An article in the Finanical Times considers the spread of English becoming a global language. The total number of English speakers worldwide is greater than one billion and is expected to peak between 1.5 and two billion sometime in the next ten to fifteen years. Mandarin, Spanish, and Hindi-Urdu still have more native speakers than English does, but English has become a prominent second language and the language most commonly used in international schools. Nonnative English speakers outnumber natives three to one.

Such a ratio raises several questions. Is there a proper English? Should nonnative speakers be forced to comply with all English grammar or are they free to develop a dialect of their own with slight differences in rules of grammar and usage? Will English eventually develop into several distinct languages? Is English such a predominant language because of psychological factors (i.e. its simple grammar) or because of socioeconomic factors?

If English is not regulated enough, it could shatter into several dialects, and would thus not remain the lingua franca of international relations; yet, at the same time is must be fluid enough that native speakers are willing to adapt to international means of speaking. Already, native English speakers encounter a linguistic barrier communicating with nonnative speakers in business conferences although no such similar barrier exists between nonnative speakers communicating with each other in English. "Native speakers are often poor at ensuring that they are understood in international discussions. They tend to think they need to avoid longer words, when comprehension problems are more often caused by their use of colloquial and metaphorical English."

In many places, individual people speak different dialects of English depending on whom they are communicating with. A businessman often speaks one, relatively formal, dialect to communicate with other international businessmen, but also uses a colloquial dialect to communicate with friends and family. A book called World Englishes talks about the various branches of Englsih, such as a dialect used by Indian teenagers or Nigerian pidgin English. As long as the speakers of these dialects also learn the internationally accpeted form of English, they ought to have no difficulty communicating in the modern world.

Perhaps the increase in communications provided by technology will prevent excessive subdividing in modern English and ensure that all speakers of English at international conferences speak more or less the same dialog. Because people from all over the world will continue to communicate using a branch of English different from their native dialect, one could claim that a new branch of English, an international English, is evolving, distinct from the dialogs of any other regions.

Looking further into the spread of English as a global language, I found that many academics do not think that English will spread to encompass the entire globe. In an MSNBC repport, language researcher David Graddol points out that the number of native English speakers worldwide is falling and tells how he thinks that English will remain a powerful international language, but will never become the sole world language. Instead, he believes that it will remain a popular secondary language through which people of varying backgrounds can communicate.

Perhaps sometime in the future English will exist solely as an international dialect spoken by nearly everyone in the world, but spoken by no one as his or her primary language.