English as a global language

1. What is a Global Language?

"Global English" in a sociolinguistic context refers almost literally to the use of English as a global language. It means a common language for the world.

A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country. Having such a status, the global language has to be of a great importance, influencing all the domains of the human activity in the world.

For example English dominate such fields as the media, foreign language teaching, business etc.

But still, it should be quite uncontroversial to state that English definitely plays an enormously important role in all the countries all over the world. Even though the enormous importance of English for communication in Europe and its remarkably high prestige are undeniable facts, it is questionable whether it is entirely justified to talk of English as a global language in the European Union. Global on a global scale it definitely is but perhaps not global in the meaning of dominating all parts of the world or rather all areas of human activity in all parts of the world to the same extent. For example in EU, English is not being the language with the highest number of native speakers. It is only the national official language of the UK and one of the national official languages of the Republic of Ireland.

2. English isn't suitable for an international language.

Some people have the opinion that English isn't suitable for use as an international language. The reasons are, firstly, that English is a national language. They think no national language is suitable for international use. Why? Because if we accept a national language as international, that gives enormous political and cultural advantages to the country or countries for which the chosen language is the native tongue. Secondly, they find, English is very difficult for most Asian people. They say that if we take English as the international language, 90% of people of the world who don't know English will be discriminated and they find it unreasonable.

3. Why English is and should be an international language?

a) Who speaks English?

English is present on every continent. In over 60 countries it is used

officially or without the sanction of government and is prominent in 20 more.

There are three kinds of English speakers, those who speak it as their first

language, those who speak it as a second language and those who learn it a

foreign language.

Today about 400 million people speak English as their mother tongue or

first language. Over 50 million children study English as an additional language

at primary level and over 80 million study it at secondary level.

b) The origins of the English language

English we know is derived from the language of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Until the early 1600s only a few million people spoke English. They lived on a small island in the North Sea. The English traveled all over the world and settled. The areas where the English settled were called colonies. Trade between the mother country and the colonies became an important factor. The language used was English. Now English has for more than 150 years been called a world language.

c) The state of English at the present time

Today, we will acknowledge that English is sweeping the planet's physical, economic, cultural and cyber space. Hollywood, Microsoft, Coca-Col, the hegemony