The importance of English
The importance of a language can be judged according to several things. The first is the numberof native speakers that a language happens to have. The second is how widely the native speakersare distributed over the world. Next comes the cultural, economic and political influence of thosewho speak it as their mother tongue.
There can be no doubt now the English is one of the world's most widely used languages. Peopleuse the language in 3 ways.
As a native language, as a second language, or as a foreign language. English is spoken as anative langue by nearly 300000000 people, in the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand,Canada, some Caribbean countries, and South Africa.
As a second langue, English is often necessary for official business, education, informationand other activities in a great many countries such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Singapore andPhilippines.
It is one of the few working languages of the United nations and is more frequently used thanthe others. English has in fact become the langue of international co-operation in science andtechnology. The most advanced results in space, nuclear and computer research are published in it.
A scientist who speaks and writes English is in closer touch with the scientist in other countriesthan one who doesn't. |