This book explores the phenomenal spread of the English language and makes the case that the common language of English in an ever increasing global community has never been more important as a unifying element and vehicle for understanding politics in our own country.
According to the just-released Pew Research Center survey, which polled 66,000 people from 50 countries, there is a global consensus on the need for children to learn English. Countries like Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam and Japan showed almost unanimous agreement on the importance of learning English. And while English continues to be the language of opportunity throughout the world, the United States, which has been so instrumental in the spread of the language, fails to provide the 21.3 million limited English proficient residents in the United States with sufficient incentive to learn the language.
David Crystal, who is an internationally known authority on the English language and editor of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, argues in this book that the global spread of the language in the last two hundred years has been not just the result of British imperialism and American military and economic power, but also of a third factor: international technology. This has made possible a globalization of culture, giving rise to the need for a common language.
Professor Crystals study enables the U.S. ENGLISH Foundation to highlight the importance of a common language and the harmful domestic policies that discourage the many opportunities afforded by it.
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According to the just-released Pew Research Center survey, which polled 66,000 people from 50 countries, there is a global consensus on the need for children to learn English. Countries like Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam and Japan showed almost unanimous agreement on the importance of learning English. And while English continues to be the language of opportunity throughout the world, the United States, which has been so instrumental in the spread of the language, fails to provide the 21.3 million limited English proficient residents in the United States with sufficient incentive to learn the language.