English as an international language

English is, in this sense, the international language par excellence.

A language achieves global status when it develops a “special role that is recognized in every country” and this special status can be achieved either by :

a)making it an official language of the country or

b) by a country giving special priority to English by requiring its study as a foreign language.

Crystal (1997): Some countries that give special status to English:

American Samoa

Antigua and Barbuda

Australia

Bahamas

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belize

Bermuda

Bhutan

Botswana

British Virgin Islands

Brunei

Canada

Dominica

Fiji

Ghana

Gibraltar

• Grenada
• Hong Kong
• India
• Ireland
• Jamaica
• Kenya
• Liberia
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Malta
• Marshall Islands
• Mauritius
• Micronesia
• Namibia
• Nepal
• New zealand
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Puerto Rico

…and more:

• Rwanda
• St Luca
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Solomon islands
• South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• Tanzania
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tuvalu

• Uganda
• United Kingdom
• Uk island (Channel Is, Man)
• United States
• US Virgin Islands
• Western Samoa (now Samoa)
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Total population: 2,024,614,00

Usage estimate:

L1 337,407,300

L2 235,351,300

Categorisationa of countires in which English is used: (Kachru)

INNER CIRCLE L1

L2

OUTER CIRCLE

Studied as a foreign language

EXPANDING CIRCLE

Inner, Outer and Expanding Circles

• Inner Circle: e.g. USA, UK, Austarlia (320-380 million)
• Outer Circle: e.g. India, the Philippines, Singapore

(150-300 million)

Expanding Circle: e.g. China, Japan, Germany

(100-1000 million)

The roles English serves

• The various roles English serves in different countries of the world are best conceived of in terms of three concentric circles:
• A) the Inner Circle, where E is the primary language of the country
• B) the Outer Circle, where E serves as a second language in a multilingual country, and
• C) the Expanding Circle where E is widely studied as a foreign language.