Paper 4 Section A

English is highly regarded as the most popular language and is by far the most dominant compared to all of the other languages existing throughout the world. There are many different forms of English all of which have their own meanings and functions. An example of this is British English which tends to be a more proper form of English that is much more formal than American English. There is also Australian English as well as Canadian English which also have their own twist on the language.

English language, according to the World Economic Forum estimates that” About 1.5 billion people around the world speak it - but fewer than 400 million have it as their first language.” That being said, there are also more than that many people that know multiple common sayings and greetings in English. All of this information shows that English is a global powerhouse that is very dominant all over the world. 

Something interesting caught my eye when I read David Crystal's take on the topic. Crystals believed that language fully relies on technology development. When technology allows for an invention of translation, there is no longer a need to even learn a second language. All that you would need to do is tell the translation computer what you would like to say and it would translate it into the language of your choice. What this would do is dramatically decrease the number of people learning English because of the fact that it would no longer be necessary to learn given the new invention. 

This being said, these technologies are nowhere even close to being ready for action yet need a lot more increase in development before setting foot in a situation where it could be seen in the real world. However, when it comes to that time when it can be used it is thought that it could be just as good, if not better than having the help of a real human translator. 

Something else that can cause a decrease in the number of people that speak English is that many people throughout the world use English as a second language. This means that even some Americans do not speak English as a first language and many people throughout the world do not either. What this does is show that with more people immigrating and constantly changing where they live that the amount of people who actually speak English is bound to decrease in the future. 

The development of technology and the way that has been advancing at such an incredible pace shows that technology is going to be coming at us faster than ever before and with the development of this advanced technology, it will change the future of the English language as well. Google has already made a translation feature known as Google Translate which allows you to translate over 150 languages. This could very much so change the course of the English language and the way that it is used by billions of people today. 

English has changed very much since the beginning of its time and it also has a lot of different variations and meanings. It has grown into the most popular language and is used more than any other language in the world because of that. Words that meant something way back in the day do not nearly mean the same thing as it does today and that is based on the advancement of society. 

To wrap things up, English is very important to not just Americans, but to people living everywhere on planet earth. But, because of the advancement of technology and the way that it is supposed to be used in the future the language may fade and be much less of a force than it is right now. We must put in together all of our efforts to assure that it stays as powerful as it does today.