評論
打印
The Popularity of English
英語的普及
Good morning, every one. Today's lecture is about the popularity of English. As we all know, English is widely used in the world.
大家早上好。今天的講座主題是英語的普及。眾所周知，世界上有很多人都在使用英語。
Although English is not the language with the largest number of native or first language speakers, it has really become a lingua franca.
雖然把英語作為母語或是第一語言的人不是最多的，但它確實成為了一種通用語。
Then what is a lingua franca?
那么什么是通用語呢？
The term refers to a language which is widely adopted for communication between two speakers whose native languages are different from each other's,
這個術(shù)語是指，兩個母語不同的人在交流中大量使用的語言，
and where one or both speakers are using it as a second language.
還有在交流中一方或者雙方作為第二語言大量使用的一種語言。
For example, when an Indian talks to a Singaporean using English, then English is the lingua franca.
例如，當一個印度人用英語和一個新加坡人談話時，英語就是通用語。
Then actually how many people speak English as either a first or a second language?
那么，到底有多少人把英語當作第一語言或是第二語言呢？
Some researchers suggested a few years ago that between 320－380 million people spoke English as a first language, and anyway between 250－350 million as a second language.
研究人員幾年前表示有3.2到3.8億人將英語作為第一語言，而2.5到3.6億人將其作為第二語言。
And of course, if we include people who are learning English as a foreign language all over the world, that number may increase dramatically.
當然，如果我們把世界各地學(xué)英語的人也包括在內(nèi)，這個數(shù)字可能會急劇增加。
Then we may ask a question: how did English get there?
然后我們可能會問一個問題：英語是怎么走到這一步的？
That is, how did English gain the present status of popularity? There are in fact a number of interlocking reasons for the popularity of English as a lingua franca.
也就是說，英語是如何達到現(xiàn)在的普及程度的？事實上，英語作為一種通用語言得到普及，有許多相互關(guān)聯(lián)的原因。
Many of the reasons are historical, but they also include economic and cultural factors that have influenced and sustained the spread of the language.
許多原因是歷史的，但也包括影響和維持語言傳播的經(jīng)濟和文化因素。
Let's go through the reasons one by one.
讓我們逐一討論這些原因。
