December 1, 2011 English Department

The Importance of English

English language can easily be considered as the most important language in the world. Modern English is the worlds lingua franca and the language with the most direct and indirect influences over many countries, societies and people in general. English is important for a variety of reasons including frequent usage in many different countries, being preferred in technology and its growth at rapid pace. First, usage of English is spread over a hundred countries where it is spoken either as a first or second language. Some statistics argue that almost four hundred million people speak English as a first language in almost one hundred countries. In addition, one of the most learned languages is English in function of a second language; millions of people study English (including this class) as a second language. Moreover, due to numerous factors English is the worlds lingua franca and one is able to communicate with it in many parts of the world. Second, preferred language in technology is English over many other languages. The Internet was developed by native English speakers so English is most often used and needed language if you want to make use of the World Wide Web. Also, computer operating systems and other software are primarily developed in English; translations of software programs are usually available in other world languages at later times. Furthermore, the syntax of numerous

programming languages requires the use of English in some amount. English words are often used online, and they have even started to replace words of other languages. Third, the rapid growth sets English as a highly influential and high impact language. A variety of factors have led to the growth of English. Initially, the influence of developed countries on the rest of the world is profound. Industrial and economic influences help spread English to different parts of the world. Subsequently, countries and societies in developing regions look up to already developed ones and begin to slowly adapt to and take up similarities. Ultimately, English is effectively outgrowing many world languages and could be thought of as the lingua franca of globalization. All in all, the impact of the English language cannot pass unnoticed even to those not having a part in it. English is surely, at least by current predictions and growth, going to dominate other world languages. It has outpaced many of them already and others need to watch out for.