 <ICLE-FIN-JOEN-0002.1> 
A world language is an international language and its function is to enable people from different parts of the world to communicate with each other. This is a challenging role and there are not many languages in the world that can successfully adopt it. English is said to be one of them. I think a world language should be widely spoken, socially prestigious and easy to learn. Since English has these characteristics, it seems to me that it is not only becoming but already is a world language .
To begin with, a world language should be widely spoken. This implies firstly that it must have a great number of mother tongue speakers. However, more than that is needed. According to Crystal <R> , it is the number of non-native speakers that is crucial, because it tells us the extent in which a language has gained international appreciation and therefore significance. Most of all, a world language must have a great distribution. It must be known and spoken all over the world and not just on one or two continents .
Another characteristic of a world language is social prestige. In order to gain international significance a language must be accepted and appreciated all over the world. Moreover, it is not only the language itself that has to be accepted but also the country in which it is spoken. As Crystal <R> says, the status of a language depends on the status of its speakers. If language learners all over the world cannot identify themselves with them, the language cannot become a medium of international communication. An example of this is the German language. Although it was almost five decades ago that World War II ended, the common attitude to German is still somewhat reserved. It may be partly for this reason that it has gained comparatively little international importance .
Finally, I think that a world language should be easy to learn. This is important because, however great the number of mother tongue speakers, millions of people are going to have to learn it as a foreign language. From their point of view, it is crucial that the learning process does not demand insufferable amounts of work. It may be argued that there are no easy languages and there certainly is no language that can be learned overnight and with no work at all. However, I think languages differ from another in how easily a satisfactory level of fluency can be achieved. Since little more is needed to enable people to communicate, it seems to me that this difference can really matter .
I have now pointed out the most important characteristics of an international language and will continue by looking at English as a world language .
English is without question the dominant language of international communication. Crystal <R> shows this with examples. He says that English is not only the official language of the air and the sea but also the main voice of international business, academic conferences and sport. More than two thirds of the world's scientists write in English. In addition, 75 per cent of the world's mail is written in English and so is over 80 per cent of all the information stored in computers. What has enabled English to gain such a dominant position? I think this is due to its world language characteristics .
Firstly, English is the most widely spoken language in the world. In the number of mother tongue speakers it is only surpassed by Chinese and no language can compete with it in the number of non-native speakers or in distribution. English is spoken all over the globe. Crystal <R> estimates that it is spoken as a mother tongue by over 300 million people in Britain, Ireland, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Apart from that, it has more than 400 million non-native speakers. In more than two dozen countries such as Nigeria, India and Singapore, English is spoken as a second language, which means that it has an official status and is the language of administration, education and the media. Moreover, in many countries in which it has no official status, English is taught in schools and spoken as a foreign language .
English also carries the social prestige necessary for a world language. This is, in my opinion, mainly due to the status of the United States, which has for long been economically superiour in the world. As Crystal <R> says, the American culture and way of life is often considered fashionable and desirable, particularly among the younger generation. This has had a positive effect on the status of English, the language associated with all the American wealth and fashion .
Is English then an easy language to learn? There are different opinions about this. McCrum et.al . <R> claim that <*> . Crystal <R> , on the other hand, is sceptical and believes that most foreigners face great problems when learning English. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I have learned English as a foreign language and my experience is that even if English has sometimes been problematic, it is easy compared to some other languages, for example, German. This may be partly due to a simpler grammar but what is even more important is the character of the English vocabulary. As Finegan <R> says, it has two important qualities. Firstly, it has a great number of synonyms, which enables a learner to replace an unknown word with another. Secondly, the most commonly used English words are monosyllabic and therefore easy to remember .
In this paper I have pointed out that a world language should be widely spoken, socially prestigious and easy to learn. I have shown that English has these characteristics and offered this as an explanation to the fact that English has gained a dominant position in international communication. The future may bring changes and it is even possible that English will lose this position. However, due to its characteristics and the increasing need for international communication, this does not seem likely to happen .
