English as a Global Language: Good or Bad?

In order to address the issue of whether English as a global language is good or bad, one needs to assess its claim to this pole position. How does a language qualify to earn a global status?

A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops special role(s) recognized in every country. One of these is that large numbers speak it as a mother-tongue. English language is one of a few several languages that many countries use as mother-tongue: It occupies this role in USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa. Spanish is also spoken as mother-tongue in twenty countries other than Spain, but mostly in Latin America.

English occupies the distinct fame of being the only language which has approximately 260 million non-native speakers( compared to 873 million mostly native speakers of Mandarin, 178 million native speakers of Chinese, and 70 million non-native speakers of Spanish) spread across the globe;from Fiji and Hawaii in the Pacific, Seychelles in the Indian Ocean to St. Hellena in the Atlantic.

Seventy countries in every continent of the world, have given it the official language status- the language of government, courts, media, entertainment and education. As these functions are very important, English is learned or taught from an early stage. Thus, it has become the second language in majority of these countries.

Arguably it is the language of education and research in nearly all well known universities of the world.

Due to its central position in many countries,serious questions have been asked by sociolinguists whether its influence is really a plus, vis-a-vis the roles, and advancement of native languages in certain parts of the world. It has been dubbed the Language of imperialism. Phillipson(1992) calls the dominance of English language, linguistic imperialism.His arguments are supported by those who say that English language has maintained an assertive structural, and cultural dominance over native languages. In comparison native languages are deemed to be inferior to it.

However, judging by its role in world politics,research, media and entertainment it is hard to see any negativity in this. Again,interest in learning English as a foreign language(EFL), second language(ESL) and as an international language(EIL) has grown by leaps and bounds, in populous countries like China.

Thus it seems that English language, rather than being a tool of imperialism, is
factually the language of advancement.

References:
Crystal, D.(2003), English as a Global Language; Cambridge: CUP Phillipson, R.(1992), Linguistic Imperialism; Oxford: OUP Centre for Economic and Policy Research(www.cepr.org/press/DP2055PR.htm)