An Artificial Standard: BBC English

Introduction

English is the most widely spoken language next to Spanish. Over fifty-two countries have English as their official language. English is spoken in countries like India, Singapore and small islands nations like Fiji Islands. There is strong indication that English will continue to dominate the business world and other social functions which further reinforced the concept that English is a widespread language indeed.
The English language today is being spoken globally and there are several explanations why this is so. The first and well-known reason for its prevalence is that English is the official language of England. England or Great Britain built one of the largest empires in this world and in the height of their dominance, they spread their language and customs to the people they ruled. Another factor for the language’s ascendancy is that other non-English speaking nations have officially made English as their second language. They have come to realize that English is very useful in business affairs and beneficial to their country as far as beckoning visitors and for that, the English language is regarded one of the successful contributions that England made to the world’s various cultures and races.
With globalization of English under way, there is conce
expressed that this tendency might result in the loss of cultural identity by speakers of “global English”. The fear is that inhabitants of the Global village will have lost in the long run their proof of belonging to their original social culture.
Here is some data about Global English:
• Today one out of five of the world population speaks English
• Over 70% of the world’s scientists read English
• About 85% of the world’s mail is written in English
• 90% of all information in the world’s electronic retrieval systems is stored in English
• The process of globalization does not obliterate the cultural identity of global English speakers but, on the contrary, it shows the cultural...

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