Inauguation and Introduction To ‘English Next India’: British Council India

Session

Title:	Inauguration and Introduction To English Next India
Date and Time:	Wednesday 18 November 2009 18.30-21.30 IST (GMT + 5.5 hours)

Recordings

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Abstract

‘English Next: India’ is a major piece of research written by David Graddol and commissioned by the British Council. The book highlights the evolution of English in India considering local, national and global transitions (demographic, economic, social and educational). The study draws conclusions and raises questions for policy makers, educationalists and corporate chiefs on the status and role of English in emerging India.

Introduction by Ms. Ruth Gee, Regional Director, British Council India and Sri Lanka.

Welcome address by Mr Martin Davidson, Chief Executive, British Council.

Inaugural address by Mr Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Author of ‘Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century’.

Keynote speech by Mr David Graddol, Writer, Broadcaster and Lecturer and Author of English Next India.

Speakers

David Graddol

David is a British applied linguist, well-known as a writer, broadcaster, researcher and consultant on issues relating to global English. He is the Managing Director of The English Company (UK) Limited and Managing Editor of linguistic books and journals for Equinox Publishing. David is a joint editor of the journal English Today, and is a member of the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Language Problems and Language Planning and Visual Communication.

David Graddol researched and wrote ‘The Future of English?’ for the British Council in 1997. The book was a combination of research on the roles and importance of English in the world and reasoned extrapolations as to its future developments. It took stock of the apparently unassailable position of English in the world and asked whether we could expect its status to remain unaltered during the following decades of unprecedented social and economic global change.

English Next draws attention to the extraordinary speed of that change. It argues that we are already in a very new kind of environment and a distinctly new phase in the global development of English. What are the new rules and who will be the winners and who will be the losers? In this new study, David Graddol suggests some of the answers by analysing the demographic an economic trends which affect Global English and the language policies worldwide which influence its future.