New Zealand linguist praises bilingualism

Learning English as a second language exposes people to different cultures, provides more job opportunities and more importantly - in the context of globalization - boosts communication skills across international communities, said Rod Ellis, a New Zealand research professor at Curtin University's School of Education in Perth, Australia.

As one of the keynote speakers on Friday at the 2019 Global English Education China Assembly in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and a visiting professor at Shanghai International Studies University, Ellis shared his views on English language teaching in Asian primary schools, and the overall changes he sees in the global community in learning English as a second language.

"We all live in a global world these days. This requires us to have a lingua franca so that we can communicate across global communities. At this moment, that language is English. But who knows, in another 50 years, it might be Chinese," said Ellis, a world-renowned linguist in second language acquisition.