Why has English become such an important language in the world today?

Question

I`d like to have a good list of reasons listing the most important answers for a university student.
I came up with my own list. However, i'd like to have more well-rooted reasons to tell.

Answer 1

I'd highly suggest you to read the book "Linguistic Imperialism" by Robert Phillipson (1992).

The author tries to draw a theoretical framework in order to find some answers to the same question you ask. His major concern is the role of ELT in promoting English, and hence cultural and linguistic imperialism.

According to Phillipson, the promotion of the English language is intentional and deliberate provided by both public and private forces. The spread of English has not been left to chance, and language pedagogy (ELT) has played its part in this process.

He lists many other reasons that play a role in the promotion of English throughout his book. So, I think you'll benefit greatly from this book.

Answer 2

English is an important business language in the world today.

It has a long history of use in multiple countries due to the past of Western imperialism.

Most of the countries with first world standards (superpowers, high economic drive) use English as a language or have large groups of English speaking minorities.

America, while composed of different groups, is adamantly nationalistic, and many citizens support English as the national language. The language has the ability to pick up words from other languages, such as buffalo (Navajo), margarita (Spanish), etc.

Chinese is also picking up in popularity, due to business reasons.

Answer 3

because the british empire was the largest of any era ( even bigger than that of Genghis Khan( temujin) . So now we see that english is the 3-rd( or 4-th) used language in the world after chinese, spanish, ( the indians, although they will surpass the chinese in numbers in a few decades have hundreds of languages so those don't count)

also, the british didn't teach anyone to sail. At the time when english ppl even had boats the chinese where hundreds of years more developed, actually the sail with allows u to go in all directions and not depending on wid direction was taken from the chinese by the western world.

also, romanians pioneered air travel, especially that which includes jets.

Answer 4

Technology and Commerce are the driving forces behind the widespread use of English. Many of these advances were invented or discovered in English speaking countries, so if you wanted to be in the know, you had to know English.
Also, the United States was settled by people from all over the world, so English became the common language that they used to communicate with each other. In this way, it became the second, or third language for many people.

Answer 5

Well, after the British colonized much of the world, the United States has continued the reign of the English language. For quite some time now, the English-speaking countries have been the dominant ones, so, in order to keep up, everyone else has to learn English. That, to me, is the predominant reason. Yeah, sure, we can go into specifics, but details aren't going to answer this question any more effectively.

Answer 6

Because the British colonized half the world and the Americans kind of took over spreading the English language all over the world.

Moreover, English is a fairly easy language to learn as compared to many others.

Answer 7

The world power today is the Anglo-American.
The native tongue of both countries is English.
Every government on earth requires that those who seek citizenship, must be fluent in that nationality's tongue, reading, speaking, and comprehension.
You have a world power were the native tongue is English and it has tremendous influence on other countries.
Logic dictates that good communication requires understanding and comprehension of what is said.
Therefore, English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world today.
Could have been French instead of English, but the wars fought here in the US were lost to the English.
The bible prophesied about this last world power, nearly 1,700 years before it came on the scene.
That sir, is more interesting that why English is spoken

Answer 8

English has a unique quality of being able to absorb words from other languages, making them part of English, rather than having to resort to other languages, even though terms we commonly use in English (Shampoo, bandit, curfew, etc.) are derived from them. This may be attributable to its original character as a hybrid language, a mixture of Latin and Germanic, which blended to result in a language that could easily assimilate words and phrases from many other sources.

Another important attribute of English is its conciseness and how it lends itself to quick abbreviations. When new terms are invented, for example in technology, it is the English term that usually becomes common usage. Many terms, especially related to technology, in other languages, involve extended phrases where English gives a simple word or even an abbreviation, making it a kind of communication shorthand no matter where you are from.

Answer 9

the real reason of the dominance of English in the worldwide is with the help of the dominance of united statesa. in the worldwide. united statesa. has been preferable in the worldwide of technology, technologies, bussiness and politics through fact the 2d worldwide conflict and English is the language spoken in united statesa.. to maintain up with all issues going on in those factors, you're able to understand English, so further and extra human beings began to earnings English through fact the worldwide grew to become further and extra worldwide. in the sixteenth to19th century French became extra dominant in the Western worldwide, yet that became until eventually now the time of globalisation and it became purely used (exterior of France and different needless to say French conversing factors) in the better training of Europe.

Answer 10

1. It is the language of sea travel (The British taught the world how to sail, pretty much.)
2. It is the language of air travel (Americans pioneered air travel)
3. It is the language of the internet (again, because Americans invented it)
4. The sheer enormity of the amount of former British colonies.
5. The desire of most people to be able to move to the US.