71-75)
For some, an international language is equated with a language that has a large number of native speakers. In
this sense, Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic, the five most widely spoken mother tongues in the
world today, might be considered as international languages. However, unless such languages are spoken by a
large number of native speakers of other languages, the language cannot serve as a language of wider
communication. It is in this sense, as a language of wider communication, that English is the international
language par excellence. And in many instances, it is a language of wider communication both among individuals
from different countries and between individuals from one country. In this way, English is an international
language in both a global and a local sense. Crystal (1997) maintains that a language achieves global status when
it develops a special role that is recognized in every country and that this special status can be achieved either by
making it an official language of the country or by a country giving special priority to the language by requiring
study of it as a foreign language. Today there are over seventy countries where English has held or continues to
hold special status, with many other countries giving English the special priority referred to by Crystal where
English is a required foreign language.
A variety of difficulties exist in getting an accurate count of the current number of English users. First, there is
no single source of statistical information on totals of English language users of all countries in the world so
estimates have to be made from a variety of sources. Second, how fluent an individual must be to be considered as
“a user of English” is open to interpretation. Finally, there are many varieties of the language, ranging from
pidgins and creoles to various varieties of Standard English, and whether or not to include pidgin and creole
speakers in estimates of English users is a subject of debate. Whereas the exact number of users of English is
difficult to determine, it is clear that the number of individuals who have some familiarity with the language is
vast and growing. However, the number of speakers is not the defining characteristic of an international language.
Other features need to be taken into account as well. 【題組】75. Based on the information in the passage, it can be inferred that--
(A) The sheer number of users is not the defining characteristic of English as an international language.
(B) The status of English is shifting in many parts of the world.
(C) English has not become institutionalized with locally developed standards of use.
(D) The spread of English is largely a result of foreign language learning in the world.
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