Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.
Preparation
The table below gives information about some of the world's most studied languages. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Language | Number of people learning the language | Number of native speakers | Number of countries where the language is spoken |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 1.5 billion | 527 million | 101 |
| French | 82 million | 118 million | 51 |
| Chinese | 30 million | 1.39 billion | 33 |
| Spanish | 14.5 million | 389 million | 31 |
| Italian | 8 million | 67 million | 29 |
| Japanese | 3 million | 123 million | 25 |
The table illustrates some interesting facts about some of the world's most popular languages to learn. It allows comparisons between the number of people who study a language versus those who speak it as a mother tongue, and shows how many countries have speakers of each of the languages.
The prominence of English is striking. 1.5 billion people are learning English compared to only 82 million studying the second most popular language to learn, French. English is spoken in 101 countries, roughly twice as many as French and three times more than Chinese. English is the only language with more learners than native speakers.
In terms of native speakers, Chinese is the most spoken language, more than double English with 1.39 billion. It is the third most popular language to learn with 30 million learners. Spanish has over five times more native speakers than Italian, but proportionally fewer learners at 14.5 million for Spanish and 8 million for Italian. As for Japanese, it is the least studied language of those given with 3 million learners.
Overall, more people are learning English than the other languages combined and English is spoken in the highest number of countries. However, Chinese has by far the greatest number of native speakers. There seems to be little correlation between how many native speakers there are of a language and the number of learners, but there is a stronger link between the number of learners and how many countries have speakers.
Please note: This page was designed for writing practice only. Information and statistics in the table may not be accurate.
Tips
- Start by saying what information is shown. If you are writing in an exam, try to avoid repeating the same wording as the question, e.g. The table illustrates some interesting facts about some of the world's most popular languages to learn.
- In the second paragraph give an overview of the most important features of the information.
- Be selective and choose the key observations and trends. You don't have to write about every single detail.
- Divide your observations into paragraphs about different aspects of the data. A concluding paragraph is not always necessary.
- Don't use your own general knowledge to give reasons for the data or to add more information than is shown. The question only requires you to summarise and report the data in the table.
- Use a variety of structures for:
- making comparisons, e.g. slightly more than, by far the highest, as … as, compared to, double the number of, correlation between
- approximating, e.g. nearly, roughly, almost
- stating what you are referring to, e.g. in terms of … , as for … , of those given.
Dear team,
I have a few questions below. Thank you very much!
“In terms of native speakers, Chinese is the most spoken language, more than double English with 1.39 billion…. “
“Spanish has over five times more native speakers than Italian, but proportionally fewer learners at 14.5 million for Spanish and 8 million for Italian…”
“1.5 billion people are learning English compared to 82 million studying French.”
Hello Yan,
You can add 'that' but it is not necessary. 'Than' is not correct as the sentence already has 'than' in its correct place, which is after the comparative form ('more than').
I'm not sure what your question is here. The sentence already uses 'proportionately fewer' and the ratio of learners is already lower than that of speakers.
Yes, it's not stated to avoid repetition. It would be grammatically fine to say '82 million people' but I think stylistically omitting the repeated noun here is better.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Peter, thank you so much for your reply!
1) For these sentences, do we necessarily use 'that of' then: "Unemployment rate in country A is double that of country B" "Unemployment rate in country A more than double that of country B"?
2) For my 2nd question, I was not sure when we could use 'proportionally'? We are using this vocabulary because of explanation 1. or because of explanation 2. below?:
Hello again Yan,
Yes, 'that' is a pronoun referring back to 'unemployment rate'. You need to include it or repeat the original noun phrase.
2) For my 2nd question, I was not sure when we could use 'proportionally'? We are using this vocabulary because of explanation 1. or because of explanation 2. below?:
'Proportionally' has a few uses. It is most often used to mean 'to the same degree'. For example:
You can also use 'proportionally' to show something relative to a bigger whole. For example:
Finally, we use 'proportionally' to show the relationship between two numbers. This is the use you have, so it would be explanation 1 - the difference between the two ratios is changing so one is becoming proportionally larger and the other proportionally smaller.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I've always been eager to learn different languages, I was born and raised in a country where there's a great diversity in minority languages, Apart from my mother tongue and our country's national language which I can both speak fluently, I can speak English as well with great confidence.
I would love to learn Spanish and be able to have a conversation with native speakers. In fact Its unique feature and complicated sentence structure is certainly worth studying for. Moreover, Spanish musical style appeals so much to me beacuse of its rhythmic beats and catchy upbeat vibes. It goes without saying Spanish is indeed an influential language. It's worth learning for.
Well, not that I'm a fancу to learn languages but I now I can speak in four of them. On a different level of course but anyway it's a good achievement I might say.
If we talk about what specific languages I learn (not to mention my mother tongue) there is, first of all, the Ukrainian language. Not the hardest for me to learn and I really like it. It's so melodic and quite authentic. Especially, the folk songs.
The second language I learn is English. And this is a much more tough experience for me. English is a strange language - minimum rules, looks simple but exceptions and phrasal verbs - they are really shocking. Honestly, why do complicate things so much? Why does the very same group of letters read in different ways?
Anyway, I like this language and love learning it, for sure.
And the last one, and still less learned is Polish. It's quite correlated with Ukrainian and not too hard to learn (at least for those who know any other Slavic language) but also has its own difficulties.
Nice post