The Ecology of English Language in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

Name Course Tutor Institution According to Haugen, language ecology refers to the study of communications between any given languages as well as its environment .The range and scope of the application of the known concept of ‘ecology’ has widened dramatically. The ecology of English in Saudi Arabia is closely linked to 19th century. It was established by the British protectorate during the colonial era. Saudi Arabians are known to be Arab speakers. However, due to British trade interest in various regions of Saudi Arabia, English began to develop. Even though, the Arabic language is still used, survey shows that English is widely spoken, especially in areas such as businesses (Haugen Pp 12-24). Saudi Arabia population is estimated to be over 18.7 million in the year 1995. According to the 1992 census, ¼ of its population were particularly the expatriate workers from the Middle East, Asia or Africa. An estimate of about 90% its population is basically Arabs, either Saudi citizens or workers. Their official language is Arabic. The remaining 10% speak English language. English is a language that is mostly used in a wider communication among the multilingual workforce. Arabic is commonly referred to as ‘the language of the government, education as well as commerce, but English is used at tertiary level to teach science and medicine (Cry Pp 427-456). 1. Classification of English English is a Germanic language which originated from Anglo-Frisian dialects. English refers to an indo-European language of Germanic branch which has had several significant contributions from other languages. It is mostly influenced by every other language family, including Romantic (French, Romanian, French, Italian) and even Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic) language family. Basically, the original English language was influenced by two waves of invasion, these includes; the Germanic language family and the Normans. People spoke Norman language before English developed. Consequently, the two invasion developed English which become ‘mixed’ to some extent. Cohabitation with the Germanic language resulted in a significant grammatical and lexical of English. English is a member of the indo- European family. Indo-European are said to have lived in the western Asia or rather the Eastern Europe. It belongs to the Germanic branch; its closet relatives are Dutch, Yiddish, Afrikaans and Frisian. English has adopted different words from other languages. Some of the examples of Indo- Iranian language, includes; Urdu, Hindi etc. the influence of Indo-European language can be seen today. The word for father, for instance, is vater in German. This is a clear indication of where English developed as a language. There is a close correlation between English words and those of the German (Pennycook Pp238-289). 2. Learners and users Learners and Users of English in Saudi Arabia include students, religious purposes, business men, immigrants, ordinary people and many more. For example, Saudi Arabian student obtain this studies either at their home place or as part of the school curriculum in an Anglophone nation that they mostly visit as educational tourist. Students were taught the funder mental of the Islamic faith- for instance, the correct performance of the five daily prayers. Teachers encouraged most of their student to learn English as a foreign language. Its benefits have allowed learners to develop ecological and interpersonal perception in the language. 3. Domains of use The use of English has not been limited to the public sector. Private sectors have also noticed its importance as well. Charity societies, for instance, dedicated some effort to the teaching of English. A total of around 258women benefited from this kind of education. Moreover, most private schools as well as kindergartens have been established in the private sector in the early 1970s purposely for educating both sons and daughters for foreigners, employees and well-to do families. The invasion of English language in Saudi Arabia has resulted in the development of many departments of English in universities as well as colleges in the entire Saudi Arabia, such as KSA (King Saud University), KAU (King Abdul-Aziz University), IMISU (Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud University), KFU (King Fiasal University ) and (Umm Al-Qura University) UAQU. All of these universities have English language department in both faculties of arts and education. Its purpose is to graduate manpower needed for translation, proselytizing, jobs that requires proficiency in English and for teaching. English is however not limited to education domain, it also extend to different sectors of Saudi Arabia society such as business as well as media (Fishman, Conrad and Rubal-Lopez). English played an important role in most business in the late 1970s. Large companies such as Samarec, Saudi Airlines, Aramco, just to mention but a few, the need for high proficiency in English came up. It is now widely used by public, private sectors and small businesses such as super, mini and hyper markets since they are often run by the foreigners. Its aim is mainly to furnish the student with the English language, additional to the Arabic language, enable them to acquire knowledge and skills, arts, useful information and participate in spreading the Islamic religion. In Saudi Arabia, English has never been an official language, a lingua franca, or a second language; nor has it persisted as a residual of colonization. It is basically a foreign language taught as a subject in schools and higher institutions such as KSA (King Saud University). In addition, English for teaching purposes, understanding foreign cultures, pursuing higher education and communication. It is therefore very important to understand that English is exclusively required in institutions. Interestingly enough, non-Muslims expatriates has created a new domain of use for English and Arabic. It is not only used in communication but also for religious purpose. The English language dailies all forms of media (other than satellite TV) which is basically controlled by the government. English is often referred as the language of the media; where most of the native languages are referred to the background. Its use has been limited in public places unless it is a business place. This is because most of its population speaks Arabic language and as a matter of fact, English is not an official language allowed in the country. Institutions such as universities have been allowed to teach English purposely for communicating with English speaking nations, such as Australia, Brazil, United Kingdom, United States of America etc. 4. Degree of bilingualism/multilingualism The term bilingualism was introduced by Charles Ferguson in the late 1959 in linguistic. Bilingualism is where certain community used two related language for different purpose. On the other hand, a multilingual setting varies from each other in many ways which every student/ population of multilingualism grapples with the problem on how to systematize the manifold differences which are recognizable. There is an overlap of English language and the Arabic language (Saudi Arabia). Arabic normally makes use of repetition of synonyms, in a way which is not frequently found in English. Arabic is a unifying aspect for the Arab countries, for instance, Saudi Arabia. 53.7 % of Saudi Arabian disagrees to the fact that the use of English threatens the countries national identity. On the other hand, 59.3 % disagrees that the use of English in universities education is a threat to the country’s national identity. It is clearly evident that the respondent recognizes the status of both English and Arabic. An approximate of about 47% of the native students population is studying in six mother tongue countries, this includes, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Asian students make up approximately 44.0% of the world foreign student population. 5. Internal varieties The four type of speaker-related information can be inferred from different styles which concerned exactly what pert of the nation speakers are from, where they potentially grew up, where they study or where they live, and so on. This interference is based on language varieties and on dialects. Marginally, both varieties of the English and standard Arabic are said to have a dialect form. The Arabic language is often referred as diglossia. In this case, diglossia refers to that situation where two different varieties of a language co-exist throughout the communities of speakers, each one of them is said to have a different range of social functions. English offers additional insights from a different perspective of other language or dialects in terms of social, regional and contractual. In turn, this has explored different ways in which English language has not only influenced Saudi Arabian Arabic language but also aspect of their social, regional and contractual lives. It is a taboo to talk on both high and low varieties, consequently broadly to a difference in formality, the high varieties is learnt in schools. Dialects of English as structured can be described by grammatical phonetic and grammatical features. However, different methods of social variable act as dependant variable. New internal varieties developed as carriers of new group within the entire community: contractual, linguistic markers, regional and social dialects, carry a socially indicative within Saudi Arabia. Differential is primarily concerned with regional factor rather than social variation, given the fact that most people living in Saudi Arabia are likely to have insisted throughout, however in a newly established area there was no valid basis for regional speech variations to pop out at that particular time (Pennycook pp 145-180). 6. Notices and publication Long before the development of mass communication media, ideas were passed either by word or written to all Muslims living in Saudi Arabia. Their writing was basically in Arabic language, because an estimate number of about 90 % Saudi Arabian were speaking Arabic as their foreign language. Limited or no document was written in English, expect in the tourism sectors and in some business sectors. Saudi Arabian nature to written tradition has developed over the years as a result of English language. Most of its activities were carried out on books, med and flyers. These notices were purposely created to spread religious work to the entire Islamic religion all over the country or state. The tradition of Saudi Arabians has mutual danger that may be impended where pronunciation will present a serious problem when it comes to communication. Recent survey investigates Saudi Arabia attitudes towards English which shows the understanding of beliefs about attitude that are pragmatic in nature. One respondent was asked on what she (y) thinks about English language. However, her theory has based mostly on what we refer to ‘social use’. Based on her argument, she does not regards any aspect whatsoever of English language as a viable unless it has actually been used in the dictionary conversation ( Willinsky Pp1-9). 7. Standardized Long regarded standard form of speech (English) is continuously lacking prestige not only in Saudi Arabia but all over the world. Over the past years, Saudi Arabian English has not been codified anywhere in the dictionaries. It was mainly used for preaching purpose as well as teaching. Majorly, spoken Arabic sounds are not produced in English language, and therefore no standard system exists. Most of the Arabic words are rendered in italics; these are basically those that have been accepted into English, as argued out by Meriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary. This means that English is serving as a medium of communication in Saudi Arabia. The study of English in overseas countries is swelling by the number of students who enroll each and every day in English speaking countries. In the early 1992, more than one million who are said to be foreign students were enrolled in the commonly known institutions whose English is said to be their mother-tongue; such countries includes, Australia, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Canada and New Zealand. The spread of English all over the world is closely correlated to social class, gender, profession and age. In some areas, English languages are of particular interest to institution in that they are considered as big money markers. 8. English won It should be clearly noted that the 1st English department for female, basically in the women’s college of education in Mecca, was actually established in the late 1972. In the early 1970s, the importance of English language increased significantly. The country’s ministry of education in the year 1973 designed a unique program for professional qualified English teachers who had diploma. It was not just a diploma, but a high diploma. These teachers were obliged to study English as a language for a period not less than one year; and those who would emerge victors and Victoria in the test, they were to be sent in British universities to study for a total of 100 weeks for them to be certified as professionally qualified teachers. English won from various institutional supports. Recognition of the significance of English was not only a major issue of the public education; it also received suitable attention from various Saudi governmental ministries as well as public establishment. For instance, the ministry of interior, ministry of defense, ministry of Petroleum and Resource management, just to mention but a few have given special concentration to the English language, through establishing language centers annexed to these ministries. It also won on other establishments, for example, the Saudi National Guard, have also managed to identify its significance .SNG (Saudi National Guard) has established an institute whose main purpose is to upgrade the officers as well as soldiers proficiency in English. English language was also identified by special education program. Al-Noor is an institute whose roots are in Saudi Arabia. It is basically an institute for both blind males as well as females. Al-Noor institute ensures that the school has followed the Saudi Arabia curricula in the required English studies. 9. Attitude English is a language that is widely known for communication. The spread of English calls for a linguistic dominance. However, this is a typical status of English language in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. . in this country (Saudi Arabia) English has never been seen as an official language, a lingua franca, or even as a second language; nor as it persisted as a residual of colonization or rather heritage. It is only considered as a foreign language taught as a subject in higher education as well as in schools. In addition, in humanitarian domain, it is taught as a required subject, in sciences, generally, it is used as a medium of instruction mostly in medicine and engineering. At times, however, explanations, discussions and even term papers are often executed in Arabic (Fishman, Conrad and Rubal-Lopez Pp 462-466). A lot of centers have been developed since 1970s purposely to preach Islam and teach Arabic. The English language of wider communication is regarded. Therefore, English is often used for religious purpose. Anyone who is interested in learning English was trained. Student were appointed or selected since they worked, or were presently living in the selected locales. Their attitudinal dimension seemingly shaped the status of English in King Saud University. The current status of KSA with regards to English is that, English is used as a medium of carrying out research as well as instructions. Many people prefer to use the Arabic language as a medium of carrying out research as compared to the English language. The imposition of English in Saudi Arabia is principally viewed to be sustained by prevalent circumstances of need and restricted certain within boundaries. 10. Conclusion Typology is designed to identify the underlying principle set for linguistic phenomena found in different languages. Typology does not however function for real languages, but not in languages actually probable, impossible and improbable. Semantic role is viewed as an inherent part of a verbal meaning. Despite the fact that skepticism roles and their usefulness, it has been fruitfully employed to carry out investigation of verbal grammatical processes. The concept gained its significant empirically substantiated status in typological role in linguistic. However, in Saudi Arabia the typology is useful for determining languages between different countries. It critically analyzes different aspect of the Islamic religion. In addition, to some certain extent, these typologies have been restricted, such that it becomes valueless if it is non-specific. It has been used in Saudi Arabia to classify data, and provide conceptual framework which provide explanation on different existence of language, such as English. Its existence (typology) helps in the understanding of Saudi Arabian politics. Saudi Arabian citizen appreciates the work carried out by typology in the event of explaining the existence of languages in the country. 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