Editing English language (section)

=== Three circles of English-speaking countries ===
The Indian linguist [[Braj Kachru]] distinguished countries where English is spoken with a [[Three Circles of English|three circles model]].{{sfn|Svartvik|Leech|2006|p=2}} In his model,
* the "inner circle" countries have large communities of native speakers of English,
* "outer circle" countries have small communities of native speakers of English but widespread use of English as a second language in education or broadcasting or for local official purposes, and 
* "expanding circle" countries are countries where many people learn English as a foreign language.

Kachru based his model on the history of how English spread in different countries, how users acquire English, and the range of uses English has in each country. The three circles change membership over time.{{sfn|Kachru|2006|p=196}}

[[File:Kachru's three circles of English.svg|thumb|alt=Braj Kachru's Three Circles of English|Braj Kachru's ''Three Circles of English'']]
Countries with large communities of native speakers of English (the inner circle) include Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, where the majority speaks English, and South Africa, where a significant minority speaks English. The countries with the most native English speakers are, in descending order, the [[United States]] (at least 231&nbsp;million),{{sfn|Ryan|2013|loc=Table 1}} the [[United Kingdom]] (60&nbsp;million),{{sfn|Office for National Statistics|2013|loc=Key Points}}{{sfn|National Records of Scotland|2013}}{{sfn|Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency|2012|loc=Table KS207NI: Main Language}} Canada (19&nbsp;million),{{sfn|Statistics Canada|2014}} [[Australia]] (at least 17&nbsp;million),{{sfn|Australian Bureau of Statistics|2013}} South Africa (4.8&nbsp;million),{{sfn|Statistics South Africa|2012|loc=Table 2.5 Population by first language spoken and province (number)}} [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] (4.2&nbsp;million), and New Zealand (3.7&nbsp;million).{{sfn|Statistics New Zealand|2014}} In these countries, children of native speakers learn English from their parents, and local people who speak other languages and new immigrants learn English to communicate in their neighbourhoods and workplaces.{{sfn|Bao|2006|p=377}} The inner-circle countries provide the base from which English spreads to other countries in the world.{{sfn|Kachru|2006|p=196}}

Estimates of the numbers of [[second language]] and foreign-language English speakers vary greatly from 470&nbsp;million to more than 1&nbsp;billion, depending on how proficiency is defined.{{sfn|Crystal|2003b|pp=108–109}} Linguist [[David Crystal]] estimates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.{{sfn|Crystal|2003a|p=69}} In Kachru's three-circles model, the "outer circle" countries are countries such as the [[Philippines]],{{sfn|Rubino|2006}} [[Jamaica]],{{sfn|Patrick|2006a}} India, Pakistan, Singapore,{{sfn|Lim|Ansaldo|2006}} [[Malaysia]] and [[Nigeria]]{{sfn|Connell|2006}}{{sfn|Schneider|2007}} with a much smaller proportion of native speakers of English but much use of English as a second language for education, government, or domestic business, and its routine use for school instruction and official interactions with the government.{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2008|p=5}}

Those countries have millions of native speakers of [[dialect continuum|dialect continua]] ranging from an [[English-based creole languages|English-based creole]] to a more standard version of English. They have many more speakers of English who acquire English as they grow up through day-to-day use and listening to broadcasting, especially if they attend schools where English is the medium of instruction. Varieties of English learned by non-native speakers born to English-speaking parents may be influenced, especially in their grammar, by the other languages spoken by those learners.{{sfn|Bao|2006|p=377}} Most of those varieties of English include words little used by native speakers of English in the inner-circle countries,{{sfn|Bao|2006|p=377}} and they may show grammatical and phonological differences from inner-circle varieties as well. The standard English of the inner-circle countries is often taken as a norm for use of English in the outer-circle countries.{{sfn|Bao|2006|p=377}}

In the three-circles model, countries such as Poland, China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Egypt, and other countries where English is taught as a foreign language, make up the "expanding circle".{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2008|p=4}} The distinctions between English as a first language, as a second language, and as a foreign language are often debatable and may change in particular countries over time.{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2008|p=5}} For example, in the [[Netherlands]] and some other countries of Europe, knowledge of English as a second language is nearly universal, with over 80 percent of the population able to use it,{{sfn|European Commission|2012}} and thus English is routinely used to communicate with foreigners and often in higher education. In these countries, although English is not used for government business, its widespread use puts them at the boundary between the "outer circle" and "expanding circle". English is unusual among world languages in how many of its users are not native speakers but speakers of English as a second or foreign language.{{sfn|Kachru|2006|p=197}}

Many users of English in the expanding circle use it to communicate with other people from the expanding circle, so that interaction with native speakers of English plays no part in their decision to use the language.{{sfn|Kachru|2006|p=198}} Non-native varieties of English are widely used for international communication, and speakers of one such variety often encounter features of other varieties.{{sfn|Bao|2006}} Very often today a conversation in English anywhere in the world may include no native speakers of English at all, even while including speakers from several different countries. This is particularly true of the shared vocabulary of mathematics and the sciences.{{sfn|Trudgill|Hannah|2008|p=7}}