The Colonial Expansion of English - English as a global language

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics grade: 13 University of Lüneburg (Anglistik/Amerikanistik) course: History of English and English historical linguistics language: English abstract: English is the language of commerce and tourism of international politics of science the official language of international and multinational companies and industries the language of air traffic control of international news agencies of mass entertainment of computers and of the Internet. It is assumed that about a quarter of the world`s population is already fluent or competent in English (that means around 15 billion people) and that there is a total of 75 territories where English has a special place in society. These regions can be divided according to the status they give English: Either they have English as a native language as a second or official language or as a foreign language. This classification is visualized by the so-called Three-circle-model: The inner circle compromises those countries where English is the primary language of communication and is learnt as a native language by the majority of the population. It includes the United States the United Kingdom Ireland Canada Australia and New Zealand. The outer or extended circle represents the countries where English plays an important role in a non-native setting. In many cases these are former British colonies where the English language is part of the countries leading institutions and of various other domains. This circle includes India Malawi Singapore and 50 other territories. The expanding circle involves those countries in which English is learnt as a lingua franca by many people. These countries neither have a history of colonization nor have they given English any administrative status. Such countries are Germany Japan Israel and a growing number of other states. Fennel (2004) divides the global spreading of English that ha