The spread of English in a Global World

Essay by Katya-azarUniversity, Master'sB-, November 2007

download word file, 9 pages 0.0


English, as a means of communication has become the world's "global" language. English is all over the world. Everywhere you go nowadays people seem to be speaking certain level of English. It can be seen wherever you travel - on the airports and train stations, on the road signs and advertisement, in hotels and restaurant menus, and even in the small shops. It comes with the British or American music and films, it comes with the news, which in many countries are produced in English.

Undoubtedly in the modern life the Internet and the media are the driving forces of this process. However the globalization of English language initially started at the end of the 19th Century with the invention of the telegraph, the device which first connected the world. Another very important factor is that 'language goes where power goes. There has been some suspicion around the world of the English speaking powers and their motives for the globalization of English' (Bragg, n.d.).

The reason why English has been associated with world powers is that for the past two centuries the British Empire followed by the American Empire had been colonising the world, imposing their language on to the collonised population. Also, the industrial revolution and the advancement of the economics at that time are of great significance for the spread of the language.

In this essay I will focus on one of the burning questions on ' Whose English is it, anyway?' and will also review the role of the English language as a Lingua Franca.

(Rossi, 2007). Since English has become a global language, one of the main disputes is on whether it belongs to the native speakers of English any more. Naturally, such statements are very likely to...