The evolution of English as an international language has occurred rapidly over the last one hundred years and has enveloped a large number of cultures and locations as well as agencies and organizations. Initially the evolution of English as a dominant global language had its roots in colonial globalization and the economics of colonialism, as a way for English speaking colonizers to communicate for trade and labor purposes in colonized locations. In a post colonial culture, of which we are all members, as very few cultures have been untouched by the colonial movements of the last two to three centuries most cultures have also been influenced by the most successful of the colonial agents, a great deal of whom where English speakers. .

             The history of the British Isles shows the cultural effects of conquest and imperialism in many ways. What is now England was at first the object of conquest and, much later in history, itself a conqueror-first within the British Isles and then in such widely scattered regions of the world that it was possible to say, "The sun never sets on the British Empire." (Sowell 22).

             The legacy of English can then be said to be global and it will likely continue to develop its stronghold on language across the globe if barring a modern, major political and/or social upheaval. (139) the idea of functional literacy, has its origins in the development of a structure that serves to teach all individuals enough of a written language, e.g. literacy to allow them to function to their potential in their economic and personal lives, and for a majority of cultures the language that is thought of as determining literacy rate is English. (106).

             Later in the evolution of the dominance of English it became a standard for many communications associated with industrialization and economic growth. The definition of economic growth being one that included literacy as a foundational source of potential personal and cultural economic success and often literacy in English as a defining language, once again based mostly on the source of the helping agencies.