According to David Grattle, a British language expert, the idea that English will become the world language is outdated. And people are more likely to switch between two or more languages for routine communication in the future. The share of the world’s population that speaks English as a native language is falling.(1)_________________________. A population speaking more than one language is already the case in much of the world and is becoming more common in the United States. Indeed, the census bureau reported last year that nearly one American in five speaks a language other than English at home, with Spanish taking the lead, followed by Chinese. Grattle works for British consulting and publishing business.(2)__________________________. Grattle says, "Up until 1995, English was the second most common native tongue in the world, trailing only Chinese. By 2050, Chinese will continue its predominance with Hindi Woodoo of India and Arabic climbing past English and Spanish nearly equal to it." In contrast, an American language expert, David Harrison noted that the global share of English is much larger if you count second language speakers, and(3)___________________________. Harrison disputed listing Arabic in the top three languages because varieties of Arabic spoken in such countries as Egypt and Morocco are mutually incomprehensible.
