The Importance of English

Reading/Writing Read the following text: THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH British or American, the language is basically the same, and its global stature is backed up by massive English-language training programmes, an international business that in textbooks,... More

Reading/Writing
Read the following text:
THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH
British or American, the language is basically the same, and its global stature is backed
up by massive English-language training programmes, an international business that
in textbooks, language courses, tape cassettes, video programmes and computerized
instruction — is worth hundreds of millions of pounds or dollars to the economies of
the US and the UK.
The English language is now one of Britain’s most reliable exports.

In the ironic words of the novelist Malcolm Bradbury, it is an ideal British product,
‘needing no workers and no work, no assembly lines and no assembly, no spare parts
and very little servicing, it is used for the most intimate and the most public services
everywhere.
We call it the English language .
.
.
‘ Dr Robert Burchfield, former Chief
Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, has remarked that ‘any literate, educated
person on the face of the globe is deprived if he does not know English’.

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