There are a number of problems associated with the rise of English as a world language. Outline some of these problems, explain how they arose, offer some solutions and evaluate your proposed solutions.

English is well-established as the world's lingua franca and, with 1, 132 billion speakers internationally, is the most spoken language in the world. While English is not an official language in many countries, it is the official language of many international organizations and governmental bodies, among which are the United Nations, the European Union, and FIFA. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, English has been spreading around the world since the 17th century, overcoming obstacles and breaking down barriers. This essay will take a look on the two most important matters of the rise of English as a lingua franca. The most significant issue that arises because of the spread of English is the detriment to the world of science. Although English is a medium for study, writing and teaching, non-English studies often go unnoticed due its non-universality: the vast majority of the world’s leading scientific journals are published in English. Perhaps one solution could be to transform the world’s biggest scientific magazines into the multilingual ones, enabling both native and non-native English speakers to enhance their knowledge of the non-mother tongues. This will allow to increase understanding of the key provisions of the most significant scientific papers, as some academic achievements can be fully understood only on the researcher’s native language. Another concern regards the competitiveness of the English citizens on the international labor market. Graduates who only speak English face a bleak future when looking for jobs in global companies and organizations in competition with multilingual young people from other countries. Since many international companies are seeking multilingual personnel, the Brits with poor knowledge of any foreign language will be more likely to be unemployed, even if they stay in the UK; this can also affect the UK’s economy. The problem is likely to be solved if there is a government programme for competitiveness of the graduates, including foreign language training. Foreign language acquisition allows a competitive advantage to be maintained: a couple of years ago that advantage was provided by English alone, nowadays, Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic are becoming languages of the future. One who knows any of the above-mentioned languages is a competitive specialist. English is the language of trade, diplomacy and the Internet. While the popularity of English increases as well as number of people speaking lingua franca, smaller languages are marginalized, territories, which were supposed to be united by their local language, are disunited. Only a joint effort will be beneficial to all the languages spoken worldwide.