English throughout the World

English throughout the  World


The geographical spread of English is unique among the languages of the
world, not only in our time but throughout history. English is the majority
first language in twenty-three countries. It is an official language or a joint
official language in about fifty other countries, where it is used in addition to
the indigenous first languages for a variety of public and personal functions. It
is also used as a second language, though without official status, in countries
such as Bangladesh and Malaysia. Countries where English is a first or second
language are located in all five continents. The total population of these
countries amounts to around 2.5 billion, about 49 per cent of the world's

population. Where English is a first or second language, it is used internally for
communication between nationals of the same country. In addition, English
is used extensively as a foreign language for international communication by
people who do not ordinarily employ it when speaking or writing to their
compatriots.1
The number of first-language speakers of English has been estimated at
well over 300 million, of whom over 216 million live in the United States. The
United Kingdom has about 53 million, Canada over 17 million, and Australia
about 14 million. Countries where English is a majority first language may
have large percentages of bilingual speakers and speakers for whom English is
a second language. For example, Canada has a large minority of unilingual
French speakers (nearly 17 per cent) as well as an almost equal percentage of
speakers who are bilingual in French and English.
Most countries with second-language speakers of English are former
British colonies, such as India and Nigeria. English has been retained as an
official language in the majority of these countries after independence because
none of the indigenous languages was accepted by all citizens as the sole
national language. As an official second language, English is used in a variety
of public functions: in government, in the law courts, in broadcasting, in the
press, and in education. In many African and Asian countries it serves as the
means of interpersonal communication between speakers of different
indigenous languages. Because of both its national and its international reach,
English is often used for literature, sometimes in forms that draw heavily on
local colloquial forms of English. Writers and politicians in some African and
Asian countries are ambivalent about the role of English: English may be
viewed as an imperialist language, imposed by colonial oppressors and
impeding the role of indigenous languages, or as the language of liberation
and nationalism in countries divided by tribal loyalties.