English as the Global Language - Essay Example

? What is a global language? Languages could gain a status of international means of communication when they are recognized in majority of countries and play significant role in various domains of people’s activities. Factors, which make certain language become global, are closely connected to level of technology, economical, political, and cultural power of regions, which use dominant (Crystal, 2003). Some countries like Singapore, India, Nigeria, etc. implement English in their governmental, educational and law systems. Such actions provide the language with a status of ‘second language’, which serves as a supplementary method of communication and which is preferred to be learnt as early as possible. In order to do this, the countries force learning English through their educational system seeing to it that people master the language to decent extent. In case the countries, which adopt certain language as their ‘second language’, are influential enough in the world arena, it could be considered to be a global one. Why do we need a global 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 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. Reasons 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. New Englishes Salman Rushdie argued in 1991 that ‘English language ceased to be the sole possession of the English some time ago’ and 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. The issue of English globalization The phenomena of English as global language is quite controversy and has been ardently disputed in recent time. Some scientists consider that English is not appropriate candidate to become an international language as there are not so many English native speakers in the world. In particular, English is assigned to an official national language just in two countries – members of European Union - Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, which constitute very small part of the world (Witt, 2000). However, citizens of such countries as Australia, Canada, USA, South Africa, New Zealand, etc. also speak English and regard it as their mother tongue. Moreover, if consider an example of Latin language, which was for sure international in times of Roman empire, it could be proved that the number of certain language speakers is not so important as the role of the people, who are able and prefer to speak it. Obviously, Romans were not the most numerous nation, but they possessed real power and therefore, Latin language was so widespread and important. Some scientists (Melitz, 2007) state that using English as the global language could be considered as some kind of discrimination regarding people of other nationalities as they may perceive certain difficulties when communicate in English. This issue is especially actual and significant for Asian habitants, who find English quite difficult. However, some Japanese scientists line Sekigawa (2008) state that “globalization affects not only business but also politics, society, and culture; Japanese people must acquire English to meet the intensified economic competition and to solve worldwide issues” (Sekigawa, 2008). The author also recognizes the necessity of English language learning. It was estimated that there are about 750 million English speakers all over the world, which use English as their ‘second language’ for business and education purposes as well as for everyday communication (English Language Statistics). English expansion is spontaneous due to the fact that a lot of people are not forced to learn English by certain power, but do this in order to get additional advantage of being able to communicate (Specter, 1996). Conclusions 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. References 1. Bailey R., Manfred G. (eds.), 1982. English as a World Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2. Crystal D., 2003. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3. Dako K., 2001. Ghanaisms: towards a semantic and a formal classification. English World-Wide, 22 (1), pp. 23–53. 4. English Language Statistics. [Online] Available at: http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/english/facts/stats/. [Accessed 9 March 2011]. 5. Kachru B., 1988. The sacred cows of English. English Today, 16, pp. 3–8. 6. Melitz J., 2007. The impact of English dominance on literature and welfare. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 64, pp. 193–215. 7. Pitman, I., 1873. English. The Phonetic Journal, 32 (37), pp. 289–90. 8. Rushdie S., 1991. Imaginary homelands: essays and criticism 1981–1991. New York and London: Viking. 9. Sekigawa Y., 2008. Reasons for learning English as a global language. In K. Bradford Watts, T. Muller, & M. Swanson (Eds.), JALT2007 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT. 10. Specter M., 1996. Computer Speak: World, Wide, Web: three English words. The New York Times, 14 April 1996, section 4, 1. 11. Todd L., 1984. Modern Englishes: pidgins and creoles. Oxford: Blackwell. 12. Witt, J., 2000. English as a Global language: the Case of the European Union. Erfurt Electronic Studies in English. [Online] Available at: http://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/ia/eese/artic20/witte/6_2000.html. [Accessed 9 March 2011]. Read More