Its leaders have downplayed culture to broaden their appeal to include immigrant groups and not just native French-speakers.

ECONOMIST: A heresy that dare not speak its name

But most native English-speakers opt for Afrikaans, said to be easy to learn, rather than a useful but harder African tongue.

ECONOMIST: English is dangerously dominant

They studied bilingual programs in the Houston Independent School District and found that native-Spanish speakers were at or above grade level in English and Spanish in first grade through fifth grade.

NPR: Instruction Of Students Learning English Bleak

He criticised cuts to English language teaching despite a rising proportion of children who are non-native speakers.

BBC: Miliband: Too little done to integrate UK society

The only hope for English to remain the lingua franca till deathbed is a peaceful world and lots of love from non-native speakers.

FORBES: English - The Language of Global Business?

Israelis call all native English speakers Anglo-Saxons, even American-born Jews of Russian descent.

ECONOMIST: Letters

Many also incorporate technology such as YouTube videos of native speakers or Google Hangout video chats for live, long-distance conversations.

NPR: To Save Endangered Languages, Tribes Turn To Tech

And an iPad-only app, TOTALe Studio HD, lets you practice the language with native speakers during prescheduled video chats.

WSJ: The Best Language Learning Apps | App Happy

The number of areas of Wales where Welsh is the majority language - in north and west Wales - is still reducing, fuelling fears that the language may lose its capacity to produce new native speakers.

BBC: Call for new language movement