What Seems to Be the Possible or Likely Futures for English in the World - Literature review Example

ASSESMENT By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date What seem to be the possible or likely futures for English In the world? For ages English has been acknowledged as a global language, utilised in every corner of the world as a communication means (Cook, 2004, p.104). In scores of countries, English is considered an essential skill, which children are taught when they grow up so that they can learn by means of English afterwards. The most recent statistics inform us that of late around 80% of English spoken occurs between non-native English speakers; for instance, a Chinese entrepreneur together with his German customer will communicate in English. However, while English is acknowledged as being the language of technology as well as science, what holds in future for day after day English speakers has been a topic of debate in the recent past (Banciu, 2012, p.67). Undoubtedly, no language has spread as extensively as English, and as per Nesselhauf (2012, p.86) English is still spreading across the globe. Globally, the need to gain knowledge of English is unquenchable. In the 21st century, Fitzmaurice (2002, p.172) posit that the world is turning out to be more middle class as well as more urban, and the espousal of English is an indication of this, and progressively English double up as the language of business as well as accepted culture. English is as well prevailing or at least extremely outstanding in other fields like computing, diplomacy, shipping, education in addition to medicine. According to Cacoullos and Walker (2009, p.324), English has disseminated as a consequence of the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution, British colonialism, American political as well as economic dominance, and additionally (predominantly American) technological advancements in the mid-21st century. The rise of English has been aided by its enormous exportation as a second language, and by the development of a mass media that promotes English-language. The essay seeks to examine the possible or likely futures for English in the world, and the implications of new technologies and new literacies for the global spread of English. Even though linguists concur that the state of affairs of English at present is at an unsurpassed global record, most of them do not essentially concur on where the lingua franca is heading. David Graddol as well as David Crystal, as the world’s leading professionals on the English language, differ on the future path of English. For instance, Graddol argue that even though the number of individuals who speak English as a first language is increasing, it is not increasing as hasty as the number of individuals who speak different languages across the globe. Graddol holds the view that English will almost immediately be demoted to second place subsequent to Chinese and in inn terms of ascendancy, English will equal to Urdu, Hindi, and Arabic (Graddol, 1998, p.12). Given that 25% of the world’s populace speak English as a second language, Crystal argues that the English future ascendancy has been taken too lightly by Graddol (Crystal, 2012). Crystal keenly mentions that no one actually discerns what the future holds for English as a language since no language has been in the same position in the past. Crystal highlights the increasing growth in the people speaking English from non-native countries and there is no rationale for this trend to end. Graddol holds different view, and he fails to dispute the actuality that the number of English speakers across the world is increasing, but he stresses that this is a latest trend. Graddol further do not agree with the thought that English will turn out to be a superseding language in the world, he claims that just because individuals are learning English, it does not signify that they are discarding their individual lingua franca, rather, they are growing to be multilingual (Graddol, 1998, p.24). Banciu (2012, p.69) posits that the advancement of English is accountable for the dissemination of multilingualism as well as that people who speak English as the first language and are monolingual will unavoidably turn out to be disadvantaged. Irrespective of which aforementioned arguments is true, Nesselhauf (2012, p.91) is certain that the future of English is undoubtedly approaching and either direction it decides to pursue, it will be hard to disregard its effect. According to Cook (2004, p.109), the future of English language will be more multifaceted and more challenging to comprehend owing to the rapid advancement of technologies. Even though the English position appears well-established, it is likely that the recent unusual concern in English will attest to be a short-term occurrence allied with the ‘first-wave’ impact in the epoch of Climate Change which falls behind the desires of employers and workers. Graddol (1998, p.14) concur that the global dissemination of English will in the future compete with chauvinistic pride, and he foresees that English will be defeated by the local languages.  However, the language will not be extinguished completely, but it may be lessened to those people who speak it as a first language, putting it generally equal with different major languages. Like Chinese and French. The most fascinating element of Banciu (2012) supposition is that developments in translation software will undoubtedly make other languages superseded completely.  What’s more, the distinction between English as well as other languages in the future would merely stop to have any sensible significance since the world will in the future have individuals speaking different languages, and so English will no more be observed as a dominant language. Cacoullos and Walker (2009, p.329) affirm that a multi-lingual populace is by now the case in most countries and is turning out to be more prevalent in the English native countries like UK and US. In reality, it was reported in 2012 by the Census Bureau that almost 20% of Americans at home speak a different language (either Spanish or Chinese) excluding English. This diversity in linguistic, as a result, has sparked call to make English the official language of the country. Nesselhauf (2012, p.98) indicate that multilingualism is roughly the natural condition, and in most countries, multilingualism is the people’s normal state. The idea that English need not, must not and possibly will not displace other languages appears natural to Nesselhauf (2012). Whereas it is imperative to gain knowledge of English, Banciu (2012, p.71) maintain that educators as well as politicians must understand that learning English does not mean throwing out the native language. Graddol (1998, p.42) predicts that the native English speakers will drop to 5% by 2050. English as a Native Language (ENL) is normally differentiated from English as a Foreign Language (EFL), English as a Second Language (ESL), as well as English as an Additional Language (EAL). Native English consists of Australian English, New Zealand English British English, American English, Scottish English, and Canadian English (Oh, 2010, p.411). Recently, the percentage of English as Native Language speakers has progressively reduced whereas the utilisation of English in EFL and ESL regions has risen rapidly. English differs patently from one ENL country to another and time and again from one area to another in countries that are heavily populated like the United Kingdom and United States, a situation which, as recognize well can result in intelligibility setbacks. For instance, in the UK there are considerable variations of vocabulary, grammar, and accent between scores of the local residents and Anglophone tourists to London, and also in Scotland, where scores of individuals regularly mix English and Scots (Gottardo & Mueller, 2009, p.330). In United States, there subsist major distinctions between scores of speakers of Black (African-American) English and what is at times known as 'mainstream English. Graddol (1998) believes that by the 2030s, learners of English language will comprise roughly 40 percent of the whole school-aged populace in native speaking countries. In a number of areas, that supposition is by now surpassed, for example, 60 to 70 percent of school going children in California speak a different lingua franca save for English as their main language. Evidently, the Asian populace as projected by Crystal (2012) is the fastest growing population in English native speaking regions, with the biggest gains seen in the West. On the other hand, the Hispanic populace are the second-fastest increasing group, and so these actualities bear significantly on how children learn English as well as how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) carry out their day-to-day activities (Oh, 2010, p.411). Normally, a kid is referred for language and speech testing for the reason that he/she is academically struggling. In his/her educator's point of view, he/she is not gaining knowledge about English with the anticipated rate and his/her educational skills are trailing behind those of his/her classmates who are monolingual English-speakers. Gottardo and Mueller (2009, p.331) posit that it is extremely imperative that speech-language pathologists comprehend the ordinary phenomena as well as processes of second-language acquisition to steer clear of making false positive identifications. Owing to a need to promote divergent forms of grammar into the distinction of regional as well as national non-native English varieties, time and again defined as New Englishes, a number of scholars such as Kao and Craigie (2014) have concentrated totally on several moderately uncommon extraordinary divergent forms or uses in the English generated by non-native English speakers as manifesting distinguishing attributes of New Englishes. In depth, descriptive records has been missing, but as per Kao and Craigie (2014, p.19) most ordinary secluded cases which have repeatedly been listed consist of expressions pertaining to definite/indefinite divergence; comprehension of non-count nouns; tense and modality; and concord collocations. During Kao and Craigie (2014) study, two issues were crucial to them: the categories realization stability as well as the statistical probability of the divergent forms incidence, especially semantic and syntactic settings; as well as the uniqueness or exclusivity of the divergent forms to knowledgeable on paper English in countries that speak English as a second language. Kao and Craigie (2014) study exhibits that the characteristic (divergent) attributes are not constantly or dependably achieved, and that their native English counterparts are utilised on over 95 percent of use times. Any certain deviant form happens in below 10 percent of use times and from time to time swaps with the native Standard English devoid of any perceptible contextual determinant. According to Fitzmaurice (2002, p.179), the divergent forms in relation to verb phrases, crop up approximately 4 percent of use instances. In order that if one is ready to label the utilisation of shall for will in a certain setting as an feature of non-native English, then one have to certainly be ready to give explanation for the overpowering 96 percent of use instances where the purported feature will not or does not crop up. What to all intents and purposes Fitzmaurice (2002, p.182) is supposing is that the form that crops up in 4 percent of use instances makes up the regular practice or rule in Non-native English such as Chinese English and the other form that crops up in 96 percent of use instances comprises an exemption to the regular practice or rule; however, this position is preposterously not in agreement with descriptive linguistics. These days, English has been shaped by the impacts of the industrial revolution, and as it turned out to be the world’s breakthrough lingua franca, it also became an essential element in the fast developments in new communicative purposes, manufacturing, engineering, and materials science. Communications as well as Industrial technology generated accounting, management, and legal structures, all with distinct forms of giving information. Novel, more multifaceted skills for communication like literacy skills were needed by workers, whilst the industrial financial system yielded enormous interaction between the general public and institutions, mediated through company accounts, advertisement, as well as household products’ instructions (Fitzmaurice, 2002, p.172). As a result, typographic design stretched out, as did the scope of spoken as well as written English institutionalised genres. The Digital Age led to the establishments of many of the English conventions and styles, which is undervalued these days. Predicting fundamental future technologies as per Kao and Craigie (2014, p.18 ) is an unpredictable undertaking, as a number of daring failures have been experienced in the past. For instance, in October 1903, The Time’s editorial forecasted that flying machines that were heavier-than-air were unfeasible in theory two months prior to the launching of the first aircraft by the Wright brothers. Besides that, the Western Union In 1876 decided not to espouse the exclusive rights on Bell’s telephone for the reason that they thought the gadget was intrinsically useless to them; however, they are wrong. It is implausible that the humankind will be changed by a number of surprising discoveries in the coming few decade, given that novel technology takes a lot of time to develop, be put into practice and afterwards to have significant transformative impact. Therefore, any technology which will in the future encompass linguistic effects will by now be recognized. For instance, the surfacing of dynamo which facilitated commercial utilisation of electrical energy, took almost four decades to yield noteworthy productivity benefits. Similarly, the 1940s development of high-level computer languages is now having noteworthy effects on people’s leisure as well as work. Technology impact on day after day life, according to Nesselhauf (2012, p.112) is decided by the speed of social and institutional change instead of by the speed of scientific discovery as well as technological invention. For decades, computers and English have appeared to go together; this is for the reason that computers together with the programs were principally the creation of native English-speaking countries (Banciu, 2012, p.71). Undoubtedly, social media has changed the manner in which people interact, from sharing photos as well as our thoughts to planning a party; the majority of people have a tendency to manage their social lives. However this as maintained by Kao and Craigie (2014, p.20) has influenced the way people speak and write English. What social media (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus) has achieved is facilitating people to interact with a lot of persons on a global magnitude, but has undoubtedly changed the manner in which people speak or write English. Averagely, a person in Australia in Facebook has almost 300 friends, and this presents a platform for a growing communication speed. Facebook allows people to communicate hastily, successfully and, most essentially, proficiently for the reason that written exchanges are succinct and shared amongst every friend the person is connected with, and this indicates that a person only have to write to them on one occasion. On Twitter, for example there is a word limit (140 characters), so even though the person is not running out of time he/she is somewhat literally coerced to make his/her statement succinct; thus, prompting the use of acronyms which will in the future make English lose its actual meaning, says (Kao & Craigie, 2014, p.21). The utilisation of acronyms, (which can be defined as a short-form of a word created from the primary letters and enunciated as a word) are nowadays everyday replacements to entire sentences; for instance TTYL (talk to you later), OMG (Oh my God), and LOL (laugh out loud), are widely used in Facebook, Twitter, Google, or texting to speed up things by reducing the necessity to write lengthy phrases and decreases space (Nesselhauf, 2012, p.122). Besides that, emoticons (which is a depiction of a facial expression like a frown or smile, created by a range of keyboard characters’ combinations) is utilised to express what the social media user is feeling or to convey the wished-for tone devoid of writing it. Score of scholars do argue that this is a indolent form of English writing, but Kao abd Craigie (2014, p.21) point out that social media is not a platform for creative writing, rather it is a convenient as well as fast way of connecting with an audience. As posited by Graddol (1998), language is a growing thin, and so it is n archaic to believe that the social media language is not impacting on the social media is having an effect on the manner surfacing from the Internet (Google) as well as social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) have turn out to be so commonplace to an extent that they have at the present slipped into trendy usage, and people are less conscious about it. To mention just but a few of attention-grabbing English won the internet of social media by instigating quarrels or making people upset), blogosphere is the collective phrase for blogs), as well as buzzword (a phrase or word that is trendy at a certain time or in certain perspective). Mobile as well as Internet technologies have facilitated the learning of English as a lingua franca, making it pleasing and satisfying. Evidently, there are scores of free English-learning applications accessible for Smartphone users, and these applications will in the future assist English learners put into practice various English language skills: listening, reading, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. At the moment the Internet offers all form of media; for instance, English learners can use their Smartphone devices to listen to podcasts (a digital channel having several files of audio) or watch vodcasts (video podcasts) and after that take speaking tests as well as listening comprehension. English learners can in the future utilise a number of magnificent application in their Smartphone devices to build up their productive (writing and speaking) and receptive (reading and listening) skills. Given that nearly all applications do not take a lot of space, they can be downloaded and installed without problems on Smartphone gadgets. In conclusion, it has been argues that English as a global language will fail to maintain its dominance towards the mid-21st century, and it will be at par with other languages like Arabic and Chinese. This is for the reason that the world wherein it is utilised is in the premature stages of major demographic, economic and social evolution. Even though, it is improbable to completely substitute English as the world’s most imperative lingua franca, the future is more multifaceted and uncertain than presumed by several scholars. Besides that, technological advancements in the 19th century aided in the development of computer languages, which were written in English language; thus, making the language to continue being relevant. Advancements in technology changes the spaces wherein people live and work, but it is hard to foresee precisely how our future worldwide language use patterns will be shaped by technology. References Banciu, V., 2012. The Future Of English As Lingua Franca In The Globalisation Context. Academica Science Journal, Psychologica Series , vol. 1, pp.67-74. Cacoullos, R.T. & Walker, J.A., 2009. The Present of the English Future: Grammatical Variation and Collocations in Discourse. Language, vol. 85, no. 2, pp.321-54. Cook, S.E., 2004. New Technologies And Language Change: Toward an Anthropology of Linguistic Frontiers. Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 33, pp.103-11. Crystal, D., 2012. English as a Global Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fitzmaurice, S.M., 2002. Review Article: The State of the History of the English Language: A Map of the Past and Road to the Future? English Language and Linguistics, vol. 6, no. 1, pp.171-96. Gottardo, A. & Mueller, J., 2009. Are First- and Second-Language Factors Related in Predicting Second-Language Reading Comprehension? A Study of Spanish-Speaking Children Acquiring English as a Second Language from First to Second Grade. 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