English as a global language PDF

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ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

1. WHY A GLOBAL LANGUAGE? What is a global language? A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special that is recognized in every country. To achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world. They must decide to give it a special place within their communities, even though they may have mother-language speakers. There are two main WAYS: - A language can be made the official language of a country: it is essential to master the official language as early in life as possible. Such a language is often recognized as a ‘second language’. - A language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching. English right now is the chief foreign language to be encountered in schools  semi-official status There is a great variation in the REASONS for choosing a particular language as favoured foreign language: they include historical tradition, political expediency, and the desire for commercial, cultural or technological contact. The presence of the language can vary greatly, depending on the extent to which a government or foreign-aid agency is prepared to give adequate financial support to a language-teaching policy. What makes a global language? Why a language becomes a global language has a little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do with those speakers are.  it has to do with the power those speaker have in the world. There is a close connection between language dominance and economic, technological, and cultural power  when those speakers succeed, on the international stage, their language succeeds. Ease learning has nothing to do with it. A language does not become global because of its intrinsic structural properties, or because of the size of its vocabulary, or because it has been a vehicle of a great literature in the past, or because it was once associated with a great culture or religion. A language has traditionally become an international language for one chief reason: THE POWER ITS PEOPLE (ex: Greek, Latin, Arabic in the Middle East, Spanish, Portuguese and French). The history of a language can be traced by the successful expeditions of its soldiers/sailor speakers. In order to maintain and expand it, it takes an ECONOMICAL POWER nation. It became a particularly critical factor during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with economic developments beginning to operate on a global scale. Any language at the centre of such an exposition of international activity would suddenly have found itself with a global status  English was in the right time at the right place: - Beginning of 19th century: world’s leading industry and trading country. - End of 19th century: American population larger than any other European country and most productive and fastest growing in the world. - English imperialism had sent English around the world. - 20th century: economic supremacy of the new American superpower.

Why do we need a global language? TRANSLATION has played a central role in human interaction for thousand years. The more community is linguistically mixed, the less it can rely on individuals to ensure communication. Bilingualism can be solution to the problem. But in some communities such as in Africa or in South-east Asia, such a natural solution can’t be applied  the problem has traditionally been solved by finding a language to act as a lingua franca. A language is often accepted from outside the community, such as English or French. The use of a lingua franc is particularly accepted due to: - Political factors: the prospective that a lingua franca might be needed for the whole world strongly emerged only in the 20th century, and since 1950s in particular, with the born of some important international bodies such as UN, UNESCO and UNICEF... Never before have so many countries been represented in single meeting-places. - Economic factors: the need of a lingua franca is particularly appreciated by international academic and business communities, and it is here that the adoption of a single lingua franca is most in evidence  thousand of individual contracts being made daily all over the globe. There has never been a time when so many nations were needing to talk to each other so much. What are the danger of a global language? 

LINGUISITC POWER: will those who speak a global language as a mother tongue automatically be in a position of power compared with those who have to learn it as as an official or foreign language? This risk is certainly real. For example, it is possible that people who write up their research in languages other than English will have their work ignored by the international community. BUT if a global language is taught early enough, from the time that children begin their full-time education, and if it is maintained continuously and resourced well, the kind of linguistic competence which emerges in due course a bilingualism. It is worth to reflect on the notion that children are born ready for bilingualism. There is a naturalness with which they assimilate another language, once they are regularly exposed to it.

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LINGUIST COMPLACENTY: will a global language eliminate the motivation for adults to learn other languages? There seems to be a lack of motivation to learn languages caused by lack of interest and this might well be fostered by the increasing presence of English as a global language: - 1996: only 38% of British companies had an executive able to negotiate in another language. - 2002: the data fell to 22%  It was reported that a third of English exporters miss opportunities, especially in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. However, these days there are clear signs of growing awareness, within the English speaking communities, of the need to break away from the traditional monolingual bias due to economically hard-pressed times and tourism too.

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LINGUISTIC DEATH: will the emergence of a global language hasten the disappearance of minority languages and cause wide-spread language death? Premise: the processes of language domination and loss have been known throughout linguistic history, and exist independently of the emergence of a global language. Once a language disappears it is lost and it cannot be recaptured.

It is not easy to see how the arrival of English as a global language could directly influence the future of these or many other minority languages. An effect is likely only in those areas where English has itself come to be dominant first language. But i more recent years, the emergency of English as a truly global language has had the reverse effect  movements for the languages rights. The existence of these movements in support of linguistic minorities show an ambivalent truth: - The need of mutual intelligibility is only one side of the story. - Language is a major means of showing where we belong. It is perfectly possible to develop a situation where intelligibility and identity happily coexist. The situation is the familiar one bilingualism: a bilingualism where one of the languages within a speaker is the global language, providing access to the world community, and the other is a well-resourced regional language, providing access to a local community  responding to different needs. However the emergence of a global language can influence the structure of other languages. Such influences can be welcomed or opposed (i.e. French has tried to protect itself by the influence of English by considering illegal some common English words). The relationship between the global spread of English and its impact on other languages attracted increasing debates in the 1990s. The fact that it is possible to show a correlation between the rate of English adoption and the demise of minority languages has led some observes to reassert the conclusion that there is a simple link between the two phenomena, ignoring the fact that there has been a similar loss of linguistic diversity in parts of the world where English has not had a history of significant presence. A more deep-rooted process of globalization seems to be at work today, transcending individual language situations. They only consider the power asymmetry between the former colonial nations and the nations of the third world  inadequate as an explanation since also first world countries with strong languages seem to be under as much pressure to adopt English. According to others English is adopted as a primary means of achieving a global presence, while local languages continue to perform an important set of functions (expression of local identity). It is a model that sees English playing a central role in empowering the subjugates and marginalized, and eroding the division between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’  ‘naive liberal idealism’ by adopting a ‘liberal laissez-faire attitude’. Can anyone stop a global language? A revolution in the balance of global power If a language dominance is a matter of political and especially economic influence, then a revolution in the balance o global power could have consequences for the choice of global language  unlikely scenario. Automatic translation It is more probable that a new way of communication would emerge and eliminate the need of a global language. The chief candidate is automatic translation.  no more than intriguing scenario.

A critical era Within little more than a generation, we have moved from a situation where a world language was a theoretical possibility to one where it is an evident reality: - Languages of identity need to be maintained - Access to the emerging global language needs to be guaranteed  They both ask for massive resources Fundamental decision about priorities have to be made since we may well be approaching a critical moment in human linguistic history: - It is possible that a global language will emerge only once. English seems to be that language. - Maybe it would take a revolution: there is still some way to go before that lingua franca becomes a universal reality. Despite the growth of English, still two thirds of the world do not use English.

2. WHY ENGLISH? THE HISTORICAL CONTEST English has become the global language for two main reasons: - Its geographical-historical contest: it traces the movement of English around the world - Its socio-cultural contest: it explains the way people all over the world have come to depend on English  The combination of these two stands has bought into existence a language which consists of many varieties, each distinctive in its use of sounds, grammar, and vocabulary. Origins The language has always been on the move. LOCAL SCALE Fifth century: As soon as it arrived in England from northern Europe, it began to spread around the British Isles. It entered parts of Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria and southern England. 1066: Norman invasion  many nobles moved from England to Scotland. Twelve century: Anglo-Norman knights were sent across the Irish sea, and Ireland gradually fell under English rule. GLOBAL SCALE The first significant step in the progress of English towards its status as a global language did not take place until the end of 16th century. At that time English speakers were 5-7 million. In less more than 300 years become 250 million. America 1584: first expedition from England by Walter Raleigh  proved to be a failure 1607: first permanent English settlement when an expedition arrived in Chesapeake Bay. The settlement was called Jamestown and that area Virginia.

November 1620: the first group of pilgrim fathers arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They were looking for a land where they could found a new religious kingdom. The two settlements had different linguistic backgrounds. Many settlers from the southern colony came from the England’s ‘West Country’. They brought with them its characteristic accents with its ‘Zummerzet’ voicing of s sound and the r strongly pronounced after vowels. By contrast, many of the Plymouth colonies came from the countries in the east of England. These eastern accents were rather different, mainly because of their lacking r after vowels. The New England people moved west into the region of the Great Lakes; the southern moved along the Gulf Coast and into the Texas; and the midlanders spread throughout the whole of the midwestern area towards California  the main divisions of north, midland and south remains today. 17th century: new shiploads of immigrants brought an increasing variety of linguistic backgrounds into the country. 18th century: immigration from Northern Ireland. It was not only England which influenced the directions that English language was to take in America. There were: - The Spanish in the west and south-west - The French in the northern territories - The Dutch in New York - The Germans in Pennsylvania - Africans were entering the south as a result of the slave trade 19th century: massive increase in American immigration, as people fled the results of revolution, poverty, and famine in Europe. A large number of Irish came in the 1840s. Germans and Italians came, escaping the consequences of the failed 1848 revolutions. Some commentators have suggested that the English language was a major factor in maintaining American unity throughout this period of remarkable cultural diversification since gave them common access to opportunity. At the same time, some minority groups began to be concerned about the preservation of their cultural and linguistic heritage  the seeds of a collision between the need for intelligibly and the need for identity were beginning to grow. Canada 1497: first contact between English language and Canada when John Cabot is thought to have reached Newfoundland. However English migration did not develop until a century later. There were ongoing conflict with the French. This came to an end when the French claims were gradually surrendered during the 18th century. During the 1750s thousand of French settlers were deported from Acadia and were replaced by settlers from New England. 1776: US Declaration on Independence  loyalist supporter of Britain found themselves unable to stay in the new United State and left for Canada. They were followed by many thousands attracted by the cheapness of land. Because of its origin Canadian English has a great deal in common with the rest of the English spoken in North America. BUT: French is a co-official language  not in other English-speaking country.

The Caribbean A highly distinctive kind of speech was emerging in the islands of the West Indies and in the southern part of the mainland, spoken by the incoming black population. 17th century: ships from Europe travelled to the West African coast, where they exchanged goods for black slaves. The slaves were shipped in barbarous conditions to the Caribbean islands and the America coast, where they were in turn exchanged for other goods. The very twenty African slaves arrived in Virginia on a Dutch ship in 1619. Slavery was finally abolished in 1865. Slavery brought the growth of several pidgin forms of communication, and in particular a pidgin between slaves and sailors, many of whom spoke English. Once arrived in the Caribbean this pidgin English continued to act as a means of communication between the black population and the new landowners  the pidgin began to be used as a mother language. Creole forms of French, Spanish and Portuguese were also developing giving birth to a remarkably diverse range of varieties of English. Australia and New Zealand AUSTRALIA Australia was visited by James Cook in 1770. About 130,000 prisoners were transported during the fifty years after the arrival of the first fleet in 1788. The British Isles provided the main source of settlers, and thus the main influence on the language. Many of the convicts came from London and Ireland, on the other hand, the variety contains many expressions which have originated in Australia and in recent years the influence of American English and of a growing number of immigrant groups has been noticeable. NEW ZEALAND Europeans whalers and traders began to settle there in the 1790s, however no official colony was established until 1840. There was then a rapid increase in European immigration. In comparison with Australia, there has been a stronger sense of the historical relationship with Britain. Many people speak with an accent which displays clear British influence. Secondly, there has been a growing sense of national identity and an emphasis between the difference between Australia and New Zealand. South Africa 1795: British involvement in the area 1806: The control was established 1820: policy of settlement 1822: English was made official language 1840s and 1850s: further settlements End of 19th century: half a million immigrants, many of them speaking English, arrived. In due course more homogenous accent emerged; it shares similarities with the accents of Australia. At the same time, English was being used as a second language by the Afrikaans speakers, and many of the Dutch colonists took this variety with them. An African variety of English also developed, spoken by the black population. English came to be used by those with an ethnically mixed background.

There is a linguistic side to the political divisions which marked South Africa apartheid society: - Afrikaans was the first language of the majority of whites and acted as a symbol of identity.  It came to be perceived by the black majority as the language authority and repression. - English has always been a minority language in South Africa, and is currently spoken as a first language by 3.7 mil people. English was used by the remaining whites and by an increasing number of the black population.  English was perceived by the Afrikaner government as the language of protest and selfdetermination. Many black saw English as means of achieving an international voice. On the other hand, the contemporary situation about English is different: - For the white authorities, English is important as a means of international communication. - Afrikaans have become increasingly bilingual As a result, a continuum of accents exists, ranging from those which are strongly influenced by Afrikaans to those which are very close to British Received Pronunciation. The 1993 Constitution names eleven languages as official  the difficulties of administrating an eleven-language formula are immense and it is likely that English will continue to be an important lingua franca. South Asia INDIA The Indian subcontinent has a very special position in terms of numbers of English, probably outranking the combined totals of speakers in the USA and in the UK. Many varieties of English have emerged throughout the subcontinent, and they are sometimes collectively referred as South Asian English. 1600: first British contact with the formation of the East Indian Company which established its first trading station at Stuart in 1612. 18th century: Company’s influence grew taking over the revenue management of Bengal. 1858: the Company was abolished During the period of British government, called Raj, from 1765 to 1947, English gradually became the medium administration and education throughout the subcontinent. The language question attracted special attention during the early nineteenth century, when colonial administrators debated the kind of education policy which should be introduced  introduction of English educational system was proposed in 1835. When some major universities were established in 1857, English became the primary medium of instruction. 1960s: Three language formula - English was introduced as the chief alternative to the local state language  it has now the state of an associate official language. - Hindi was considered the official language English has continued to be used within the legal system, government administration, secondary and higher education, the armed force, the media, business and tourism. In PAKISTAN it is an associated official language

Former colonial Africa 1914: colonial ambitions on the part of Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Belgium. After the two world wars there was a repartitioning of the region, with the confiscation of German and Italian territories. Most...