1. Read the text for general understanding. Think of the title to the text.

Multilingualism is the act of using, orpromoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population.

Thanks to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals can come in contact with multiple languages quite often; there appears the necessity to acquire more and more languages.

Multilingualism is a value for intercultural dialogue, social cohesion and prosperity. It plays an important role in lifelong learning, media and information technologies, as well as in the world international relations.

A multilingual workforce is an evident advantage that would provide world companies with a competitive edge and thus promote prosperity. Consequently, companies are recommended to invest more in language and intercultural skills. From the citizens’ perspective, mastering several languages increases employability and allows to choose from a larger number of job offers. That’s why countries should develop the acquisition and recognition of language skills outside the formal education systems. At the same time, European Union, for example, intends to:

• stimulate student and worker mobility;

• communicate the results of the study on language skills, creativity and innovation;

• provide a platform to exchange best practices in learning languages.

Countries are also invited to promote language learning by:

• offering opportunities to learn the national language plus two other languages;

• providing a wide offer of languages to choose from;

• improving the training of those involved in language teaching;

• supporting the mobility of language teachers.

There exists a European Union Council Resolution of 21 November 2008 on a European strategy for multilingualism. With this resolution, the Council is inviting the Member States and other countries to promote:

• multilingualism, in order to increase social cohesion, intercultural dialogue and European construction;

• lifelong language learning, in particular among young people and language teachers;

• the role of multilingualism in the competitiveness of Europe’s economy as well as in the mobility and employability of Europe’s citizens;

• linguistic diversityand intercultural dialogue, by further supporting translation so that the circulation of works and the dissemination of ideas in Europe and beyond is encouraged.

• (from)

2. Find in the text the English equivalents of the following word combinations:

языковое разнообразие, явление, превосходить численно, международные отношения, непрерывное образование, конкурентное преимущество, очевидный, , владение несколькими языками, овладение языковыми умениями , намереваться.

3. Make up word combinations matching the words matching A and parts. Consult the text. Translate into Russian.

A	B
master	into contact
promote	languages
increase	an important role
support	prosperity
come	with a competitive edge
acquire	translation
play	International relations
provide	language learning
develop	social cohesion

4. Divide the text into paragraphs and entitle them. Pick up key words from every paragraph. Give the general idea of every part using these words.

Grammar practice

Passive Voice is used to emphasize the action (the verb) and the object of a sentence rather than subject. This means that the subject is either less important than the action itself or that we don’t know who or what the subject is. F.ex. After the earthquake, aid was sent to the people of Haiti.

Note: Verbs that have no object (no one to “receive” the action) cannot be put into the passive, such as, arrive, come, die, exist, go, happen, have, live, occur, sleep, etc.

1. In the text there are some sentences where Passive Voice is used. Find them and try to reproduce. If possible transform sentences with Active Voice into the ones with Passive Voice.

2. Use Passive Voice to emphasize the focus on the action.

1. Global anti-seismic system (to launch) … to prevent earthquakes and other natural disasters.

2. Great efforts (to make) for eco-tourism to become more attractive and enjoyable for potential customers.

3. Whales must (to protect) … by an international ban on whaling.

4. Some people feel that too much attention (to pay) … by television, newspapers, magazines, and other media to celebrities and their private life.

5. The youth policy in our country (to support) … by a National Strategic Plan for Youth Development.

Discussion

Discuss the following:

1. Why is multilingualism a social phenomenon?

2. What does statistics say about the number of people who speak only one foreign language and people who speak several foreign languages?

3. What are the advantages for multilingual employees?

4. What are the initiatives of the European Union which concern the support of multilingualism?

5. What does European Union Council Resolution on a European strategy for multilingualism promote?