The significance of English in today's world

The significance of English in today`s world.

Bolkin I.A.

Supervised by Zhigalova A.V.

(Ukhta State Technical University)

To live in today`s fast-moving competitive world it is absolutely necessary to know and be able to do a lot of things. Knowledge of a foreign language is one of them. I would even say it`s a must for a modern educated person. He is simply obliged to know English as it is his key to further self-education and self-improvement. But then the question arises: «What language to study? «German? English? Spanish? Or maybe Chinese? I believe that it is necessary to learn several languages, but to begin with English. English is the language of international communication for all mankind. The value of English in today`s world cannot be overestimated. After all it is necessary to reckon with the choice of more than 1 billion people who speak it. And if a half of them are native speakers, about 600 million choose it as foreign.

Once computers and mobile phones were the things that only people of a certain social group could afford. Now these things are necessities. The same can be told about English. It is a necessity! It is studied by everybody and everywhere: at schools, universities, language courses. Moreover in the age of digital technologies anyone can learn English on the Internet, without leaving home. However you shouldn’t think that it is so easy to do it. Learning any language is a long process which demands certain expenses, both intellectual, and financial. But «the game is worth the candle», as they say.

The importance of studying English is evident. It is connected with the process of globalization and English language demand both in daily and business communication. Political, economic, scientific, sports life of the whole world is in English too. English is defined as an official and working language of the United Nations. Various summits and meetings of the heads of states, signing of laws and decrees, negotiations and debate — all this is carried out in English. International trade, banking system, activity of transport on the land, on the sea and in the air is carried out in English.

As far as we are concerned, English is very important for us too.

We need English:

1. When we travel

2. When we apply for a good job

3. When we communicate with foreigners

4. When we look for information on the Internet

It is difficult to establish how many people in the world speak English. It`s spoken by not just one person, but tens of nations in various parts of the world. English is considered official in more, than 50 countries.

The second U. S. President John Adams told 200 years ago that English would become the «world» language. And this prediction came true by the end of the 20th century. Now 300 million people in the world are native English speakers. And 400 million people who speak English as the second language. The role of English in the world has increased sharply recently that is connected with Internet development where 80% of information is transferred in English.

Among the countries where English is the official language, we can name the following: the historical homeland of English — Great Britain, Ireland, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and some countries in South Africa. Let’s note that in three of these countries English is not the only official language. A small part of Irish, for instance, uses the Irish language, for the third of Canadians official language is French, and in South Africa English is official for several million, but not for the majority of inhabitants. English is also an official language in the small states of the Caribbean region which arose on the place of former British colonial possession (Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, the Bahamas).

The territorial dispersion of the English-speaking countries led to emergence of different variants of English from which British, American and Australian are especially distinguished. Distinctions in pronunciation, especially vowel sounds are most of all noticeable. There are certain distinctions in the value and use of some words and expressions, in details of spelling. Distinctions in grammar are insignificant. Any of these variants can’t be defined as a model for all English-speaking community, so when studying the language one decides for oneself what variant to choose.

english russia studying communication

About 30 states in Asia and Africa, having become independent as a result of disintegration of the British Empire, kept from colonial times English as official. They wanted to replace it in this function by national languages of their people but it appeared difficult, and sometimes impossible. Among these states, in particular, are India, Pakistan, Singapore in Asia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe in Africa. Total number of the population of such countries exceeds one and a half billion. English is used here in certain spheres — in political life, in public administration, in army, at school, and also for communication between different nationalities. On the whole, the percentage of people who speak English here is very low and therefore it’s hardly necessary to rank these countries as English-speaking.

At last, there is also the lowest level of use of English to which it is possible to refer the countries where by the developed tradition or for some other reasons English is the most preferable, and sometimes the only foreign language studied at school. They are, mainly, the countries of Latin America, Western Europe and Far East. To define the number of people who know English there is impossible. Obviously, Russia also belongs to these countries.

English in Russia have become significant only since 1985. Before the revolution English was little studied among the Russian aristocrats. It wasn’t considered as elite as French. English began to develop in Russia only since the end of the 19th eyelid. It was connected with a foreign capital formation from Great Britain. But at that time its importance was still limited to the teachers qualification and the desire of pupils. And only since 1985 (the beginning of Gorbachev reorganization) interest to studying of English began to increase sharply. It was caused by many socio-political factors: the elimination of 'Iron Curtain' and opened possibility of trips and communication with the foreign-language population of the planet, emergence and rapid growth of joint enterprises, unwillingness of the former Soviet republics to communicate in Russian, a fast computerization of the country and development of the Internet before not available to ordinary citizens of Russia, expansion of foreign contacts. All this led to the emergence of new spheres of use of English in Russia.

The emergence of new environments of use of English in Russia was promoted also by the development of the whole network of linguistic schools, courses, firms, aiming at distribution of `English for communication'. Emergence of similar points of training was connected with huge need of almost monolinguistic Russia to communicate with the outside world.

Now studying English in Russia becomes one of the major subjects at school and university. It is connected with the fact that English has become a universal language and besides it is time to the citizens of Russia to study it at least at the average level. But still many people don’t want or refuse to study any foreign language at all. Many explain it to that «all the same I won’t go to live and work abroad, and during holiday it is possible to explain something by means of gestures». Such attitude is absolutely not correct. Going to any European country even once, it becomes clear that to know English is necessary.

There is an EF EPI (EF English Proficiency Index) defining the level of proficiency in English in the countries, where it is not the official language. The first five places take

1. Sweden

2. Denmark

3. Netherlands

4. Finland

5. Norway

In this index Russia takes only 29th place! It is considered a low indicator.

So draw a conclusion. To study English or not is your decision, your choice, but don`t forget that in the modern world it is one of the most important aspects of life. It will help you with work and during holidays. Every ambitious and self-respecting person should know it.