Importance Of English Language

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It is unquestionable that English today enjoy a significant status as the most worldwide spoken language. It becomes part of daily life of many people for many reasons: enjoyment, academic, economic, and other purposes. It is spoken throughout the world either as a first or second language, not only with English speakers, but with people of different first languages. Crystal (1994) describes its status as ‘global language’ where it started to have ‘a special role that is recognized in every country in the world’. The prominent characteristic of a global language is that it is the most widely used language in communication in most places in the world; either as an official language or language of administration. In fact, in some countries…show more content…
In fact, Graddol (1977:10) claims that as the three circles of English overlap with the 'centre of gravity' shifting towards L2 English speakers at the start of the 21st century, in the next century 'those who speak English alongside other languages will outnumber first-language speakers and, increasingly, will decide the global future of the language’. The growth of English today has further been accelerated by the expanding power of the United States in every domain: politic, economic and technology. It is rarely to watch or hear films, songs, or TV programmes, in another language than English. To access to the internet, one has to know at least the basic of English. This influence ensures the use of English in order to do business. This situation means that all people are involved in either teaching or learning English. Both natives and non-natives are today involved in ELT. This special position undergirds the recent models of English labeled by different terminologies such as World Englishes (WE) (Kachru, 1992; Rajagopalan, 2004; Widdowson, 1994) and English as an International Language (EIL) (McKay, 2004; Nakamura, 2002; Phan Le Ha, 2005). The notion of intercultural communication for EFL learners becomes therefore at the very heart of language…show more content…
With the spread of English as a global language, it is used by largely between non-native speakers as much as between native and non-native English speakers. English language is less used as a means of communication between the native speakers from ‘target culture’, but more with large numbers of non English speakers from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The rise of English as an international language of research, business and industry has dissociated native speakership of English from its traditional geographic locations. English has become the lingua franca between people who don’t speak each other’s national languages (Kramsch 1998). Writers in the fields of World Englishes or English as an International Language (EIL,) point out that English is no longer “owned” by any particular culture and belongs to the world at large, and it is misleading to suggest that the “culture of English” is limited to certain geographical areas or nations (qtd in Nault D.2006). As Crystal (1994) denotes, the spread of English and its role as a global language has increased in the number of non-native English speakers in the world, and thus to the emergence of so many different varieties of English who started to feel the sense of ownership toward English
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