Teach English in Richmond - TEFL Courses

Thinking of english in a perespective of a‘global language' we need to first explain what exactly a ‘global language'is.There is no official definition for this term but we can say that ‘global language' is a language spoken internationally which is learned by many people in the world.David Crystal in his book ‘english as a global language'says that'a language acheives a global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country'.(1)If so,could we say that english has a status of a global language?Certainly yes.english is now the third most commonly spoken language in the world. Over 375 million people speak english as their first language.(1)Only two languages: Mandarin chinese and spanish are spoken by more people than english.In almost every country people learn english because it is one of the most powerful and important languages in the world.But how did this all start? It is believed that the main reason why english has became a ‘global lanuage'is the expansion of the British Empire in the past. Colonised countries adopted english as their own language. Nowadays english is spoken as a first language by most of the people in : United Kingdom, ireland,the united states, canada, australia, New Zealand, Gibraltar, Grenada,Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda or Singapore.(2)There are many countries like Nigeria or Jamaica where millions of people speak dialects of english. Over many years english has become one of the world's most powerful languages. It is increasingly the international language of business,internet, media and diplomacy. english is spoken in more than a hundred countries in the world!Considering that english is not an official language in most countries we could say that it has become currently the most popular language to learn. Almost every country in the world has number of english schools with many english teachers teaching and hundred of students learning this language. All of these people learn english for many different reasons.Some of them may learn english because they want to increase job opportunities.Nowadays one of the main requirements to apply for many jobs in the world is a knowlege of english language.Sometimes they require only the knowledge of basic english but not always.In many cases candidates who apply for a certain position have to know for example business english as well. Some people learn english because they want to communicate with other nationalities (they may have friends abroad,boyfriend or girlfriend,etc.) while others learn it because they want to enjoy english films, literature, poetry, TV programs.Others want to travel or emigrate to the country where english is spoken so they have to learn english for everyday life.Whatever reason people have, they know that english is the key. People are able to communicate in english almost everywhere.We can notice that for example when we travel abroad. Everyone can read instructions and expalnations in hotels and at the airports, menus in restaurants and caffes,signs on the roads and motorways because they are written,next to the country's native lanuage, also in english.We can always find someone who can speak a bit of english when we leave our country.When we travel abroad we are surrounded by other travelers or backpackers who can also communicate in english wherever they are come from! The english language is often described as the ‘lingua franca' (language used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue) of computing.Many computer programs,computer games or internet world use english as a main language. One of the reason why english became a ‘global langage'is culture of the US which spread english across the globe.Let's start from the cinema and movies. The cinema of the united states has had a huge effect on cinema across the world. Major film studios like Universal Pictures,Walt Disney Pictures or Miramax Films produce hundred of movies every year.(3) American major film studios making the united states the third most prolific producer of films in the world(after india and Nigeria).(4)America has an impressive numer of world reknown singers,sports people,models and also amazing tourist attractions.Who doesn't know Madonna or Michael Jackson?Who wouldn't like to visit Disney Land or do some shopping in New York ?Who wouldn't like to take a photo with the Hollywood sign?Many young people go to America and play sports for American basketball,baseball or football teams.Young girls from all over the world go to America to become famous models.And these are only few reasons why America has such a big influence on popularity of english language. We should propably wonder now if the spread of english all over the world is a good or bad thing? I believe that the global status of english has propably both positive benefits and negative impacts.The benefit is that anywhere you go you can communicate with people in the same language.It make your life easier!The dominance of the english languge is also good for business.The bad thing is that the presence of a global language will make people lazy about learning other languages.(6)People become culturally ignorant and we can observe the loss of local languages as an result. I think that english is a global language and it is really worth considering learning it. By improving your english you may get a better job, meet people from all over the world,make new friendships,feel more independent when you travel and keep up-to-date with world news,music,movies and and so on.And don't forget that learning new language is chalenging too! References: (1)David Crystal,'english as a global language',Cambridge University Press,2003 (2)www.wikipedia.org (3)www.wikipedia.org (4)http://ncam.wgbh.org/mopix/studios.html (5)"Nigeria's Nollywood eclipsing Hollywood in Africa". The Independent. 2010-05-15. Retrieved 2010-11-24. (6)David Crystal,'english as a global language',Cambridge University Press,2003