English Lingua Franca: Dominance, Future, and Global Impact Analysis

This essay explores the historical context and current dominance of English as a Lingua Franca, examining its widespread use in various sectors such as trade, politics, education, and popular culture. It discusses the controversies surrounding its dominance, particularly in regions where other languages like French were once preferred for international communication. The essay analyzes the factors contributing to English's continued global influence, including its role in the football premier league, its adoption in former British colonies, and its prevalence in the United States. It also considers potential challenges and alternative languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, and concludes that English is likely to remain the Lingua Franca for the foreseeable future due to its extensive impact on communication, culture, and the global economy.

Running head: ENGLISH LINGUA FRANCA 1
English Dominance
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Introduction
English was termed as the Lingua France in 1966. The English language has dominated
today and it remains to be the international Lingua Franca. This dominance of English in the
world has created a controversy in certain circles. For instance, some people from France dislike
the increasing popularity of the English language in Europe. This is due to the fact that French
was formerly useful and preferred language of diplomacy in the international exchange. Learned
people in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and those from the Middle East were proud of
conversing in French. This has much reduced in today’s world. In today’s world, English has
ruled and it still has a future as it is widespread as seen in all sectors including trade,
international partnership, trade, and it seems to be the main developing political agenda in the
English speaking countries (Jenkins, 2015).
The Future English
Although there have been several languages as well as English that has ever served as
lingua Franca at the various period in history and they continue to do so, English is the most
globally spread Lingua Franca that has ever been experienced and with as numerous speakers
making it’s the hitherto English Lingua Franca (ELF). In the English language, Tom Mc Author
published a more synchronic perspective towards the monolithic notion of English languages
(Christiansen, 2015).
McAuthor focused on the variations that are encountered in English as a result of global
spread. He then suggested that the English language is undergoing a radical process while
changing into the fragmentation of family languages and this can lead to it ruling the world in the
future. In the year 2010, Pennycook pointed out that the future of English in twenty years to

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come, the unpredictable developments such as politics will play a major role in determining its
state as the Lingua Franca. An example is when the United Kingdom (UK) conducted a
referendum on whether it should remove its self or continue remaining in the European Union,
this uncertain the future role of English (Modiano, 2017). Other languages have been suggested
to be the most probable to replace English in the near future. These languages include Arabic,
Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese. There is a lot of investment of money and time in
learning English by several people in the different parts of the world, including mother-tongue
speakers of the above four languages who learn it as an additional or their second language
(McArthur, Lam-McArthur, & Fontaine, 2018).
Currently, the English language has dominated so many sectors in society such as games,
educations, politics, trade, and several cultural and economic influencing activities (Mauranen,
2015). In England, the football premier league is the most popular and the strongest among the
other famous football leagues nowadays in the world. The league is composed of so many
players from different parts of the world; as these players go there to play for pay, they have to
learn English so that to interact with their fellow players and other football fans and people
surrounding them. This can be a significant indication that English is going to be the still global
Lingua Franca in the next twenty years (Lacey, 2015).
Britain was the strongest colonizer, which was able to colonize several territories in the
world including America, Indians and a large part of the Africana continent. After colonization,
almost all the countries that were colonized Britain chose the English language as their second
language. Several British colonies in Africa, like Kenya has several smaller tribes that converse
in different local languages. A country like Kenya which was a British colony chose learn and
use English as their second language after independence in order to enable peace and to

ENGLISH LINGUA FRANCA 4
understand one another as Kenyans. Without one common language, there can be no peace in a
country because people will have no understanding of each other, although in one country
leading to frequent quarrels (Melitz, 2016).
The English language acts as a uniting factor in different countries of the African
continent especially those that were colonized by Britain. The United States of America was one
of the colonies of Great Britain. It uses the English Language though due to its superiority in
today’s world, it has fragmented her English into American English. The USA is a large country
that is abounding of different states that are under senators but controlled by the central
government under one president. Currently, the USA is considered a superpower country in the
world. The American English and British language are ones useful in the USA and due to its
superiority it gives the English (Holmes & Dervin, 2016)
English is a simple language to learn nowadays because it is almost known everywhere in
the world. The Chinese and the mandarin have tried much to teach their language to different
regions of the world as they interact but as they try to teach they have to interpret in English to
their local learners and this makes English superior (Kwan & Dunworth, 2016). It is uncertain
that the majority of the people would want to change into a different language apart from English
as their Lingua Franca unless if their mother tongues was the one chosen. Mandarin is composed
of the most native speakers of several languages but its cultural influence and global spread are
relatively very small as compared to the popularity of English. This shows that English will
continue to diverse globally and in the next twenty years, it will remain to be the Lingua Franca
(Fang & Baker, 2018).
Conclusion

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Due to the spread and the influence that English has enhanced in both the cultural and the
economic sectors, it seems to remain the Lingua Franca in the next twenty years. The language
has played a significant role in linguistic literature in the future. English has affected the field of
communication in several sectors globally, including networks and internet, international
education, new work patterns, culture, and localizations, and this makes it hard to change into
another Lingua franca in the near future.

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References
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