In a world where roughly 6,500 spoken languages exist, a way of communication- a lingua franca- is essential to integrate the people and move positively towards an even more globalized world. English language, with over 360 million native speakers, has served as this lingua franca or as a bridge language since circa the previous century. It has made it painless and more facile for people of different cultures to communicate— both in the diplomatic sense between official governments and in between the people. Although, United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and England are the main English-speaking countries, nations like India and Philippines have English as one of their official languages. English has now become the tool which minimizes misunderstandings and leads towards a better understanding of the two sides. It has become such an important language that even in countries where it isn’t an official language, it is essential to getting a substantial job. The common-belief is mostly that English is an easy language which is why it serves as the global language. However, this idea is inherently false. To start off, for instance, how could someone recite at a play and play at a recital? How could a soldier decide to desert his dessert in the desert? Not a thing proves English to be easier than German or French. One reads what she writes in German whilst in English, that is certainly not the case. A simple word “Wednesday” is pronounced “Wenzdā-dē” as opposed to “Wednesday” – the way it is actually written. Additionally, English has borrowed numerous words from other languages which gives the language an enormous vocabulary. By way of example, one could say beautiful, pretty, or gorgeous— all of which are synonym... ... middle of paper ... ... a good salary. Global students wanting to study in the United States have to, for instance, take the TOEFL or Test of English as a Foreign Language which determines one’s level of proficiency. Thousands of people fail to do well in this test and have to repeatedly take it until they obtain a better grade which can lead them to better educational or job opportunities. Succinctly, English proficiency serves as the cheese for the crackers. For every native English-speaker, there are at least three non-native English speakers. The magnificent fact, however, it that this is only the beginning. In a span of about ten years, knowing English will most probably become an absolute requirement for any advancement one wants to take. No matter how hard one must work to improve her English, in the end it is worth all the trouble. Being able to converse in English is a luxury.
English is a language, originally the language of people of england. Today, English is the main language of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and more than fifty other countries. Worldwide, there are over 400 million native speakers of english, and over one billion more people speak it as second language. English is probably the third language in terms of number of native speakers and probably the most widely spoken language on the planet taking into account native and non-native speakers. Consequently English is sometimes described
Since the 16th century, the language of English, which in theory, stems from a small island between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea has, to an extent, stretched across the world, with as many as 50 countries now using it has their official language (British Council, 2013) in some form or another. This spread was seemingly due to several influential factors; the expansion of the British Empire, Britains leadership in the industrial revolution, American's economic and political ascendancy from the late 19th century and the spread of English through technology like the internet (E. Schneider, 2007: 1).
Language is one of the most basic values of a society that differentiates one society from other one. Each country desires to be superior over other countries and spread of its language and their culture to win in a way over other countries language. The growing utilization of English to communicate internationally has been continuing in several decades which makes English as one of the growing language between the countries; as Robson reported that “English is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people worldwide
In the year 2014, the language that is most spoken around the world is English. There are currently 1.5 billion people that speak English as their first language, second language or as a foreign language. The English language has had a great impact on the world as a whole. English is still the dominant language that is spoken throughout the world. Although the language has evolved over time and changed in many ways it has still stuck around and became a language that was spread throughout the world. This paper will go into detail how English was established as a dominant language and the history of the language spreading. I will also explain why the increase of the language is a positive and negative development.
The increased concern with different languages was obviously related to the World War but also to the major shift in the quantity of immigrants to America. For centuries, the United States of America has been considered the ultimate country where dreams are made and a place where everyone wants to migrate to for better living standards. It is argued that dialectally diverse nations need a standard language to permit mutual understanding and in a global society, for instance, it is the whole world that can benefit from a national language. French as well as Latin once took on this role as an international medium of communication and in this era, as well as the future years, English is and should be the global voice.
English is the Global Language of today. There is great controversy circumventing this view. Although there are positive outcomes, the negatives outbalance them to some extent as it means that many languages will die out as a result. As a global lingua franca, English has the puissance to enhance communication between individuals, being particularly favourable and propitious in the area of economics and trade. Despite this, it has persistently been the substratum for the death of numerous other languages, consequently posing a threat to identity, and the value of language and culture.
English is an international language. It has been used as a communication media by all people in the world. English is an important language that must be mastered by all people of all community in the world.
In the twenty-first century the world is becoming more urban and more modernized, and the adoption of English is a symptom of this, for increasingly English serves as the lingua franca of business and popular culture. It is dominant or at least very prominent in other areas such as diplomacy, shipping, computing, medicine and education. Ding and Saunders (2006) defines lingua franca – a term which refers to any language which serves as a common medium for communication between speakers of different tongues--has its origins in the domination of the Levant by Latin-rite Europeans (Franks) during the Middle Ages. While English is incontestably the global lingua franca of the current era of globalization, it is not without competitors (Ding & Saunders, 2006). In Asia, especially in East and Southeast Asia, with the development of tourism and international trading more frequently, Chinese has becoming one of the most important communication language in the region. A report in YAZHOU ZHOUKAN (2003), said that:
A language with rather humble roots, one that has been twisted and bent, one that has taken and borrowed from other languages, and one that has been the subject of much debate as to the correctness of certain usages, today English is the language that the world uses to communicate. The world uses English for a variety of reasons from commerce and trade, to political decisions, to technology and science, and beyond. The entire world uses English to get business done. Thus it truly has become the lingua franca for the world.
Many fresh graduates cannot master many languages, especially international language or English. English is important in the era of globalization and information communication technology (ICT) today. We need graduates who not only have confidence, foresight and eloquence to speak or communicate. Therefore, employers will hire workers based on their strengths to master English because many companies use English as the language of communication.
Today, English is used by millions of peopleforseveral communicative functions across the countries. English seems to
This is because it has different verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, tenses and nouns that make it easy to learn compared to other languages like Chinese and Spanish whose system is hard to grasp. In most cases, many non-English and Chinese speakers will understand the English alphabet faster than the Chinese and Spanish alphabet.
Why has particularly English as a language become a global language? Researching this topic, answers to this question can be found in a global power the British Empire and the USA had during the history, especially since World War II (David Crystal, English as a Global Language, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2003). Most of the improvements which are essential for the mankind have their roots in English speaking areas and that is why English is dominating the globe in medical research, technological innovation and rock ‘n’ roll.
English, the language mostly of the colonizers during the British Raj became accepted to the higher strata, educationally, economically and socially progressive class of the Indian society during the post-independence period. English is the language of industrialization and modernization, and now it is the language of globalization. Observing the rapid change in the place of English in India Scrase remarked “english is recognized as an important global or international language, essential for professional employment and significantly, a key component of the cultural capital of middle class Indians”.
English spreads widely in each countries, no matter the area of region or information transfer, English becomes an important position in global language. As the specification of a global language, it essentially refers to a language that learned and spoken internationally, so English can be the most out-standing. According to the number of English-speaking calculations, English is the official language used by most countries, English is the most widely used second language in the world, and the percentage of web pages with English content is estimated to be over 50% (Crystal, 2003). Meanwhile, the history and usefulness cause English to be a global language, and they mainly influence to spread English faster in China and to bring convenience