THE ROLE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN MODERN SOCIETY

Learning a foreign language in modern time basically not an easy thing. Every person according to their knowledge learns it in long or in short process that takes a lot of time and efforts. Nowadays for each modern person it is especially impоrtant to know fоreign languаges. Some people learn languages because they need them for their work, others travel abroad, for the third studying languages is a hоbby. Every person, who knows foreign languages can speak tо people from other countries, read foreign writers in the original, which makes your outlook wider. It is nоt surprising that many intellectuals and well-еducated people are polyglots, it mean they can speak more then six languages. Among all these foreign languages English has the main role. Nowadays English has become the world’s most important language in politics, science, trade and cultural relations. Over 300 million people speak it as a mother tongue. The native speakers of English live in Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. English is one of the official languages in the Irish Republic, Canada, the South Africa Republic. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization and other political organizations. Half of the world’s scientific literature is in English. It is the language of computer technology. To know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated person, for every good specialist. The English language is a wonderful language. It is the language of the great literature. It is the language of William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens. The great German poet Goethe once said, “He, who knows no foreign language, does not know his own one.” That is why in order to understand oneself and environment one has to study foreign languages.

As social beings human beings need to communicate to each other communication is very important because everything is impossible to be done without communication. Human beings use language as the means of communication. Since the prehistoric era until the current era language always develops. Communication is more effective because world develops language itself. The language concept including grammar and parole is the speech concept. Nowadays in the global era communication has become one of the most crucial elements. Without good communication people from different nations won’t be able to understand each other. When people don’t understand each other there are possibilities that misunderstanding will happen need to understand each other with good communication urges people to acquire global languages among the most important and influencing language is English language. The study was under taken to understand the importance of English language in present scenario.

The Benefits of Foreign Languages

Foreign language skills have long been associated with cognitive, career, cultural, and personal benefits. According to history, a majority of Americans and British believe that speaking a language makes you more attractive, one in eight have exaggerated their language skills on their resume to impress potential employers, a quarter believe that lack of foreign language skills has held them back professionally. It goes on to state that “being multilingual can make you more appealing, more successful and more compassionate. And it’s also good for your health.”re-confirms that at least half of the world population speaks more than one language, and not only highlights the cognitive and social advantages of bilingualism, but describes what monolingual English-speakers are missing out on. Even exposure to other languages offers benefits has determined that while cognitive and executive function advantages of bilingualism are observable only in bilingual children, social and communicative advantages are also observable in monolingual children exposed to other languages. The British scholar writes that “a second language can play an important unconscious role in framing perception.” Reports have also stated that use of one or more additional languages is linked to longer life through delaying the onset of dementia.

Languages around the World While it would be tempting to think that English is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the world, English is actually the third, with 372M native speakers, following Chinese and Spanish, with 1.3B and 437M respectively. Languages around the World While it would be tempting to think that English is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the world, English is actually the third, with 372M native speakers, following Chinese and Spanish, with 1.3B and 437M respectively.

The World Economic Forum has found English to be the world’s most powerful language, followed by Mandarin Chinese, and French, echoing the Bloomberg ranking of the most useful languages for international business. It is interesting to note that the top 6 in both are the 6 official languages of the UN. Most scientists describe the global influence of language through global language networks (GLNs), with connectivity and co-spoken languages driving influence, global visibility, and global popularity of cultural content and find English, German, and French to be top three in terms of Wikipedia and book translations. “The structure of these three global language networks (GLNs) is centered on English as a global hub and around a handful of intermediate hub languages, which include Spanish, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, and Chinese.” In the US, Spanish, Chinese, and French/French Creole are the most widely spoken languages after English (Ryan, 2013). However, after English and Spanish, German is the most widely spoken language in 16 states, and French in 11 states, with French Creole making 12 (Blatt, 2014). In addition, “French is Europe’s second most widely spoken mother tongue with over 77 million speakers, after Germany (around 100 million) but ahead of English (around 61 million). Demographers forecast that France’s birth rate will make French the most widely spoken mother tongue in Europe, ousting German, by 2025″ (France Diplomatie, 2017). In the U.S., fewer than 20% of K-12 public school students study a foreign language, and only 8.1% study a language other than English at the college and university level (MLA, 2013). In addition, 19 states have no foreign language requirement whatsoever, while many combine foreign languages with other subject areas including technology, the arts, and other areas (ECS, 2017). In fact, “while the U.S. does not have a national requirement for students to learn a foreign language in school, the typical European pupil must study multiple languages in the classroom before becoming a teen.” Moreover, “studying a second foreign language for at least one year is compulsory in more than 20 European countries”. In Europe, most students begin foreign language learning between the ages of 6 and 8. In 2014, 83.8 of all primary grade students studied at least one foreign language, and 59.7 of all students in the lower secondary grades were studying at least 2 foreign languages. Overall, English, French, and German are the most frequently studied languages. English and French are the most commonly studied languages in the world, English with over 1B English language learners around the world, predicted to reach 1.9B by 2020, and French, with 120 million students, and “an estimated 2 million school pupils in some 50 countries enrolled in bilingual programs.” In addition, French is an official language of 29 countries, second only to English. However, “whether or not a language is influential is less about that language itself, and more about how it connects to others,” with English the most connected language in the world, followed by French and other languages that have had historical and colonial influence. International organizations approach their language policy differently, depending on their membership, mission, and geographic location. The United Nations, with 192 members, has six official languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. The International Olympic Committee uses English and French as its official languages, plus the local language of the current location of the Games. On the other hand, the European Union, in alignment with its core value of multilingualism, embraces the official languages of its member states as official languages, but uses two or three as its working languages.

Safarova Rukhshona,

master’s degree student of public administration of Academy