The English Language Today, by Dave Crystal
Summarized by Mark Lechman
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Since the middle 1500's, when the British Empire was still in its prime, the use of English as a mother-tongue has been on a dramatic upswing. Its 'native' use has, in fact, increased by about 60%. The number of people who speak English as a first language is now over 300 million. This is largely due to the rapid growth of the English speaking population of North America. However, the combined number of 'foreign' speakers of Engl˙ish ranges from 400 million to a billion. Unfortunately, the statistics in this area are generally unreliable and do not account for any one 'standard' of the language. What do exist are the minimal accounts supplied by examination boards.
These statistics can be viewed in two parts, both regarding different attitudes and usages of English. First, there is the information regarding those countries in which several languages are present, and English has been settled upon as an 'official' language in order to carry on government affairs and the like; for example, in Ghana and Nigeria. In countries such as these, English has been chosen as the common language primarily because of a previous colonial association with the British Empire. Similarly, countries once colonized by France, Spain and others have adopted those respective languages as 'official' as well. The benefits of using English (or any other neutral language) in situations where there are multiple languages within a single culture are debatable. On the plus side, some see the mastery of English as a lucrative skill. More importantly, the adoption of an 'official' language sets all of the indigenous languages on equal ground, reducing the chance of any linguistic or cultural biases. However, people argue that learning any one indigenous language is just as easy as learning a foreign tongue. This is true, and especially poignant if that particular foreign tongue is not tuned to the needs and/or ideologies of its potential users. However, in countries where English has been elevated tco an official status, it has been found that the vast majority of these countries' populations speak little or no English at all. Indeed, it is the small groups of the sociopolitical elite that are its primary users. It is speculated that with the current trends in population growth, the number of competent English speakers in these nations will most likely shrink and vanish.
The second notable usage of English by 'foreigners' comes in the form of those countries where English has been learned as a second language in schools and other institutions. In these cases, English may not hold an official status but are deemed useful by the population because of the language's dominant presence in today's world. In these cases, English is primarily viewed upon as a tool and a means to access a greater wealth of information and social opportunity - namely the benefits of Western progress. The number of people who have learned English as a second language on their own accord is, again, unreliable. However, the estimate lies roughly in the range of 100 million people.
With numbers such as these, it becomes clear that in these times, it is the usefulness and functionality of a language outside its native domain that is increasingly relevant to the world - not the number of mother-tongue speakers.