Now I would like to present the table I’ve made. As we could see the most spread language is Chinese. It is spoken by about 1 billion people. It is easy to explain. China is the most populated country in the world. That is why every sixth man speaks Chinese.

Chinese is followed by English. Gone are the days when United Kingdom was a great Empire. Now there is the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was created by the Statute of Westminster, passed by the British Parliament on the 31-st of December 1931, as a successor to the British Empire. All states in the Commonwealth are given equal status, and all recognize the British monarch as the official head of the organization. The Commonwealth is a voluntary organization whose primary function is to encourage cooperation between member states. Membership has changed considerably since its inception. Original members of the Commonwealth included Australia,Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and theUnited Kingdom. Ireland and South Africa withdrew from the organization in 1949 and 1961 respectively, with South Africa later rejoining in 1995. Pakistan withdrew in 1972 but rejoined in 1989. That is why English covers such a great territory and we are to call it worldwide spread.

At this map you are able to see English-speaking countries, they are painted in red.

More than 600 million people speak it as their first or second language and can therefore be “reached” through English.

What is more important, this number includes most of the world leaders. English is by far the most useful language from the stand-point of business, politics and science. In every field of knowledge more is written in English than in any other language. More television programs use it. There are English-language newspapers in many important non-English-speaking cities. If we are going to have a world language it will almost certainly be English.

It is obvious that those who learn English develop closer ties with English-speaking countries. They read books from these countries and learn about their history and their customs. The young study at schools and universities in English-speaking countries, the middle-aged travel and do business there.

So, I guess, future of the world language is defined. Some people try to refute it offering Esperanto for this purpose. But as for Esperanto, it is not able to become a world language, because it is a synthetic language and lots of people just refuse to learn it.

There are some people who say that we don’t need international language at all. Machine translation has made a lot of progress in the last few years. Perhaps the day when computers will take over the whole business of translation isn’t too far away. But from my point of view computers will be able to help us in reading or writing, but as speaking and communication in English are concerned, computers will never be as intelligent and interesting speakers as people usually are.

At the end of my report I want you to see that table, which shows us the results of Questionnaire I made among our students of Lyceum grades. I interrogated them for one question: “Why do you learn English?”.

The results are:

A) For future profession - 67%

B) For fun and pleasure - 30%

C) For commucation and corresponding with friends abroad -30%

D) For listening to popular music groups - 25%

E) For watching satellite programs. - 23%

F) For exploring Internet. - 19%

G) For reading foreign writers and poets in original - 13%

H) Because teachers force me - 19%

I) I am at a loss to answer - 6%

Such results show us that the most part of students understand that English will help them with profession. Students like English and use it for communication. English helps them with listening to music, reading, watching TV, exploring Internet. But there are people who learn English just because teachers force them. And the smallest number is at a loss to answer.

Finally I’ve come to a definite conclusion (suppose you join me too) that English influences on our life to a great extent. English is famous, popular and necessary. English opens us new horizons and opportunities. At last English - best hope for world language!

The list of the literature:

· Werner Beile, Alice Beile-Bowes. Learning English: Modern course

· Maria Correlak. Step by step.

· McArthur, Tom (1992) The Oxford Companion to the English Language, New York: Oxford University Press

· Goodey, Noel (1984) The Magic English Grammar, Paris: Esselte Studium AB

Created by Gangelord. All rights reserved. 2/26/99 12:15

E-mail: gangelord@hotmail.com