Have you ever thought how many people speak english? the exact number is difficult to tell, but it is more than one thousand million people, that is 20 per cent of the world’s population. english is the most widespread language on earth; it is second only to chinese in the number of people who speak it. the english language is now the native language of about 400 million people, and the official language in over 60 countries. if you add to this the enormous number of people who study english as a foreign language, you will understand that english is a major world language. at present, 80 per cent of all information in computers is in english, 60 per cent of all international telephone calls are made in english, 60 per cent of the world’s radio stations broadcast in english, and over two-thirds of the world’s scientists wtite in english. english is also the main language of international conferences. airports and air traffic control, medicine, diplomacy, and international competitions. some people think that english is going to become even more important as the lingua franca, while most other languages will just die out. people have long been interested in having one language that could be spoken all over the world. english has better chances to become aa global language. first, english is easier to learn than any other language. second, it easily borrows local words from the countries into which it expands. now english is changing not only in america but in other countries too. although different varieties of english will continue to develop around the world, standard english will remain for international communication. (пересказ на нужно)
