English linguistic imperialism and English learning in China 英语论文.docVIP

1.Powerful position of English Language is the tool which is used to express certain opinions and communicate with others by human beings. All the languages should be equal in that they possess same function of commnication. There is not an advanced or a primitive language. But there are indeed some languages that are more popular than others and then become dominant. English is one of them. English is regarded as an international language or even global language of world because of its wide use and dominant position. Among six billion of the global population, mother tongue of 380 million people is English. About 250 million people regard it as a second foreign language. According to the relative forecast,by 2050 a half of the world population very fluently. So far, English has been being used for global trade, commercial documents, governmental commnication, academic dissertation, tourism, traffic transportation and so on. Besides,80% of globally electronic information is stored in English. About the leading role which English plays in international communication all over the world, a government Minister from Sri Lanka is quoted as saying that ‘for one tenth of the money they pay for “Star Wars” the Americans can get the whole of Asia listening to their president. English teaching is a bigger weapon in the armoury of the English speaking peoples than star wars.’ In the view of the Ford Foundation’s language projiects officer, ‘English as a Second Language(ESL) was believed to be a vital key to development by Indonesia, Thailand,India,Turkey,Afghnistan,Egypt,Nigeria，Colombia,and Peru.’ In fact,many scholars think that the discourse accomanying and legitimating the export of English has been equated with progress and proserity. 2.Why is English so popualr? In history there were several languages once taken as international languages.But up till now, why is English the global language,and not some others? About the question, I want to explain the reasons from socio-c