Examine the proposition below and write a response to it. (Note that you can agree or disagree with this – or partially agree or disagree. Whatever position you take, you need to support your argument with concrete examples.) The global spread of English has been a largely positive development because it has given the world a common working language in international trade and diplomacy. Furthermore, competence in English has given many outer-circle and expanding-circle countries access to western knowledge, and scientific and technological advances.

English as a global language is claimed to bring many advantages to human beings regarding business, politics, education and technology (Rao, 2019). Despite its potential challenge to linguistic diversity, I strongly support the worldwide development of this language due to the following reasons. First, English promotes the evolution of international trade and diplomacy. The fact that English is used in WTO, which controls economic activities worldwide, strengthens its role as a common working language. Similarly, political negotiation among nations is also performed in this language. Another benefit is witnessed in scientific and educational development. As cited in Rao (2019), the percentages of journals published in English in the fields of Chemistry, Natural Science and Humanities are above 80% in the late 1990s and are increasing today. Thus the more proficient English people use, the easier accessibility to updated knowledge they have. Generally, English as a lingua franca enhances globalization and interconnectivity around the world. Despite this, Florey (2010) believes that the global expansion of English has killed other languages in the world. He claims that due to the imperialism of English, people tend to shift from the subordinate language to the dominant one, which causes serious language loss over the world. However, Holmes (2017) proves that minority languages can be actively maintain through certain social factors of language choice such as participants and setting. In a wider context, people’s attitude towards language maintenance is the key to preserve the minority language. Clearly, although language loss is a big concern created by English expansion, there are feasible solutions to tackle this problem. In conclusion, I advocate the global spread of English because of its positive impacts on international diplomatic business and scientific advance. The issue about language loss is less serious when language maintenance policies are implemented effectively.