The Spread of English

English colonial empire

The English empire existed from the 16th century to the 20th. In those 400 years its size altered a lot. On the photo on the right you can see all the countries that were part of English territory (Not at the same time). At the British Empire's peak it was the largest empire in history and by 1913 it had control over 412 million people, and by 1920 they owned 35.5 million km2, that is 24% of the world land area. It was named the empire on which the sun never sets, because the sun was always shining on one of its territories. How does this connect with the spread of english? Not only did they spread their empire but also their language. English was spoken and heard in the territories causing its spread. Also looking at the map, most of the countries have English as their first or official language.

World War 2

World war 2 also helped the spread of english. It did so in a few ways. The uk controlled a lot of colonies and states they protected. These colonies and states already spoke English. Because these nations needed to communicate and wanted to know what happened in the world, there were worldwide broadcastings in English by the BBC. This caused the language to spread across the globe much faster. Also the soldiers and generals of the axis needed to understand what the British were saying. The locals heard them talk in English and communicated with them. 

\n America’s power and culture

English would never have become the world’s lingua franca if the USA never became such a powerful and influential nation to the world. When the Second World War was won by the USA and 4 other English speaking nations, German as the language of scientific exchange was replaced by English, and English became the language of diplomacy. After the war, the USA became a powerful and rich country by doing trades all over the world. English became a crucial language to learn to be able to do business with the USA and it became the language of global trade and finance. 

\n But maybe the biggest influence on the spread of English is America’s dominance over the entertainment industry. We all thought that highschool would be like on tv: big lockers, a school bell that rings after every lesson and a school football team. We expected this because we all watched American tv shows and movies, and through movies, tv shows, music and social media America is able to spread its culture among children all around the world. Because of this, English becomes more appealing and because of all the music and other entertainment they listen to, it made it much easier for them to learn English. America’s dominance over entertainment is one of the biggest reasons that the number of English speakers have grown so much, because the American culture mostly influenced the youth, and it is so much easier to learn a whole new language that you are interested in because of all the American entertainment that you listen to. English wasn’t just the language of business and science, but also the language of entertainment.

\n The internet

The internet was invented in the USA, which caused many computers and phones to be invented in English. Most keyboard have a QWERTY layout, which is suited for the Latin alphabet that English uses. Because most technology was English at that time, it showed its significance in the world and learning it became more and more appealing.

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As said before, one of the biggest reasons why English has grown so much is because it attracts the youth. Almost every teenager uses social media like TikTok and Instagram, and almost every video is English. Social media influencers and artists who want to become popular make their videos and music in English because they want to appeal to the widest audience possible. Take for example Shakira. Shakira is a Colombian artist with Spanish as her native language. However, probably everyone in this class knows her because of her English songs, like Waka Waka ey ey. If that song was Spanish, it never would’ve been this popular. She made an English song to appeal to the widest audience possible. 

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The English language experienced the snowball effect, which means that because English is everywhere, more people will want to learn the language. A good analogy for this phenomenon is a youtube video. You would rather click on a popular video than a video with 20 views. Because something is popular, it will become even more popular. It‘s like a snowball making itself bigger.

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