The Rise of International English: Navigating the Effects of Globalization on the English Language and its Implications on the Greater Linguistic Community

Résumé

In this paper, I shall discuss the effect of globalization on the English language, and the effect that the English language has had on the modern globalized world. First, I will compare the future of English to the fate of Latin, which led to the formation of the Romance languages. I will compare the spread of English in the modern world to the spread of Latin in Ancient Rome and argue that English will not split into separate languages as Latin did but instead will converge into a new standard of international English influence by speakers from both inside and outside of what is traditionally considered to be the Anglosphere. I will then explore the effect of the spread of English on communities that adopt it as a second language and argue against the subtractive approach to second language learning by which English continues to supplant thousands of minority languages. Instead, I will argue in favour of an additive language learning approach that teaches people to speak English without sacrificing local languages in the process. I will discuss the social, educational, and economic benefits that the adoption of English has on the individual, and the cultural and linguistic sacrifices that English brings to minority linguistic communities.