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english as a global languageIn present world we are witnessing globalization era. Part of that globalization is thanks to the Internet boom and explosive electronic communication growth. More and more people are able to contact with others from all around the globe instantly, exchange information, news, get shopping done, take classes on line, search for answers, or find major entertainments. Since economy becomes globalized as well, people need not only to play together but they need to communicate and work together as well. english is becoming an important tool in that communication and slowly becoming more and more popular as connecting various peoples around the globe. There is no requirement for standard forms of english when communicating on internet as the communication in english is exchanged between partners in both english speaking and non english speaking countries where native speakers are to be more tolerant and perceptive when communicating with non-native speaker. Since for many english speakers english is not their first language when communicate in english they use english as a lingua franca. For a chinese businessman communicating to a Russian one would make no importance of using US, UK, or other standardized forms of english. It is estimated that over 1 billion people are learning english globally in two basic categories of foreign language speakers. Those speaking occasionally and those speaking english as second language daily. That number is expected to grow higher especially in Asia. Historically, english went through centuries of development but it evolved from West Germanic languages Anglo-Saxons arriving from the Continent in the 5th century and was further influenced with numerous cultures like Latin, greek, french, and adapted a significant amount of vocabulary and grammar until 14th century when it became standardized. First step toward globalization of english was by establishments of permanent english speaking colonies in north america and Australia and consequently as relatively well established was brought to New Zealand, Asia, and Africa. Major milestone of english globalization was done by Woodrow Wilson requesting english to be a common language of diplomacy. International english advocates believe that english is already a world language and needs to be more constructed and promoted through one of following: 1, a Laissez-faire without a specific global legislation 2, sponsored grass-root programs abroad 3, national legations to give english some sort official status, and 4, international legislation under auspices of United Nations to put a law behind english as an official world language. english as a global language can be divided into three circles 1, Inner circle with traditional base of english such as UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Caribbean, indian and Pacific Ocean. 2, Outer circle where english has official or historical importance such as Commonwealth of Nations, India, Pakistan, philippines, Nigeria. english may be used as lingua franca for certain groups. 3, Expanding circle for countries where english has no official role but is used some functions and international business. english is used as lingua franca. Choices for further standardization of english are to adopt existing standards or get more neutral, the artificial. One standard of english would keep national and local identity intact and other will be a mixture for the rest of the world and in such way we all may become bilinguals. Individualistic approach to international english is that everybody can spell and write as they desire assuming there will be an acceptance of differences. New dialect approach is to create an international spelling system of mixed American and British english with the preference of the more phonetic American spellings. The concept of International english as a global mean of communication is to be using numerous dialects and moving them towards international standard. This desire for standardization hasn?t reached the consensus yet.
