Roles Of English Language Essay

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1. Role of English language

The English language originated in England and is now widely spoken on six continents. It is the primary language of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various small island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is also an official language of India, the Philippines, Singapore, and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. In 2009, English functions as a global lingua franca, i.e., it is the means of communication between speakers who have different first languages in various settings around the world (Berns, 2007:5). The growth of English language depends on several factors such as the role of the U.S. in the ending of World War I and World War II, and powerful country standing. The influence of American music and social media on Europe has made English language a part of secondary education in Europe. For instance, globalisation has resulted in greater competition between languages, on both a regional and a worldwide scale, with both winners and losers. (Maurais and Moriss, 2003; 1-3). According …show more content…

Literacy in this case is used not in direct meaning as it is normally used. Regularly literacy is the capability to read and write. It is time to take into consideration that extramural activities also help to learn foreign language. Today language is closely connected with symbols, diagrams, images and other alternative visual symbols. According to James Paul Gee newspapers, magazines and textbooks give up more and more space for the images. Pictures became independent of the words in the text because they carry new meanings. There are plenty images which meanings cannot be recovered from the words in the text alone. As an example we can take technical diagrams covering cell division in biology books. Information is not fully expanded in the words of the text

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