A Presentation On

English As An Official Language

Course title

English for professional purposes

Prepared By:Mozahid Billah

ID No-UG07-26-12-011

Prepared For: Taslima Akter

Lecturer at

Department Of English Studies

STATE UNIVERSITY OF BANGLADESH

A language describes the culture it comes from."

“Noam Chomsky”

“Language is far more than a system to be explained. It is our

most important link to the world around us.

“Sandra Savignon”

What is the main reason that make English as

world language?

English dominates universal information resources and provides

the largest amount of data in printed and electronic materials.

Therefore, to take advantage of the broadest information

resources in many fields, namely science and technology English

is the only solution that we need to know and adopt as an official

language

Spread of English

Before the 18th century English was a minor language in the world.

But from the 18th century English become more popular because of

the colonization of British empire and started to be spared over the

world, and spoken natively by over billions of people.

English language used in the United States British colonization in the

17th century immigration of English speakers settling in the North

America Nowadays, about 2/3 of the world's English native speakers

living in the U.S.

Industrial Revolution

A Large scale of industrial

revolution carried out in Britain

then spread to the Western Europe,

Japan, Northern America and the

rest of the world

Britain started to rule over one-

quarter of the world’s population

In the 19th century...

The period of the greatest progress,

due to the new printing technology

and new methods of mass

production and transportation

Many countries started to use

English as an official language,

such as New Zealand, South Africa,

Australia, etc. (Jenkins, 2009)

In the 20th century...

A dramatic rise of USA as a world superpower

English has been further developed

into a world language alongside the

economic, technological and

cultural influence of USA.

In the 20th century..

The emergence of US Hollywood featured film, the

star system, the movie mogul and the grand studio

started to influence the social and cultural life.

Become the normal medium of instruction in higher

education for many countries – including several

where the language has no official status

The English teaching (ELT)

business has become one of the

major growth industry around the

world in the past 30 years (Crystal,

2004).

Now the question has came

Do you speak English???

English is spoken in over

forty countries as a first

language and in over fifty-

five countries as a second

language

English-speaking world

Approximately 430 million people speak English as

their first language. More than half of these (255 million)

live in the United States, followed by some 60 million in

the United Kingdom (Great Britain being the

language's historical homeland) the Republic of

Ireland(94%, 4.3 million), Australia (87%, 17

million),New Zealand (82%, 3.7 million

English is the third largest language by number of native

speakers, after Mandarin and Spanish.

70%

19%

6%5%

USA

UK

CANADA

AUSTRALIA

OTHER

Pie chart showing the relative proportions of native English

speakers in the major English-speaking countries of the world.

Why English Only?

There’s no question that unrestricted multilingualism is

inefficient and can prevent important interactions from taking

place and get in the way of achieving key goals.

What is an official language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal

status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a

country's official language refers to the language used within

government (e.g., courts, parliament, administration). Since "the

means of expression of a people cannot be changed by any law",

the term "official language" does not typically refer to the language

used by a people or country, but by its government

Reasons

Why English as an official

language?

Globalization of tasks and resources.

Language differences can cause a bottleneck—a Tower of

Babel, as it were—when geographically dispersed peoples

have to work together to meet corporate goals. Without

common ground, communication will suffer. Better language

comprehension gives people more firsthand information,

which is vital to good relation making around the world.

Promotes literacy

Having an official language means that every person should be

capable of speaking fluently in the language and thus it helps

promote literacy. It is going to motivate the citizens to enhance

their knowledge of the official language since it is what they need

to use with regards to carrying out any official businesses. This

leads to a more literate and integrated nation.

Financial benefits

If you become adept in your official language, especially English, it

is highly likely that you are also going to benefit financially. Being

required to learn an official language could possible raise the

income of an immigrant by a huge margin. In fact, immigrants who

are fluent in English in America earn about 55% more than

American-born employees.

Educational success

Research clearly illustrates that the main educational challenge

for most people is language. High proficiency in an official

language is directly associated with educational success. If you

really want to succeed in your studies, then you ought to place

more emphasis on language. In addition, most exams are tested

using the official language.

"Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you

where its people come from and where they are going."

Rita Mae Brown (1944 )

US writer, playwright

"Language is a social gift. Learning a new language is

becoming a member of the club -- the community of

speakers of that language...You can't see other people's

point of view when you have only one language."

THANK YOU