Narrator: Exercise 4.3. Radio Item 7:
With me today from the Home Office, is Mr. David Thorpe, who has agreed to answer recent criticism of the government's handling of the so-called 'immigration problem'. The face of Britain changed radically during the latter part of the twentieth century. Since large-scale immigration of non-English-speaking persons to Britain beganin the 1950s, there have been few attempts by the government to calm people's fears of an invasion of foreignlanguages . Yet recent research by linguists from a prominent university has revealed that in certain city areasEnglish is almost totally unspoken, and has called into question the value of bringing non-English-speakingimmigrants to this country in the future. Mr. Thorpe, why do. we have a problem with English within ethniccommmunities, and is there a real danger that the English language will lose its dominance in Britain?
Let me begin by saying that this whole issue of people ... what was it I read in the papers? ...
by the year 2050 the majority of people in the top 3 British cities would not be speaking English ... is a myth ...
er, complete nonsense. The research was, in fact, conducted by a group of academics whose work was, first of all,totally misrepresented by the press, and, secondly, based on improbable statistical evidence supposedly linkinglanguage-learning difficulties to unemployment. The reverse is actually true, since ... without a job ... if you needto learn English, you can spend a greater amount of time studying in our English-language training programmes.
Newswoman: But the research points out that in certain poor areas of some large cities, English is already nolonger the most commonly spoken language. What's the government doing to rectify this situation?
Thorpe: What the research actually said was that it was taking longer for some new foreign residents inBritain to become proficient in English than in the past ...
Newswoman: ... because, they say, of a drop in funding for English-language training programmes ...
Thorpe: Not at all. The percentage of funding for English courses has significantly increased under thisgovernment. No, the reason some foreigners are taking longer to learn English is that overall there has been aslight upward age shift in new migrants to city areas. It is, of course, more difficult to learn a language when youare older.
Newswoman: So will English ever become a second language in Britain, the country of its origin?
Thorpe: Really! How can that happen when the total number of immigrants to this country is a mere 50,000a year? And that includes many who speak equally as well as you or I.
Newswoman: You or me ...
Thorpe: If not better! (laughs)Newswoman: Mr. Thorpe, thank you for your time. Enquiries for English language courses can be made bytelephoning this number now: 0171-389-4204. That number again ... 0171-389-4204. |