Part one of three – Why study or teach English?
There are two noticeable shifts in our modern history to English becoming the dominant international language. Prior to WWI the dominant language was French Lingua Franca.
As WWI came to a close the shift began by the Treaty of Versailles being written in both English and French, going forward in diplomatic setting English was spoken language and not French.
The next noticeable shift was during WWII, after the war English became the Lingua Franca the primary language spoken. I believe this is why the shift was a organic transition to English language being Lingua Franca:
First reason happened way before the WWI or WWII it happened with the systematic colonization’s of countries through conquering or just plan exploring. England conquered and colonized through-out the world – Africa, North America, Australia, Caribbean, Ireland, New Zealand, India, Philippians (I know I have missed some, ugh sorry). Through colonizing countries like Africa, Philippians, Caribbean, and Indian choose to speak both their native tongue and English. As in the US and Australia they already spoke English, that’s excluding the natives of those countries.
“It is spoken as a first language by the majority populations of several sovereign states, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia,Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations. It is the third-most-common native language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[5]It is widely learned as a second language and is an official language of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and the United Nations, as well as in many world organizations.” Wikipedia
Second, The United Nations derived from the League of Nations (WWI) and as history tells us the League of Nations was the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson, the League of Nations was never supported by the US congress. As WWII came to a close the League of Nations was removed and the United Nations emerged. WWII was profoundly devastating tragedy, and the hopes that the United Nations would prevent another World War. History tells us that after WWII England, America and Russia stepped up to be the worlds powers, two of the three world powers speak English, I think you get….
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