In the article The persistence of English there are three important facts that give light to step forward

and affirm that the English language is a stable and influential idiom and that it will continue that way in the future. Those facts are the following; (1) the quantity of English speakers and the geographic extension, (2) economical and political reasons, and (3) books published and their grammar connection. Henceforth those facts will be briefly explained. According to the list from the George Webers article Top languages: The worlds 10 most influential languages 1 English language has 330 million native speakers and 150 million secondary speakers, resulting a surprisingly number of 480 million of speakers. English does not only endure just because of the quantity of speakers but also because of the geographical coverage. Based on the Wikipedia list of countries where English is spoken as an official language2 there are over 79 countries using English as their official language or as the predominant language and many more using it as second language. Therefore English is widely spoken by millions of speakers all around the world, not only in a single geographical location. Another influential reason for the persistence of English is the economical and political issue. It is widely known and accepted that the English language is the official language of the United States of America and this country in one of the countries with the strongest economical structures and one of the most democratic systems. Whenever an economical decision is about to take place in the US there are hundreds of million people awaiting the last word of this empire. Now when addressing the political issue, we just have to remember the recent US President Election where millions of people followed the voting process through all possible media. If with just one countrys economical and political power English is so influential, let us just decipher how much influence can have all English speaking countries brought together. In addition, the quantity of English published books is incredibly enormous, just in 2004 the English-Speaking countries published 375,000 new titles 3, if we add all previous publications and new ones, it is possible to reach really high numbers. That fact is only about published books; let us not forget about non-published works, magazines, e-files, etc.. The quantity of material written in English is just colossal. An important fact to

highlight is that in all this published, non-published, papers works there is somehow something common, this is, the grammar. They all follow at least a minimal grammar agreement and one native speaker can read an English book published in Russia and a Russia Secondary English Speaker can read an English book published somewhere else around the world. This grammar agreement allows hundreds of works be read all around the world and still transmit the same message. The Persistence of English article explains why English is a very stable and influential language and also the facts that allow to predict that it will continue that way. There are three facts that give certainty to affirm such statement. Those facts are (1) the quantity of English speakers and the geographic extension, (2) economical and political reasons, and (3) books published and their grammar connection. The reality of the facts explained assures the persistence of English.

References

1. Weber, 1995 Top languages: The worlds 10 most influential languages. Available: http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm (February, 2009)

2. Wikipedia, 2009. List of countries where English is an official language. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_langu age (February, 2009)

3. Teague, 2008, English-Speaking Countries Published 375,000 New Books Worldwide in 2004. Available : http://www.bookadvertising.net/press/bowker/2005_1012_bowker.htm (February, 2009 )