The students who take the class英米地域研究（Eibei Chiiki Kenkyuu）or Anglo-American Area Studies have a high interest in English and Western culture but few of them know anything about the origins of English or the events that resulted in English taking on the role of a global language used by more than 2 billion people throughout the world. In class, we cover three areas. First, the three major stages of the development of the English language, Old English, Middle English, and Modern English are studied. The second stage deals with the development of English as a global language. In the third and final part, we study the recent concept of World Englishes.研究ノー
