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English as a Global Language – 2nd Edition – David Crystal Chapter 1 Summary

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English as a global language – 2nd edition – David Crystal

Chapter 1 summary

In why a Global Language, author David Crystal explains what a global language is, how English has become the global language of today, and also why it is important for the world to have a global language.
The article begins with David Crystal going explaining how English is the global language today. He explains how English is everywhere, it can be found all around the world, even headlines in other countries are written in English. From here David switches views and shows the reader that not everyone understands English, others all around the world, view English differently. English is not everyone’s first language and some even may feel threatened that …show more content…

In 2002 it remained high for European countries but fell to 29% in Britain. For this, some British companies miss export or import opportunities. These days schools in the UK and America are starting to study Spanish which is now growing faster than English.

The next section is about linguistic death. He asks here if a global language does grow and grow could it be possible that it wipes out minority or smaller languages. Already in some regions in the world local languages are being forgotten. Like in Brazil, parts of Africa, Asia and North America. People have predicted that in the next 50 years around 50% of the 6,000 languages may disappear. Losing a language is a tragedy. Especially when they have never been written down. The young people learn the global language and sometimes don’t even know anything in their native language. A cultures identity can be lost because of this. Maybe old folklore tales that were told in the native language but never translated and now maybe forgotten. In recent times though the emergence of English has seemed to have the opposite effect.
Countries are doing their best to hold onto their native language or in some cases trying to bring it back. Maori in New Zealand, Aboriginal in Australia, the Indian languages of Canada and the US and the Celtic languages (Ireland, Scotland and Wales). In the former Yugoslavia the

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