India English growth 'too slow'

[ccharles000]

India is falling behind countries such as China in its attempts to increase the use of English among its population, a new report says.

The study by the British Council says a "huge shortage" of teachers and quality institutions is hampering India despite a growing demand for English skills.

The study says China may now have more people who speak English than India.

India's emergence as a major software and IT hub has in part been possible due to its English-educated workers.

The study, English Next India, by British author David Gradoll says English is a "casualty of wider problems in Indian education".

It says: "The rate of improvement in the English language skills of the Indian population is at present too slow to prevent India from falling behind other countries which have implemented the teaching of English in primary schools sooner, and more successfully.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8365631.stm

[FarCenter]

1. Odd, since English and Hindi are the two official languages of India

Hindi is the mother tongue of a little ove 1/3 of the population.

There are a couple dozen other major languages.

[enid602]

2. English

English is the lingua franca of India. While in India, every Indian I worked with spoke English.

[FarCenter]

4. English is the lingua franca of the world

One of the problems with an English speaker learning a foreign language is that it takes a lot to learn to speak a foreign language as well as speakers of that language speak English. So conversations will tend to revert to English, and usually revert to English if a speaker of a third language joins the conversation.

Written Chinese is probably the most useful for an American to learn.

[marmar]

3. A study by the British Council?

'Nuff said.