On The Spread Of American English Since 1980s

At present, English is obviously the dominant language in the world. Behind its wide spread across the globe are the profound historical background and current direct causes. Historically, British worldwide colonization played an important role in the spreading of English. Nowadays, American political, economic, technological, and cultural dominance globally strengthens and further expands the spread of English, especially American English. The 1980s witnessed the end of Cold War and thus, the emergence of America as the only superpower, and digital revolution, which brought about unprecedented fast and frequent international contacts. As a result, the spread of English began to take on a new appearance and American English gradually surfaced itself as the most important variety. Starting from the period of the 1980s, following the timeline to present, this thesis examines the worldwide spread of American English as an important variety of English language and its consequences.This thesis is divided into three parts: introduction, main body section that consists of five chapters, and conclusion.Introduction serves as the leading part to the whole thesis. It begins with the description of English spread in the context of globalization, and, then, naturally, the writer alerts us to the fact of the recent emergence of American English dominance. Then, there is a guide to the whole structure of this thesis.In chapter one, it is attempted to provide some background information on the subject undertaken and a theoretical framework for the whole thesis. A survey of American English study has been made as a literature review, though far from sufficient. The research previous done on American English has been centering on its origin, development, and distinctions from British English. As to the exploration into English spread, American English has rarely been dealt with separately.Chapter two, after a brief discussion over the definition of American English, offers a fairly comprehensive survey of the origin and development of American English, and also probes the different features involving pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary etc. between American and British English.Chapter three gives a brief introduction to American language politics, and describes the current status of English in the USA, which lays the foundation for the overseas expanding of American English.Chapter four lists the four basic foundations for the spread of American English, including political, economic, technological and cultural foundations, which are the underpinnings for American English expansion, and based on that, analyzes the imperialist essence in these four domains.In chapter five, important expansionist approaches, such as, English teaching, testing and media communications, are listed together with the detailed statistics to show the dominance of American English worldwide.At last,"Conclusion"functions as a summary of the whole paper and a prediction for future more detailed studies. Relying on its political, economic, technological and cultural dominance, by means of the latest technologically updated modern media, the spread of American English since 1980s manifests new characteristics differing from the British colonial period, and pervades irresistibly into all walks of life across the world. The spread of American English has both its positive and negative effects, neither of which can be underestimated. Quantitative research and discourse analysis are expected to be included in future study when needed materials are available and other related conditions are mature.