Why the english-speaking world needs confucius institutes

Abstract

Advantages of speaking English as a native speaker have been discussed and debated widely. English has developed into a global lingua franca in business, culture, education and diplomacy. English “demand” includes institutional demands and individual demands for language to achieve better employment and enjoy English-language goods. Supply can be seen in these English-language goods, the use of English in institutional settings, the robustness of this language, and an increasing supply of English speakers through learning English as a second language. But within the dynamics of this development lie the seeds of a disadvantage for native English speakers. As the educated world learns English, personal advantage may shift away from the native English speaker toward those speaking English plus other languages. Given lower levels of foreign language-learning in the Anglophone world and increasing numbers of multilingual non-native English speakers, native English speakers may see their advantage disappear. Integrating international business and trade theory with sociolinguistics and language economics this paper argues that native English speakers will face a disadvantage in twenty firsts century due to their English dependency and Confucius Institutes may help young native English speakers overcome this emerging disadvantage.