English as lingua franca
In two newspaper texts Martin Jacques and Richard Holt discuss the problem that the most British people are monolingual. In 'does it matter if we only speak English?'1 Jacques states that 'Britain need to integrate with the rest of the world. It is not good enough to expect everyone else to speak English: at root it remains a deeply arrogant attitude'.  In 'why bother learning foreign languages?'2 Holt argued that 'the experience of learning another tongue greatly deepens your understanding of your own language. It forces you to think analytically rather than just instinctively'. 
The writers have different opinions on the reasons for the given problem. According to Jacques 'it is not true that everyone else now speaks English. In fact, English ranks only second in the world in terms of those who speak it as a first or second language'. Moreover, Jacques says that 'to understand people, it is necessary to speak their own language, not the one the are using for our benefit'. Finally, Jacques suggests that 'the present status of English is not necessarily cast in stone. It is reasonable to assume that the rise of China will be accompanied by the rise of Mandarin'.       Holt doesn't recognize the problem of English being ranked second in the world as a first or second language. He states that 'English is the most spoken language in the world. It is not the most spoken as a first language, but if you include people who speak English as a second language, it leaves Mandarin Chinese for dust'. He argued that 'language teaching has suffered in recent years, notably from a lack of language graduates willing to go into teaching. (...) The less of us that study languages the less people there will be qualified to teach them in the future'.
To address this problem Jacques explains that 'it should be compulsory to learn a foreign language from the age of five'. He also states that 'Chinese should be made widely available'. Third, Jacques says 'let's make integration a two-way process'. Holt argued that 'the amendment tot the education bill needs the backing of schools as well as politicians'.  

   
1 Martin Jacques, Does it matter if we only speak English?, The Guardian, 15 December 2006 
2 Richard Holt, Why bother learning foreign languages?, The Guardiaon, 13 October 2006