Abstract
The aim of this review is to explore the available literature on the subject of linguistic imperialism, specifically related to the English language and its spread around the world. In order to do so, a search was conducted using the open source search engine Google Search Using a set of criteria, some 700 initially analysed scholarly works were reduced to a small number that were then explored in detail. The results of the search showed that the concept of linguistic imperialism was coined by author R. Phillipson in 1992 to explore how certain languages dominate others, the former often being the language of colonising entities, with the effect of undermining local languages and in some cases even erasing them. Several authors who have explored the subject of linguistic imperialism have do so through the prism of education and the teaching of the English language, while some have negated the underlying principles of Phillipson's initial assumptions, thereby refuting the very concept of linguistic imperialism.