Global language

Crystal, David. “English As a Global Language”. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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Abook review by Bettina Escobar /2006/ bettynae_inf@yahoo.com.ar

“A useful book written for non-.native students and EFL teachers with the objective of encouraging these people to learn or teachEnglish as well as to understand why this language has reached a status as a Global Language all over the planet. A short history of the rise of a language to dominance, its advantage and disadvantagesin addition to its future are treated by David Crystal successfully…but not completely.”

Four centuries ago, some European linguistics predicted that English language would become moreuniversally recognized and difussed than any other languages ever have been. By the end of the twentieth century, David Crystal`s book confirms such factibility and, sucessfully, convinces the reader thatEnglish has got a present status of world dominance and, thus, has become definetly a global language. Though Crystal well accounts for what the advantages and disadvantages of having a global languageare, I still believe that its drawbacks are more complex and serious than they seem to be. Anyway, it is certainly a worthwhile reading either for NNS to encourage their learning of the language aswell as for EFL teachers to answer their students’ claims about why learning English and not some other language.
In five chapters Crystal traces the rise of the English language to its presentstatus. The second version of this book starts with an index, including the prefaces of the first and second edition as well as the content list. Through the preface of the first edition, the authorexplains his reasons for writing the book, whereas in the second version he asserts that he adopts a more conventional academic style of presentation. He also expands some new viewpoints in the last...