Language Choice in Communication - Essay Example

This essay investigates whether there are certain elements within the English language that makes bilingual of multilingual speakers to prefer using it in communication. The essay will mostly focus on the use of English in modern day communication especially using devices such as phones and computers with application that includes texting and social media such a Facebook. English has over the years achieved an advantage over other languages in situations where apart from the preferred status achieved by English in technological devices, global businesses communication is also preferably done through the language. Therefore this essay will assess the assertion by speakers such as Ioan who claimed "I text and Facebook in English. It feels that English is more international, more universal. It seems to make more sense to use it on the internet" (Morris 10). To understand language acquisition and use it is necessary to make a comparison in learning of Welsh and English among school going children. This is because there are a number of inconsistencies within the languages which may in most cases impact on the competency reported by children who have had similar levels of exposure to the two languages. Comparison of English with other European languages based on the analysis of their orthography indicates there are levels of dissimilarities between them. The European languages such as Welsh, Spanish and Finish have their phonemes and the letters closely related. This means one letter in these languages will in almost all cases represent a distinct sound. It therefore becomes simple for fluent reader familiar with alphabetic systems of these languages to read them even when they might not comprehend the meaning of the words. However, this might not be the case for someone who wants to apply the same in English which is because there are a number of differences between a number of English letters and the sound system of the language. The complexity in English is as a result of the existence of more sounds in spoken English than the twenty-six symbols representing the letters of the English alphabet. Additionally, the English orthography is not a precise representation of any particular accent that should be adopted when speaking Standard English. These differences between English and other European languages such as Welsh means leaning to read and write English involves being “aware of many inconsistencies” that includes the alphabetic symbols are stand for more than one sound, memorization of some letter combinations (Allington and Mayor 125). The consequence of the differences between English and Welsh implies learners of the later have some advantages based on the ease. Based on the study conducted by Richard Hanley on the challenges encountered by children learning to read in either Welsh or English, those learning English face a number of disadvantages not experienced by others. Such disadvantages for English language learners include irregularity in the relationship between grapheme and phoneme resulting from ‘frozen’ spellings from earlier pronunciation in addition to the inclusion of words borrowed from foreign languages. These inconsistencies mean it is hard to tell the expected pronunciation of a word based on its written form. These differences have an impact on speed of language acquisition and therefore the competence levels of children who have similar levels of access to English and Welsh respectively. For instance the differences impact on the ability of the children to decode words that they might not have encountered before where the Welsh-speaking children will find this task much easier. This is considering the fact that there are no irregular words in their language which means larger reading vocabulary is available to readers of Welsh immediately they have developed competence in decoding” (Allington and Mayor 136). English children who try to exercise their decoding ability in lower frequency irregular words less often encountered in print media will most likely get it wrong. The author also notes that even when children have acquired the decoding skills by age ten, they still lack enough print exposure to majority of irregular words to for them to read accurately. Given that it is much easier to learn and accurately write Welsh words, the question becomes why is English preferable for communication than the later language? Morris indicates a report indicating only half of Welsh speakers of ages sixteen to twenty four thought of themselves as being fluent in the language. Further, fewer young speakers admitted to using Welsh in online communication or in internet for research and entertainment (Morris 10). There seems to be a global preference for English based on the report that one out of three of the world population have acquired English that it at least adequate for “communicating to a useful level” with many children being exposed to the language on a the daily basis. This situation has led to the expectation that there will develop a generation of “English-knowing children around the world, for whom English represents a basic skill” (Allington and Mayor 103). Preference of English in communication can be explained based on its global position as a lingua franca. English has an advantage over other languages based on its use in business transactions throughout the world. Although many of the users are not natives of the language, this does not present major difficulty in communication involving native or nonnative speakers. The use of English as a lingua franca does not depend on the acquisition of other aspects such as culture associated with the native speakers. Users only need to adopt the communicative value of the language which is based on having knowledge of the words and meaning necessary for them to sustain a conversation. It is noted that differences that arise in intercultural communications using English are mostly due to cultural differences rather than linguistic factors even when such communications are done using nonstandard English. Additionally, the authors add English can be used to develop relations apart from being a tool for transactional purposes. This is achieved through enabling positive evaluation necessary for the participants from different cultural and national backgrounds to develop a sense of group identity. The advantage for nonnative speakers is that English language can be used in different ways that does not conform to the rules governing its use between native speakers. To facilitate the use of English as a lingua franca in communication that goes beyond that of native speakers, the language is simplified since what is important for such interactions is clear communication. Additionally since this language is mostly used for utilitarian purposes speakers will accept non-standard linguistic features as well as inclusion of each other’s language as long as they are able to understand each other (Allington and Mayor 168-169). Having identified English as being essential to communication of nonnative speakers especially as a lingua franca in business transactions and creation of relationships, focus now shifts to the use of the language in new media. For multilingual people, English has played an important role in their innovative use of language to communicate their intentions. Nonnative speakers of English have found ways to creatively incorporate English words into their native languages without rendering the information incomprehensible (Allington and Mayor 231). The creative use of English within communication carried out in native languages means speakers have an increased amount of linguistic resources to use. Such users will easily find a word they find best suited for what they want to communicate as lack of such words in their native languages will be compensated with that from English, the reverse happening in case of lack of an English word to communicate with. Although the widespread usage of English is blamed on “living next to a language superpower”, there are factors that transcend such assertions. The continued preference for English has been driven by widespread application that the language has received in the digital space. The internet has provided a catalyst for growth of the language with new words being included by the online community who use sites such as Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary to include new literacy practices. The consequence of this digital capability has resulted in continued development with the author noting that technology was not limiting the use of digital English since users could do with it as they wish (Allington and Mayor 322). The consequence of users’ ability to control the way digital English is used is the rise of varieties of the language reflecting users from different regions. Additionally, there is the rise of additional components such as images that accompany texts that further makes the use of digital English preferable for users of the internet (Allington and Mayor 327). Allington and Mayor give an example of a combination between English language and Xhosa or isiXhosa of South African that used in text messaging. It is argued that the South African texters will have more linguistic resources than texters who speak English only with the digital domain. Using an example of a Facebook message, linguistic creativity is demonstrated by the combination of both English isiXhosa words with the communication remaining intelligible through alternation of between different English orthographies and between English, isiXhosa and local South African slang. While still on the creative use of language, people have also discovered ways of using abbreviations to shorten their massage but still remain relevant. Apart from the application of abbreviations available for English words and sentences, there are also those that have been constructed using the native languages (Allington and Mayor 231). This usage of abbreviations to communicate is due to a bid to conform to the regulation in new media such as Facebook and Twitter where conversations are limited to a specific number of characters. In this case English has influenced the way local languages are communicated in social media as users conform to the rules using their native languages. For instance, ROFL an abbreviated version of the phrase ‘rolling on the floor with laughter’ has been translated into the isiZulu and isiXhosa version to be GPY which means “giligidi phansi yintsini” with the same English translation and meaning as ROFL (Allington and Mayor 231). Apart from the use of abbreviations, there is also application of logographic system in English communications. Logographic systems use symbols to represent whole words and is mostly used for languages such as Chinese and ancient Sumerian. Digital use of English has also found ways of accommodating the use of logographic script in communication. While logographic scripts such as $, @, & and © have widespread usage in English, there are other creative usage of English words which has been influenced by social media (North 96) with users developing methods of limiting the number of characters used in communications by application of symbols to stand for English words. This is practices for instance when using the number 4 instead of “for” in construction such as ‘this is 4 you’. From the analysis of various areas where the use of English has found widespread usage, it is evident that many find it comfortable for communication especially due to the manner in which the language can be adapted to suit different communicative purposes. This adaptation of English to suit various needs for communication such a business and in social media confirms the increasing trend where the younger generations would prefer to use the language instead of other options. Morris elaborates this trend in his assessment of the situation at the post office in Pontyberem village in Carmarthenshire where Welsh used to be the only language used for communication. However, the situation has since changed with the older residents of the area being among the majority of users of Welsh. The younger generations seems to have adopted English as their main language of communication even for multilingual speakers (Morris 10). With the learning of English being comparably difficult based on the assessment of how children learn to write the language against that of Welsh (Allington and Mayor 125), it would be expected that most of the younger generations who have access to both languages will prefer Welsh to English for their communication. Nevertheless, this is not the case as indicated by Morris where despite learning Welsh in schoolchildren do not use the language for communication outside the required academic situations. Works Cited Allington, Daniel, and Barbara Mayor. Communicating in English: talk, text, technology. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012. Print. Morris, Steven. “Welsh voices grow lonelier in languages heartlands as web tightens English grip.” The Guardian 12 Aug. 2013: 10. Print. North, Sarah. English: A Linguistic Toolkit. Milton Keynes: The Open University Walton Hall, 2012. Print. Read More