LONDON, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- A new landmark report commissioned by the British Council on the position of the English language in the world released on Wednesday shows that the global dominance of English poses major problems for Britain.

    The 130-page report titled "English Next" by language researcher David Graddol demonstrates that the global spread of English, which has brought tangible benefits to Britain and other native speaking countries, will lead to serious economic and political disadvantages in the future in Britain unless plans are put in place immediately to remedy the situation.

    Graddol concludes that monolingual English graduates face a bleak economic future as qualified multilingual young people from other countries are proving to have a competitive advantage over their British counterparts in global companies and organizations.

    "English is, as ever, an important tool for operating on the world stage. But Graddol's research highlights that once everyone speaks English, companies will naturally look for employees who speak other major languages such as Mandarin or Spanish as well. There is a need to take radical action and plan for the future otherwise we in the UK will find ourselves at a permanent disadvantage," said John Whitehead, director of British Council.

    Figures show that since 1945 there has been an explosion in English language Teaching so that in his previous research, Graddol was able to show that within a decade two billion people would be speaking or learning English.

    But in "English Next" he explains that the reason for the huge rise in popularity of  English is because it is no longer a foreign language for most of its learners. English is rapidly turning into a near universal basic skill.

    Statistics show that nearly 60 percent of primary school children now learn English in China. What's more, the total numbers of English speakers in India and China now exceed the number of speakers elsewhere in the world.

    Graddol's suggested that the UK's best defense against the threat of the spread of English is to learn other languages. "We have to think carefully about which languages those are. French for example is declining as an international language, but Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic are all languages of the future. Ethnic minority groups in the UK may well prove to be a major asset in this effort," he added.

    Whitehead from the British Council regarded the report as "a call to action" for Britain. "In terms of dealing with the future that Graddol predicts we've already made much headway."

    The British Council, Britain's international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations, kick-started Mandarin teaching in the country and have pioneered a number of programs to encourage language learning and student/teacher exchanges both in Europe and the Arab world and further a field in Russia, Japan and South America.

    "We've already recognized that it is absolutely essential for British children to learn other languages and we will be working hard to put further strategies in place to ensure this," Whitehead noted. Enditem