Survey of multilingualism among Europeans

A special Eurobarometer public opinion survey published by the European Commission in February 2006 contains a survey of multilingualism in the European Union and four countries aspiring to join it. The survey analyses three themes as determining factors in a multilingual society:

• The long-term objective for all EU citizens to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue;
• Lifelong language learning starting from a very early age;
• The importance of education.

The survey, entitled “Europeans and their languages”, reports that in November and December 2005, 28 694 citizens in the 25 EU countries as well as in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey were asked about their experiences and perceptions of multilingualism.

Among the findings are that 56% of citizens in the EU Member States are able to hold a conversation in one language apart from their mother tongue. This is nine points more than was perceived in 2001 among the 15 Member States at the time. Twenty-eight per cent of the respondents state that they speak two foreign languages well enough to have a conversation.

English remains the most widely spoken foreign language throughout Europe, followed by French, German, Spanish and Russian in that order. However, language skills are unevenly distributed both over the geographical area of Europe and over sociodemographic groups. A “multilingual” European is likely to be young, well-educated or still studying, born in a country other than the country of residence, who uses foreign languages for professional reasons and is motivated to learn. Only 1 in 5 Europeans can be described as an active language learner.

The survey finds, nevertheless, that two thirds of Europeans believe that language teaching should be a political priority and concludes that “Education is the key”.

For a summary of the survey results click here.