There can be no denying the immense power and status that English has assumed
in the world today. From being a language that was once primarily spoken in what
is now known as Great Britain, and later, in its numerous colonies, it has become an
official language in 52 countries and is spoken and understood by more than one
third of the inhabitants of the world (Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2002, as
cited in O’Neill, 2002). As an international and a “world language,” its influence
spans the entire globe, and there is hardly any country today that does not use English
in one way or another or that is not affected by its spread. More than being just
a language of communication, English, by virtue of its influence, has the capacity
to empower, just as it has the capacity to divide.people into the English educated and the non-English educated, the elites of society
and the non-elites, and the haves and the have-nots. English is also seen by
many as being the embodiment and carrier of Judeo-Christian cultural values, and
that of Western civilization, and conjures various images—positive as well as negative—to
the myriad people that use it.