Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/English has for many years been an universal language. It has become the language of business and communication. Millions of people use it everyday as a native tongue, for other millions it is a necessary tool for their work. It is an immensely popular means of interaction. What are the reasons that stand behind its extraordinary dissemination? In my personal view, they are of twofold kind. First, strictly geographical an historical reasons - former English colonies have retained the language of their rulers. As the colonies consisted of the territories in North America, Africa, India and Australia, they occupied vast areas inhabited by many peoples. The geographic layout made it favourable for the English language to spread.