Camelia Firică, Jean Firică, Does English take priority in a multilingual Europe?
Does English take priority in a multilingual Europe?
Incentives deriving from the attractive career prospects that arise from the rights which ever more citizens have acquired following the European Union enlargement through the accession of new member states, part of which managed to shake off the yoke of the communist Eastern bloc, called forth an increase in the mobility of the European population. For most of these people, Romanians being among them, who chose to make their way in countries whose language they did not speak, English was not just a means of communication but also the only tool that, to a greater or lesser extent, helped them become familiar with the vernacular languages. The opening of new horizons prompted Romanians to engage in foreign language study from a very early age, English being favoured. In is turn this language came towards people by the unprecedented global economic and technologic developments. Multilingualism became one of the European Union’s language policy objectives. The paper tackles, on one hand, the problem of multilingualism in the present European context and of the importance English holds in the process of teaching other languages – Romanian especially in the Romanian language departments abroad
Key words: multilingualism, globalisation, foreign language, English, Romanian.
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