Starting with reference to David Crystal`s comments in Reading A, Chapter 1 of English: history, diversity and change, discuss some of the reasons why English is increasingly used by speakers whose mother tongue is not English, and consider some of the consequences.

In 1874, when mail was still the state-of-the-art medium for global communication, the Universal Postal Union was established in Bern, with the aim of facilitating cooperation between the world`s postal services.  The automatic choice of language for the new international organisation was, of course, French.  Within a relatively short space of time English has not only overtaken French to become the dominant language of world communication.  but continues to attract more users. Before we look into the consequences such an expansion entails, we shall begin by examining the reasons Crystal offers for the growth in the use of English by non-native speakers, as set out in his article The English Language Today….(short extract)