and their countries are similarly great.

THE NEW LINGUISTIC WORLD ORDER

There exist over 6,000 languages in the world today. In terms of global demographics, the 'old languages' of Europe - French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian - each have over 50 million speakers and remain in the top 20 or so world languages. But there is no doubt that English is becoming more important in Europe ...

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