Эссе на тему Discuss similarities and differences between the notions of World Englishes andEnglish as a Lingua Franca.

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Similarities and differences between the notions of World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca

In the modern world, English is the most common and influential language, which is rightfully considered the language of international communication of a global scale. It is crucial for international relations, technological progress, business, science, medicine, education, etc. [1].

The reasons for the globalization of the English language and its transformation into the lingua franca of modern civilization have cultural and historical roots.

English is native to a significant number of residents of several countries — the English (the official language of Great Britain), many residents of the United States (the official or one of the official languages of most states), one of the two official languages of Ireland, Malta and Canada, the official language of Australia, New Zealand. It is used as official in some countries of Asia and Africa (mostly these are former colonies of the British Empire that are part of the British Commonwealth) [3].

As a result of such a difficult process as globalization, a unique situation has arisen, consisting in the fact that the number of people who use English as a foreign language is much greater than native speakers [7].

The reasons for the transformation of English into the language of global international communication include the following:

1. Historical reasons, i.e. the colonial past of Great Britain, which spread its influence and its language all over the world (since the 15th century);

2. political and economic reasons, which are due to the influence of the United States and Great Britain in the world. According to D. Crystal, the English language comes after the American dollar [7, р. 7-8], which in many countries is associated with prestige, wealth, high salary and other benefits;

3. informational reasons, which consist in the need to use a single language in the age of the rapid scientific and technological revolution, which also ensures academic mobility and transparency of scientific knowledge [2];

4. cultural reasons, i.e. getting to know other cultures and spreading your own one. Moreover, it is in the USA that creates in English the main samples of the world-famous mass culture of today [6].