WillEnglishalwaysbethemaininternetlanguageTheInternet’sabilitytoconnectawiderangeofculturesencouragesvariety.However,forthetimebeing,Englishdominatesonlinebecausefromthestartitwasthelinguafrancaofcyberspace.Willthisalwaysbethecase?Currentlyabout70%ofInternetcontentisinEnglish,butonlyabout44%ofInternetusersarenativeEnglishspeakers.Worldwide,nativeSpanishspeakersoutnumbernativespeakersofEnglishonline,andthenumberofnativeChinesespeakersisgreaterthanboththosegroupsputtogether.Statisticsshowthatthesituationischanging.forinstance,threeyearsago75%ofwebpageswereinEnglish,butthatnumberhas
droppedto50%today.Furthermore,Internetuseamongnon-nativespeakersofEnglishisgrowingatafasterratethanthatofnativeEnglishspeakers.By2003,thenumberofnativeEnglish-speakingwebuserswillhavedroppedto29%,accordingtooneestimate.Asaresult,someresearcherssaythattheearlypredominanceofEnglishisgoingtodecline.theysaythatEnglishwillkeepaspecialroleinconnectingcommunitieswhosenativelanguagesaredifferent,butinabout20years’time,Spanish,French,ArabicandChinesewillalsohavetakenonthisconnectingrole.Ifthisistrue,thenmonolingualnativeEnglishspeakersmaybemorelikelytolearnanotherlanguageandalsobecomebilingual,orevenmultilingual

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