The main reason why English is so important is mainly due to the political and economic power the British used to have in the world. Between 17th and early 20th century Britain 's imperial power was at its peak in the countries it had colonized. This power led to the rapid spread of the English language. The legacy of British imperialism caused many former colonies to thoroughly institutionalize the English language in their courts, parliament,
English is now considered an international language and a lingua franca for many nations. It reached a level of globalization where it became a language that operates as a mean of communication worldwide. Many linguists see that English is the most developed language in the world, as many theories has been developed around the language to analyze its origin and how it achieved its global state. English is not a language for just the United Kingdom of Britain; 1.5 to 2 billion English active speakers exist today and they use English in their professional and personal life. English, nowadays, has become a language for almost everything, so English now has its global identity.
While the imperial expansion dur-ing the 19th century enabled a vast spread of English, America created a media in the 20th cen-tury, whose popularity gained a global audience. Furthermore, the 20th century began to glob-alise as a means to prevent global wars and re-build the global economy. Hence, the need for a global language became urgent. A global language would be convenient between communi-cation across boarders such as in air travel and in the political unions. This ultimately led to English being chosen as the global language.
English is an global language it is not only proved through these quotations or statements but it also proved worldwide as everyone of us wherever we go if we speak English people can understand it regardless of the fact that this language is not their mother language it’s the second language. It is such a universal language that everyone of us either they are politicians or they are news casters or television anchors they use English language. Signs and advertisements in hotels and restaurants even the menu is also in English language. From this it is clearly understood the global importance and the universal acceptance of the English Language. So now
Not only has it shaped the country to the way it is today, it also developed the entire world into how we know it today. In the lead up to WW1, the British army had lots of support from their commonwealth countries overseas, making Britain a huge rival for many countries, in battles and wars prior to WW1 and a force not to be reckoned with. A lot of these countries could and still can speak English due to the spread of the empire which strengthened trading relationships and allowed Britain to gain more wealth and produce. Additionally, Britain now had more money to spend on weaponry, ships, vehicles and to develop tactics - this obviously augmented the British military and reinforced their chances of
The British travelled around the world building their own empire, and as they grew stronger and established colonies in every continent, the English language was spread and used by people all around the world. This is why the English language is an official language in 52 countries today, which leads to the next question. Why is the English language such an important language today? Importance of English today English is a language of England and it is the most successful language in history of the world. The language is spoken all over the world and is a Global Language.
In the 1900s, many of the colonies gained their independence, but kept English as an official language. There are more than a billion speakers of English today when you count the native speakers and the level two speakers.
Globalization ,networking ,economic integration ,internet and MNC’s together have played major roles in giving English the status of major lingua franca of world beyond doubt. English as lingua franca has comfortably taken its role in business, science, engineering and also in various cultural fields. People like Widdowson, Seidlehofer and Jenkins have pointed out that use of English as lingua franca has become the fastest growing function in the world .Most of the scientific ,technological and academic information in the world is expressed in English and 80% of all the information stored in electronic retrieval system is in English(crystal,1997:106).with revolutionary economic growth ELF along with it has emerged as the most vibrant field of study English is the bridge or breath between people or of the people belonging to different fields. At the same time well established sociolinguistic fact is that language are shaped by their users and nowadays L2 learners are more in number than that of native speakers. India is one good example of English as ELF because it needs English as one of the official language even though many languages spoken in the country.
ENGLISH: THE UNVOIDABLE TREND English is a part of the unavoidable trend toward worldwide uniformity and means where a growing number of people can communicate directly with each other. It is the most common language spoken everywhere and its usage in the global world today is undeniable. Economic globalization is going hand in hand with the growing use of it. People are being encouraged to use this language especially in formal way of writing and communicating particularly on workplace. However, despite of its enormous influence there are still many countriesthathave least of basic competence on its use.
English is the mother tongue of 300 million people in the world. The countries where English is the native or first language are the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Some other countries like India, Pakistan, Africa, France, and the Soviet Union, etc. use English as a second or foreign language. Thus English is spoken by 700 million people in the world, which is next only to the Chinese language.