English as a Global Language

Abstract

How far has English already spread? How much further can we expect it to go? In response to the first question, this chapter tries to identify the areas of life where English already serves as a lingua franca in the world (more or less) and those where the language faces sharp competition and does not threaten to marginalize the other major languages. The former areas of life are international safety, the internal business of international organizations, internal communication within the international news industry, international sports and science. The latter areas are the press, television, the internet, publishing and international trade. As to the second question, about the future prospects of English, the chapter argues that the advance of English will depend heavily on the motives to learn the other major languages in the world as well. Based on the empirical evidence, the same model applies to the incentives to learn English and these other languages. On the important topic of welfare, the cultural market is the single one where it is arguable that the progress of English has gone too far. English dominance in the song, the cinema and the best-seller is indeed extraordinary and difficult to reconcile with the evidence popular attachments to home languages, which is otherwise strong and apparent.

Exploring Undergraduate Students’ Perception Toward the Use of Duolingo in Learning English

“…English as an internationally recognized language, with more than 1.5 billion speakers around the world, has become the biggest and the largest lingua franca in the world (Melitz, 2016). People from different countries can speak across nations by using the language.…”

Breakdown of the Anglo-Saxon Model of Globalization

“…At the same time, there are different papers that indirectly touch some problems of modern globalization stemming from the background of the Anglo-Saxon Model: these are economic (Jennings, 2006;Henrekson & Jakobsson, 2003;Docquier & Hillel, 2012), cultural (Bielsa, 2012;Mélitz, 2015;Komori, 2015), and sociopolitical consequences. Paradoxically, the prime importance of influence that the Anglo-Saxon Model of Globalization has on the modern world was hardly ever considered as an independent matter.…”

Anglo-Saxon imperialism through cultural goods: titles suggested for young readers in Portugal

“…Although Mélitz (2015) agrees that in certain cases -such as large international meetings with members from many different countries -having a working language such as English makes things easier, he is baffled by the dominance of the language in cultural areas, namely music, the film industry and best-selling books. Referring to the role of English as a lingua franca in the world today, the author finds evidence of such supremacy in the singles top chart since 1942, where only four singles from the ones that sold over five million copies were not sung in English.…”