In my opinion the primary reason for English language being so prominent is because it's used in most of the countries. The English colonies were almost everywhere in the world and that has economical, political and cultural impact for most of the nations. English is the primary language of the technological devices and internet and that's because the inventors or developers are mostly from those English speaking countries. If a nation wants to embrace the technology then it has no alternative to learn the language fist. Most of the computer software and applications are written in English hand to learn it one must learn the language first. Another reason is that, with the increasing effects globalization people are adopting the foreign music movies, histories, books and style. And in these fields, the idol persons are English speakers. So to follow what someone's favorite musician, singer, actor or sport's personality is to follow the culture and language of this person.