the history of the british empire has added to the spread of english. english is an important language in many places today. in australia, canada, india, pakistan, south africa, and the united states, among others (like those in the commonwealth of nations), english is the main language. because the united kingdom (the country where england is) and the united states have historically been powerful in commerce and government, many people find it helpful to learn english to communicate in science, business, and diplomacy. this is called learning english as an additional language, english as a second language (esl) or english as a foreign language (efl).