Describe the features of global English.
Answers
The history of the English language has been a remarkable success story. However, what are the main reasons for this success and why has English become even more important in the last twenty years?
Popular belief often claims that English is a language that is somehow easier to learn than other languages. This is, however, not true, because English is in many respects fairly difficult1, especially for speakers with a mother tongue that is not an Indo-European language.
In fact, several geographical and historical factors as well as sociocultural ones have caused the initial spread of English.2 From the 17th to the 20th century both British and American colonialism carried the English language to all five continents. In some areas, English speakers largely displaced pre-colonial languages (USA, Australia) whereas in others, only a proportion of the native population acquired English - mainly as a second language (Nigeria, India). Subsequently, in the Caribbean - particularly in Jamaica - the slave trade led to pidgin versions of English that later creolised