English as a Global Language - Coursework Example

English as a global language Introduction The language situation in the world is constantly changing, some languages become more popular while other are losing their status and gradually disappearing. It is well-known that the language of the nation is the most important component of its national culture. It is formed together with the formation of ethnos and its cultural essence and turns into the necessary condition of the nation’s existence and prosperity. In the process of acquiring statehood by the nations, the language politics, which is based on the principles of language and cultural variety, provides the nation with more chances to gain success in the process of social and cultural adaptation. It means that linguistic and cultural variety is a necessary condition for dynamic movement of the humanity through the way of creating multinational society. Language variety was increasing in the world during the last centuries and reached its peak in XX century. We became the witnesses of the process of globalization, the basis of which is the American model of the society, its economy, politics and culture. Historical narrative of XX century changes the approaches to the language education, explaining it by the expansion of English language that is pretending to become international. The definition of “global” language The majority of linguists define “international” or “global” language as the language that is native for the large number of speakers. According to Crystal, the language acquires the status of global when it plays the significant role, which is recognized in every country. This high status can be reached either as a consequence of its recognition as official language or as a result of defining the priority of learning English as a foreign language. On the opinion of Graddol, the status of English language in many countries of the world is changing as it is applied as a tool of international communication. In many countries the status of English was changed from the foreign language to second official language. It was done in Belgium, Costa-Rica. Denmark, Ethiopia, Honduras, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nepal, Nederland, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Somali, Sweden, Switzerland and UAE. It is clear that it is impossible to define the exact number of those, who actively apply English language. The number of those who are familiar with is constantly growing. The spread of English language The potential of English language to spread is very high, because the number of speakers is constantly growing. In1997 Graddol stated that English is the most wide spread language in many countries taking Russia as a example where 60% of pupils learned English as a foreign language. Now the number of those who learn English is much higher. Salman Rushdie argued in 1991 that “English language ceased to be the sole possession of the English some time ago” (Rushdie, 1991). . This statement seems to be completely true if consider the quantity and diversity of English modifications. Due to wide present of English through the world, the language has become exposed to various changes, which led to appearance of so-called New Englishes – languages that comprise features of American and British English and are modified in grammar or pronunciation correspondingly to certain region they are used. According to Dako (2001), appearance of New Englishes is inevitable as communities, who adopt already existing language would modify and enrich it with terminology that is needful for their culture and way of life. At present time the following New Englishes are marked out: Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Scots, Welsh, Caribbean, Irish, and South African English. New Englishes are usually seen as dialects, which are applied in the whole country or region and provide their speakers with special identity connected to the language they use. European languages have always been international and able to pretend to have global role and in the second half of the XX century, English language became dominating. It occupied an important niche among dominating languages and in some scientific areas even got the name “killer language”. According to the investigators, it is the only global language, which influences mass disappearing of the languages of the minorities and exhaustion of language variety. For example, in the process of assimilation the groups of national minorities have to reject their national traditions, culture and language in favor of the language the dominating group speaks. Assimilation implies the number of measures directed at the denationalization of the minorities and deprivation them of the right to choose the language of communication. Why English is the global language There are a lot of factors, which forced English to be the global language and in order to analyze them we separate all the reasons into three main groups: geographical-historical, socio-cultural, and linguistic reasons. Geographical-historical reasons Geographical-historical reasons are closely connected to English expansion through America, Asia, Africa, Australia and the whole South Pacific region, when English colonies were established in these areas. Specifically, English language came to British Isles from northern Europe in 5th century and rapidly widespread nearby areas of Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, and Cumbria. Further significant expansions of English occurred just at the end of 16th century, when English settlements were established in Virginia and New England. Active population movements within American continent led to English assimilation of new territories in the area of the Great Lakes, Texas, and California. Further, waves of immigrants moved to Canada and gradually expanded to the Caribbean islands and South Africa in 17th century, Australia and New Zealand at the end of 18th century (Kachru, 1988). Such powerful expansion led to presence of English an all parts of the world including St. Helena island in Atlantic region, Seychelles in Indian region, the islands Hawaii and Fiji in Pacific region. Socio-cultural reasons Socio-cultural reasons are closely associated with dependence of various areas on English in terms of social and cultural development. A huge amount of world broadcasting programs are conducted in English, when you travel you always meet advertisements and signs written in English, if you decide to have a meal in any restaurant, you would be most likely to find there English menu. English is widely used in political negations, business, entertainment, cultural, educational activities and in order to be a full-fledged member of the communities, which are involved in these areas, you need to know English. If consider Isaac Pitman (1873), who stated that ’British subjects are nearly a fourth of the population of the world’, it is not surprisingly that English is a decent candidate to be a global language. Linguistic reasons One of the most widespread and known reasons why English has gained such popularity among numerous communities through the world is considered to be its easiness. Particularly, English do not demand to learn endings of words or distinguish whether the word has masculine, feminine, or neuter gender (Bailey & Gorlach (eds.), 1982). Thus, it is easier to learn such language. The characteristics of English as of international language Today English has all the characteristics of international language. First of all, its essential role on the economic and cultural arena of the world is obvious (the company Coca-Cola received 70% of income from the world markets excluding the USA; according to the statistics, the company Nestle has production units in 80 countries of the world, more than 90% of films are made in the USA). Global market became available for the majority of countries due to the leading role of English language. Crystal states about the constant domination of English language in the most important areas: international relations, mass media, world tourism, international safety, education and communications. Regarding the issue of co-existence of English with local languages Graddol is basing on the assumption of demographic change during the next 50 years. Thus, the number of people who use English as a second language will grow. It means that the balance between the speakers of the first and second languages will radically change and the position of second language will be strengthened. Such assumption proves the idea that the rising number of people who use English is one the reasons, which allow to consider English to be international. The next characteristic feature of English language as an international language is connected with learning it as mandatory subject in school. The educational programs industry, which allows to learn English on the high level is very illustrative in the developed countries, though many developing countries like India are also opened for language programs realization. One more essential factor, which influences the spread of the English language, is urbanistic migration. Gradoll specifies its rapid growth especially in Asian countries. It is obvious that it greatly influences the formation of the language situation in the world as it is urbanized territories are in the zone of active linguistic changes. Urbanization imposes influence on the language demography: languages appear, change and disappear. In the cities with the high level of urbanization the influence of English language is very essential: first, this process will help learn English by those groups of society, which are interested in the development of macroeconomic resources. Secondly, large urbanized territories will become the centers of the language development and the stabilization of its variants. The importance of international language The reason for some kind of international means of human negotiations is quite obvious: people from different countries need to have certain tool in order to communicate, understand and get on with each other concerning some mutual issues. In the modern world, where exists a huge amount of languages, it is not possible to solve the problem through bilingualism and trilingualism and, thus, some commonly accepted and understood language is obviously needed. Such language is usually called lingua franca, and implies some simple rules application, so people would not meet a lot of difficulties when learning it. In these terms, a notion of pidgin arises, which means that common language is drawn towards simplification and combines features from various languages (Todd, 1984). Furthermore, using common language is quite favorable in that sense that this practice significantly reduces costs for translation and interpretation work. Such international establishments as World Bank, UNESCO, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF spend a great part of their budget for removing all the discrepancies in their communication concerning diverse languages usage. Different business and scientific communities also favor from common language adoption as this would ease their exchange of experience essentially. Conclusion It is a commonly accepted fact that there exists a tendency of becoming English the global language, which means that it is widely used all spheres of human communication all over the world. Actually, English language has become some kind of symbol of globalization and diversification in a modern world. The process of English language globalization is inevitable and is caused by several main factors, which commonly include geographical-historical, socio-cultural, and linguistic reasons. In the process of English language expansion, there have emerged so called New Englishes, which combine a lot of features of American and British English, but are also adapted to particular cultural, economical and social issues of certain nationality. Although there exist some disadvantages concerning adoption of one common language, which include discrimination of the nations, which are not native English speakers and could meet certain difficulties when mastering it, it is an objective fact that English language interferes deeply in all aspects of human activities and therefore, people who are able to communicate in English, get an advantage. The English language aspect of globalization has both the negative and positive sides. The globalization undoubtedly leads to the ethnic and cultural uniqueness disappearing causing the resistance of nations and the desire to defend and keep the uniqueness of their own culture. This leads to the national and religious conflicts, the appearance of the informational and linguistic inequality, the elimination of the number of languages. On the other hand, the wish of international society to unite, the expansion of international contacts cause the necessity of building global language space to resolve the problems our modern world faces. . References Bailey R., Manfred G. (eds.) 1982 English as a World Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brutt-Griffler J 2002, English as an International Language. – Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 215 p Graddol D 2000, The Future of English. London: The British Council. 2000. Kachru B 1988. The sacred cows of English. English Today, 16, pp. 3–8. Kachru B 1990, The Alchemy of English: The spread, functions and models of non-native Englishes. – Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990. – P. 200 McKay S., 2009, Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 150 p. Crystal D 2003, English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 150 p Smith L 1976, English as an international auxiliary language. – RELC Journal. Dako K 2001, Ghanaisms: towards a semantic and a formal classification. English World-Wide, 22 (1), pp. 23–53. Pitman, I 1873, English. The Phonetic Journal, 32 (37), pp. 289–90. Rushdie S 1991, Imaginary homelands: essays and criticism 1981–1991. New York and London: Viking. Todd L 1984, Modern Englishes: pidgins and creoles. Oxford: Blackwell. Read More