Explain how English has become a lingua franca for the world

By electing English as the world language, the history sentenced monolinguali** to become the illiteracy of the coming future. But how did it happen?

As a result of the Industrial Revolution, the British economic predominance in the 19th century paved the way for a coloniali** of large geographical reach that spread the English language in the world.

More importantly, the strong political and military predominance of the U.S. after World War II paved the way for a substantial economic and cultural influence that displaced French from the sphere of diplomacy and fixed English as the standard for international communication.

THE PRESENT SCENE

Today's search for information and need for global communication have already promoted English from being the language of the American, the British, the Irish, the Australian, the New Zealand, the Canadian, the Caribbean, and the South African peoples to being the international language. While portuguese is spoken in 4 countries by approximately 195 million people, English is spoken as a native language by nearly four hundred million people and has become a lingua franca, the Latin of the modern world, "spoken in every continent by approximately eight hundred million people" (Todd iv).

More radical estimates, which include speakers with a lower level of language fluency and awareness, have suggested that the overall total is these days well in excess of 1,000 million. (Crystal 360)

In addition, it is estimated that 75 percent of all international communication in writing, 80 percent of all information in the world's computers, and 90 percent of Internet content are in English.

The inexpensiveness of air transportation has increased interpersonal contacts worldwide. Computer, optical fiber, and satellite technologies likewise have made possible a boom in telecommunications, bringing up the concept of information superhighway. These two developments demonstrate how the world has evolved into a global village and how imperatively a standard language is required.

In its role as a global language, English has become one of the most important academic and professional tools. The English language is recognized as undoubtedly the most important language for the increasingly mobile international community to learn. This is a fact that seems to be irreversible. English has become the official language of the business and scientific worlds.

Philip B. Gove in his preface to Webster's Third New International Dictionary illustrates this point:

It is now fairly clear that before the twentieth century is over every community of the world will have learned how to communicate with all the rest of humanity. In this process of intercommunication the English language has already become the most important language on earth.

雅克·德里达的个人作品

作品名 英文名 年份 播撒 Dissemination 1967 论文字学 1967 写作与差异 Writing and Difference 1967 明信片 ThePost Card 1972 刺 Spur 1980 他者的耳朵 The Ear of the Other 1982 另一个欧洲 The Other Europe 1972 多种立场 Positions 1972 致纳尔逊·曼德拉 For Nelson Mandela 1986 所给予的时间 Given Time 1991 死亡的礼物 The Gift of Death 1992 另一个方向: 反思今日之欧洲 The Other Heading :Ref lections on Today ’s Europe 1992 马克思的幽灵 Specters of Marx 1993 友爱政治学 Politics of Friendship 1994 他者的单语主义 The Monolinguali** of theOther 1996 作为一个年轻犹太圣徒的雅克·德里达的画像 Portrait of J acques Der2ri da as a Young 2001 恐怖时代的哲学（与哈贝马斯合著） Philosophy in a Time of Terror 2002

美国人真的会花功夫学中文吗？

中国主流媒体上时不时就传来全世界兴起“中文热”的消息，前几年还说全球有3000万外国人在学习中文，这一阵子已经自然而然地改口说有4000万外国人在学中文了，增幅可谓不小。但是，我对这类消息历来抱着一点怀疑的态度，因为中国缺乏独立自主知识产权的现代科技理论，学习了中文并不能像中国人学会英语那样可以获得有用的知识，这么多老外学习中文到底能干什么呢？再说中文入门虽不难，但是听说读写要达到能够在工作中交流的程度不易，要比学会拼音文字多花几倍的功夫，所以不等老外学会中文，急性子的中国人早已学会了英语。而且，据我的不完全感受（类似于统计局的“不完全统计”），在4000万学习中文的外国人中，有相当比例是外籍华裔子弟，其次是中国的邻国日本、韩国，其他国家和地区的外国人学习中文者所占比例其实不大，学中文比以前要热这是肯定的，但是要是以为外国人也像中国人学英文那么玩命，那可能是一厢情愿了。 最近美国****网站也在研究Will Americans Really Learn Chinese（美国人真的会学中文吗）?并围绕这个问题刊登了一组美国学者的文章，谈他们对美国人学习中文的看法。女作家Susan Jacoby认为，美国教授中文的中小学数量在统计上还算不上是明显增加，而且部分是靠中国政府负担费用的低工资的中文教师。从根本上说，在美国人的心目中一个educated person（受过良好教育的人）并不一定要会讲一门外语，这与欧洲文化大相径庭。在欧洲，44%的欧洲人会讲一门外语，在美国这个比例只有9%，而且主要是西班牙语口语。她的结论是所谓中文热就像曾经的俄语热、日语热一样迟早会降温，因为We’re a Know-As-Little-As-You Can-Get-Away-With Nation and proud of it（我们是一个只要知道一点能凑活就行并为此感到骄傲的民族）。生于德国的语言学家Ingrid Pufahl女士认为美国交替出现然后又消失的“俄语热”、“日语热”以及现在开始的“中文热”证明了美国教育体制并不把语言当回事，只是赶时髦跟风而已。在美国的教育体制下，外语不可以和数学、物理、英语等课程相比，外语是luxury（奢侈）科目。在很多国家，学外语从娃娃抓起，但是在美国一般学生只有到了高中才开始接触外语，到那时学生已经没有足够的时间真正学会一门外语了。普林斯顿大学的学者 Marcelo Suárez-Orozco和 Carola Suárez-Orozco 兄弟认为美国崇信Monolinguali**（单一语言制）有其历史渊源。早在独立之初富兰克林就对宾夕法尼亚的德语（以及德国人）影响感到忧心忡忡，后来西奥多�6�1罗斯福也说过 We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language（我们只有一门语言的空间，这就是英语）。所以有社会学家把美国比作“语言的坟墓”（ U.S. is a cemetery for languages），很多**的本民族语言（如德语、意大利语、日语）在一两代人之后就成了R.I.P.（rest in peace，安息）。在这种社会氛围之下，中文热也难免重蹈其他语言的覆辙。当然也有美国学者持不同的看法。加利福尼亚大学教授 Norman Matloff认把美国与欧洲比较是不公允的，因为欧洲都是些小国，几百英里以外就是另外一个语言区，所以欧洲人学习一两门外语出于“必要”（out of necessity），而美国是泱泱大国只应和中国相比。中国的政治经济实力与日俱增，美国人也应该学习中文。唯一的问题是：美国人能学会中文吗？那么多的汉字需要记忆，还有不可捉摸的四声，不善于“填鸭式教学”的美国人应该怎么学习中文？我介绍到这里不得不植入一个广告了：这位Norman Matloff教授开发了一个教授中文的软件（KuaiXue, a Chinese language software tool），难怪他力排众议，认为中文热不会如其他外语一样退烧，原来是利益使然。但是，Norman Matloff教授注意到了一个看来颇为奇怪的现象：从美国大学入学参考SAT考试结果来看，中文平均成绩是764，远比法语平均成绩629要高。这就奇怪了，不是说中文比拼音文字要难很多吗？为什么美国中学生SAT中文考试成绩会高于法语呢？原因很简单，考SAT中文的美国学生大多是华人子弟，中文几乎是母语，考试成绩当然要比把法语当外语学习的其他美国学生要好。

关于讲英语是国际语言的文章

ENGLISH – THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

THE BACKGROUND

Illiteracy in the Middle Ages was common. When one king needed to communicate with another, he would hire a scribe to draw the message in written language. It is well known the fact that Charlemagne (8th century) was illiterate. The unavailability of printing made writing systems non-standard and complex. The art of writing was a professional skill not available to everyone. That is perhaps one of the reasons why the Portuguese expedition with Pedro Álvares Cabral in command brought Pero Vaz de Caminha as the official writer.

By 1700, Europe's literacy rate ranged from 30 to 40 percent; by 1850, 50 to 55 percent; and by the second half of the 19th century writing became a basic qualification in the human societies. In the 20th century illiteracy became definitely an ailment in any field, in any profession. Today an illiterate person in a developed country is an outcast.

What happened with the skills of reading and writing will soon happen with the ability to speak a second language. If we compare the importance of speaking a foreign language 50 years ago with the necessity it represents today, we can foresee how important it will be by the time our children become *****s.

RECENT HISTORY

By electing English as the world language, the history sentenced monolinguali** to become the illiteracy of the coming future. But how did it happen?

As a result of the Industrial Revolution, the British economic predominance in the 19th century paved the way for a coloniali** of large geographical reach that spread the English language in the world.

More importantly, the strong political and military predominance of the U.S. after World War II paved the way for a substantial economic and cultural influence that displaced French from the sphere of diplomacy and fixed English as the standard for international communication.

THE PRESENT SCENE

Today's search for information and need for global communication have already promoted English from being the language of the American, the British, the Irish, the Australian, the New Zealand, the Canadian, the Caribbean, and the South African peoples to being the international language. While portuguese is spoken in 4 countries by approximately 195 million people, English is spoken as a native language by nearly four hundred million people and has become a lingua franca, the Latin of the modern world, "spoken in every continent by approximately eight hundred million people" (Todd iv).

More radical estimates, which include speakers with a lower level of language fluency and awareness, have suggested that the overall total is these days well in excess of 1,000 million. (Crystal 360)

In addition, it is estimated that 75 percent of all international communication in writing, 80 percent of all information in the world's computers, and 90 percent of Internet content are in English.

The inexpensiveness of air transportation has increased interpersonal contacts worldwide. Computer, optical fiber, and satellite technologies likewise have made possible a boom in telecommunications, bringing up the concept of information superhighway. These two developments demonstrate how the world has evolved into a global village and how imperatively a standard language is required.

In its role as a global language, English has become one of the most important academic and professional tools. The English language is recognized as undoubtedly the most important language for the increasingly mobile international community to learn. This is a fact that seems to be irreversible. English has become the official language of the business and scientific worlds.

Philip B. Gove in his preface to Webster's Third New International Dictionary illustrates this point:

It is now fairly clear that before the twentieth century is over every community of the world will have learned how to communicate with all the rest of humanity. In this process of intercommunication the English language has already become the most important language on earth. (5a)

And David Crystal adds:

As English becomes the chief means of communication between nations, it is crucial to ensure that it is taught accurately and efficiently, ... (3)

THE FUTURE

It is predictable today that wealth will give way to knowledge and information in determining the shape of the future human society, and speaking the common world language will be fundamental to achieve success.