Journal #7 Speeches

I have listened to two speeches this few days; one of them is “English Next” by David Graddol and the other is “Intercultural Language Learning” by John Corbett. Being a graduate student, I tend to listen to the seminar or speeches much often than I used to be. Yeah, it’s always good to listen to some scholars or professionals’ talks and sharing. Like Newton’s (adopted by Google Scholar) famous dictum—because I stand on giant's shoulder, I should use wisely of what had been achieved or been done by the authorities, I should grab every chance of standing on giant’s shoulder.

One of the themes I found impressive in Dr. Graddol’s speech was that there’s no Standard English in the world. I have heard similar ideas in Rebecca’s class two years ago.

At the forum, Dr. Graddol argues that we are already in a very new kind of environment and a new phase in the global development of English. The number of English users is expanding, and it would probably reach to an amazing amount of statistics. He also analyses the phenomenon by demographic and economic trends in the 21-Century which affect Global English and language policies worldwide and will influence its future. Even though some part of his speech was quite vague to me, I liked the speech and I am happy that I did went to it.