David Graddol (1953 â 1 March 2019) was a British linguist who worked in applied linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and history of linguistics. He died on 1 March 2019.
He was perhaps best known for his 1997 book The Future of English?, published by the British Council, in which he offers scenarios for how English as a world language may develop. Most notably, he pointed out that native speakers of English were or would soon be outnumbered by those who speak English as a second or foreign language. In an article that focuses more specifically on this issue, he stated the following:
Graddol's views about English as a world language are similar to, though not identical with, those held by his linguist colleague David Crystal.
Graddol graduated from the University of York with a BA in Language and Linguistics in 1975, also in Sociology in 1983. He earned his PhD from the Stockholm University.
He married Margaret Keeton and they had triplet daughters.