Scott L. Montgomery, author of Does Science Need a Global Language?, believes that English has become the mother tongue of science. In an interview, he argues that a global tongue makes scientific communication more efficient and also “opens up the potential for participation in the scientific enterprise to the greater span of humanity”:
Q: You argue that English should be “fully integrated into the science curriculum.” What would that entail?
A: It would entail treating English as a core subject of scientific training for non-native speakers. It would also mean unburdening English of any necessary association with a specific country or set of countries, so it could be handled as a normal and necessary skill, like mathematics. This is already done in a number of countries, like the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and Switzerland. All of these have succeeded in teaching their scientists to use English and to publish at the international level. What their success shows, however, is that a significant amount of investment has to be made here — good teacher training, student motivation, adequate classroom facilities, good instructional content, are needed. There is no way all of this can be done overnight, especially in developing nations, where resources are lacking. It took Finland over two-and-a-half decades to put everything in place. But if scientific work is to become truly global, something like this has to happen. Otherwise, in many countries, scientists will only ever emerge from the rich elite — something we all hope the world has largely left behind.
Montgomery considers the potential disadvantages for native speakers:
Q: Why do you say that “the real casualty from the global spread of English may well be the native speaker himself”?
A: Because the rest of the scientific world will be multilingual and will have access to scientific material in at least two — but often three or more — languages. The native speaker, feeling encouraged to resist the learning of other tongues (everyone wants to learn his language, after all), will be without this capability. Put differently, the rest of the world will have access to everything s/he does, but s/he will have access to little or nothing beyond the edges of his own tongue.
The Dish 