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English has evolved in the last hundred years from being a fragment of the old Latin world to being widely spoken around the new world. Despite living in America, we see international meetings where leaders of many countries all speak English to communicate with each other. Is it possible that English has become the lingua franca and will continue into the future to be the global language? There are many sources that indicate that future can only hold English as its selected language. In the future we will have a variety of “Englishes” that will dominate global communication, and this will occur because the dominance of English is believed to be ‘inevitable’, practical to foreign nations, and finally it appeals to a multicultural perspective for a cosmopolitan society.
Everywhere you look around the world you can find the English language. In The Mother Tongue: English & How it got that Way, Bill Bryson explains, “In Yugoslavia they speak five languages. In not one of them does the word stop exist, yet every stop sign in the country says just that” (Bryson 179). Around the world we see examples of countries that don’t natively speak English but use English as a marketing scheme. Further Bryson mentions, “…On the bottom of the eraser is a further message: ‘We are ecologically minded. This package will self-destruct in Mother Earth’. It is a product that was made in Japan solely for Japanese consumers, yet there is not a word of Japanese on it” (Bryson 180). We can see the rise in world distributors producing ‘English’ products as the world looking for a common language; it’s seen as trendy, and obviously something that the people want. With the history of English starting at relatively the same time as the romance languages, it’s ...
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... at Essex Conference." Essex Chronicle [Chelmsford] 15 Mar. 2012, News sec.: 34. Proquest. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://search.proquest.com.accarcproxy.mnpals.net/docview/928036123/1359728E7DD36B71E65/5?accountid=48834
Liston, Enjoli. "Say Hello to a New Language." The Independent [London] 18 Jan. 2012: 40. Proquest. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://search.proquest.com.accarcproxy.mnpals.net/docview/916426138/13597240297686A7755/5?accountid=48834
Zhang, Xiaohong, and Margaret Zeegers. "Redefining The Role Of English As A Foreign Language In The Curriculum In The Global Context." Changing English: Studies In Culture & Education 17.2 (2010): 177-187. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.
http://web.ebscohost.com.accarcproxy.mnpals.net/ehost/detail?sid=9cea4021-16db-43c9-96b8-6c68973bc7ad%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&hid=18&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=51624034
The author, Bill Bryson, briefly introduces and describes the history of English. In this book, The Mother Tongue, Bryson uses an interesting way and scholarly manner to guide readers through the various linguistic and social movements in the English language, the center of the world language as well as the export of manufactured goods. He gives different kinds of instances by comparing with various languages to present how the language merged together of interacting.
The "English Belongs to Everybody." Language Awareness. 4 th Ed. Eds. Paul Eschholt, Alfred Rosa, Virginia Clark.
“More and more multinational companies are mandating English as the common corporate language—Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Microsoft in Beijing, to name a few—in an attempt to facilitate communication and performance across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors” (Neeley). There’s only a matter of time English becomes both the government and business language because it’s growing at an extraordinary
Mollin, S., 2006. “English as a Lingua Franca: A New Variety in the New Expanding Circle?”, The Nordic Journal of English Studies 5(2), pp. 41-57. Available from
At the present time, English is the most extensively spoken language in the world. It has been used for different objects around the world such as education, commerce, tourism, and science. People all around the world continue to learn English to stretch out their different aims. A critical question originates in terms of English language teaching at this point, that is, whether to teach ‘culture’ along with English or not. The question of teaching ‘culture’ along with English has been discussed by some scholars from the fields of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics for nearly two decades. There are four views concerning the issue. The first one attitudes that ‘target language culture’ should be taught added to English to acculturate language
Mydans, Seth. "Across Cultures, English Is the Word." New York Times. N.p., 9 Apr. 2007. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
As the Western world began to spread its influence on the rest of the planet, its language found its way into the most unlikely hands. Foreign countries, like India, (i.e. populations of non-native English speakers) began to accept the English language as an attempt to communicate with the native-speaking population and amongst themselves. The need to speak the language amongst them arose from ...
It has been adopted by different sectors making it one of the most used languages in the globe. This has been attributed to its effective nature, easy learning and rich history. However, conservative groups exist who argues that there should be global language since it may cause the emergence of superior cultures. Nevertheless, it is evident that different cultures ranging from the early polish immigrants, the African American community, the advertising and media will greatly benefit from the globalization of the English language. This will prove in the end that English is indeed a global
Since the establishment of the British Empire, the spread of English language has been experienced in many parts of the globe. The success can be attributed significantly to the colonization activities that the empire had embarked on. They would train the indigenous community English language as they suppressed the local dialect. This massive spread is termed as lingual imperialism (Osterhammel 2005, pp. 14). The English language has become the first and second language of many nations across the world, and this makes it an international language. The native’s proportion to the non-native who speaks English cannot be compared with nations in the isle of Britain and far are speaking the language .considering that more than 70%
Fauziati, Endang. (2015). Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Principle and practice. Surakarta: Era PustakaUtama.
...nology is moving ahead at the speed of light. With all this advancement comes the inevitable need for a language that unifies the world. The need for a common language to conduct our business and economic affairs, and our need to communicate internationally on political and world interventions has made English the leader in world languages. It is not the language spoken first by most, but it the language that the world uses when it comes together to communicate.
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
The spread of English where it used as a foreign and/or a second language may be compromised if it is replaced by another language such as Chinese or Spanish. For example, if China continues to gradually dominate the world economically, politically and technologically, its language could replace English as the major foreign language taught and learnt in various countries’ education systems because they b...
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.
Do we need to study foreign languages, since English become more and more popular around the world? Does every country need to implement English learning in all educational programs? What will happen to English if the political and economic importance of Asia exceeds the importance of the Europe and the US? There are a lot of different answers to these questions and today they are highly debatable and controversial. I believe that it is hard to underestimate the role of English in a modern global society and most probably it will gain more and more importance as a world language, however, the spread of English does not diminish the importance of other languages and the need to study them. This paper will examine the reasons of the emergence of English as a global language, explain the main problems and controversies of its dominance and gives some projections on the role of English language in the future society.