In the first part of the thesis the global spread of the English language is described through geographical-historical and socio-cultural contexts - from immigration of Europeans to the New World, British colonialism, development of science and new technologies, increasing influence of the American film, entertainment and technological industries, to the emergence of the global communication network - the Internet. The second part is related to the connection between language and society. The link between discourse and social identity of a person is described, as well as the connection between discourse and social relations between people. The interconnection of language and context is pointed out and explained through Critical Discourse Analysis, i.e. the relationship between language and style which are used according to the topic. In the third part the use of English in Croatian mass media is presented. The collecte examples of English expressions from TV broadcasts and daily newspapers are used for analysing how specific social groups - politicians, economists, economic and political analysts, journalists and people from the entertainment industry use English to confirm their identity, expertise and affiliation to a particular social group.